MEDICAL UPDATE: The Failure of TAT Inhibitors

MEDICAL UPDATE: The Failure of TAT Inhibitors

Being Alive Newsletter; Beling Alive/Los Angeles - September 93
Mark Katz MD and reported by Jim Stoecker

We have been talking about tat inhibitors for the past few years. This was to be part of the next generation of antivirals that would attack the virus at a point in its life cycle different from AZT/ddI/ddC. The hope was that this approach would be more focused on the viral reproductive mechanism and thus be more effective in stopping HIV.

The development of tat inhibitors, however, has not gone well. The drug proved to be not as active in clinical trial as in the test tube. Even more problematic was the side effects of the drug that caused a high number of those in early trials to drop out. Finally, at this year's Berlin conference, researchers questioned whether the tat gene itself was essential for viral reproduction. If not essential, the whole approach of inhibiting tat would not prove efficacious.

Now we have word that Hoffman-LaRoche has ceased development and testing of its tat inhibitor, Ro24-7429, citing inactivity at lab-effective concentrations, problems with side effects, and new data indicating that the virus may not require tat in order to replicate. This looks to be the end of tat inhibitors as an antiviral.
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