THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 2, 1995 TAG: 9503020490
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Doctors have shown for the first time they can rebuild the immune systems of people infected with the AIDS virus, dramatically increasing the blood cells that HIV destroys.
The AIDS virus typically takes 10 years to kill a person. During this time, the virus relentlessly destroys a variety of disease-fighting white blood cells called helper T cells.
If the new treatment works as doctors hope, it could tip the balance in favor of the body, allowing it to produce these cells faster than the virus can kill them.
``This is the first time I truly in my gut feel excited'' about an AIDS treatment, said Dr. H. Clifford Lane, a researcher at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who reported his findings in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The new approach involves on-and-off infusions of interleukin 2, a natural protein that regulates the body's immune defenses. It worked only in those patients who were infected with the virus but had not yet developed AIDS.
Some patients have been taking it for up to 3 1/2 years with no sign of waning effectiveness - something no other medicine has accomplished.
Other treatments, such as the drug AZT, attack the virus directly. While this may temporarily spare T cells from destruction, allowing them to rebound modestly, the drugs quickly lose their punch. White-cell levels fall again.
The new treatment carries a serious drawback - side effects that mimic a severe case of flu. Furthermore, researchers have not tested it long enough to be able to prove that it actually helps patients stay healthy longer.
A key to the new treatment appears to be its intermittent use. Once every two months, doctors give patients a five-day continuous dose of IL-2, which requires them to be attached to an infusion pump.
Healthy people have between 800 and 1,200 helper T cells per cubic millimeter of blood. These levels fall during the course of an AIDS infection.
The study found that IL-2 can drive T cells back up again, but only if people still have at least 400 cells per cubic millimeter to start with. Among 10 patients described in the study, six responded to the treatment with at least 50 percent increases in their helper cells. One patient's levels rose from 554 to 1,998.
In all, the doctors have treated about 100 patients, and the results look consistently good in people whose T cells had not already been depleted.
IL-2, a genetically engineered drug, has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of kidney cancer.
Dr. Robert Schooley of the University of Colorado noted that some doctors are routinely using it for AIDS without understanding the hazards.
``I'd be the last one to say you should wait until the FDA puts its seal of approval on every therapy before you use it,'' he said. ``But on the other hand, if you go ahead with this, you'd better know what the data are.''
The side effects typically last about two weeks. While not life-threatening, they are severe and often include rash, fever, aches, diarrhea and fatigue. by CNB