Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 18, 1991 TAG: 9103180067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES HITE MEDICAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"We think we can do something to help people in time because we've been able to open up the first laboratory system to study this tumor," said Gallo, a prominent National Cancer Institute researcher.
Gallo's laboratory of tumor-cell biology has been able to produce the tumor, called Kaposi's sarcoma, in test-tube cultures and in mice.
His research could lead to ways to prevent the tumors, which strike nearly 20 percent of all AIDS patients and nearly 50 percent of homosexual men who contract AIDS. The tumors most often occur as purplish lesions of the skin but also strike the mouth, lungs and gastrointestinal tract.
Gallo's research could shed light on how other tumors develop and certainly will bring about greater understanding of how the body's immune system works.
Gallo, who has been embroiled in a scientific controversy over the past several years about whether he stole credit for discovering the AIDS virus, will speak this coming weekend at an AIDS symposium at Virginia Tech.
It will be his first major public appearance since an article in this month's issue of the British journal Nature ruled out the possibility that his laboratory used a French specimen to gain credit for co-discovery of the AIDS virus. Gallo and French scientist Luc Montagnier have shared credit for discovering the AIDS virus - HIV - since 1984.
Key to Gallo's research on Kaposi's sarcoma, which he plans to discuss in detail at the Tech symposium, are cytokines. Cytokines, often called growth factors, are proteins that produce reactions in other cells.
In AIDS patients, according to Gallo's research, the constant attack on the body's weakened immune system causes a certain group of blood cells - called T-cells - to produce several cytokines.
These cytokines in turn stimulate spindle-shaped cells commonly found in the lining of organs or in smooth muscle to release another group of cytokines. These cytokines cause the spindle cells to grow uncontrollably and form the Kaposi's tumor.
It should be possible to stop the growth of Kaposi's tumors, Gallo said, by blocking cytokines that are released by T-cells or blocking the cytokines released by the spindle cells.
Gallo said his lab has been able to use cytokines to produce Kaposi's tumors in the test tube as well as in living organisms - mice. "We now have a system to study that we didn't have before," Gallo said.
His laboratory also is working on an AIDS vaccine, Gallo said. While he believes production of a vaccine is "doable," Gallo said there are two major problems to overcome.
The first is finding a protein fragment that will cause the body to produce antibodies that will attack the many strains of the AIDS virus.
"Never in the history of vaccine research . . . has there been a successful vaccine against a virus with a lot of variants," Gallo said. "This is far more difficult than the influenza virus, and influenza is difficult itself."
The second problem is to find a vaccine that will stimulate the immune system for a long period of time and keep the level of antibodies high, Gallo said.
Joining Gallo and seven other AIDS specialists at the Tech symposium will be June E. Osborn, chairwoman of President Bush's AIDs Commission and dean of the school of public health at the University of Michigan.
by CNB