ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701270113
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
A pioneering attempt to cure a pair of AIDS-infected newborn twins has resulted in apparent control of the virus in a baby girl but failure in her brother.
The babies caught the virus from their mother, who did not know she was infected. Treatment with three AIDS drugs started when the babies were 10 weeks old. They are now 18 months old.
At first, both babies seemed to respond well. Most signs of the virus disappeared from their blood.
However, two months ago, the virus returned in the boy. Meanwhile, his sister remains virus free, although doctors are hardly ready to declare her cured.
But that is their aim.
``Our goal is very long-term suppression of HIV with potential eradication,'' said Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Luzuriaga described the babies' treatment Saturday at the fourth annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.
This and other studies in adults will help determine whether it is indeed possible to cure an AIDS infection. Doctors say that ridding the body of HIV is theoretically possible, although for many patients the best that may be expected is keeping the virus from flaring up and making them sick.
The twin study ``raises the big question: Can we eradicate the virus? We don't know yet; but if we are going to try, we want to do it as soon as the infection occurs,'' said Dr. Catherine Wilfert of Duke University.
That's why doctors are intrigued by the twins. Presumably, if AIDS can be cured, it is most likely to happen in those whose immune systems have not already been wrecked by HIV.
Dr. David Ho and others from the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York are attempting to cure AIDS in adults by aggressively treating them within a few months of catching the virus.
Ho's study, and others getting under way, offer a regimen of two older AIDS medicines plus a protease inhibitor, a class of drugs that has revolutionized AIDS care.
However, the Massachusetts twins were born before protease inhibitors were available. So they are being treated with the drugs AZT, ddI and nevirapine.
Six other babies were started on the combination, and it failed in all of them.
Meanwhile, after using the most sensitive tests available, the baby girl's blood shows no signs of HIV. Moreover, she does not have any antibodies to the AIDS virus.
Tests show that the virus is inside about 150 of every 1 million blood cells that ordinarily are attacked by HIV. If all goes well, these infected cells will eventually die off naturally without releasing any new copies of the virus.
``I would be very cautiously optimistic that over the next two to three years, we will be able to learn whether eradication of an HIV infection is possible,'' Luzuriaga said.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 linesby CNB