werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner) (05/29/85)
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From American Medical News, May 3, 1985, published by the AMA
page 1, 35.
Anti-AIDS drugs promising.
Intensive research over the past year has produced at least six
drugs that show early promise in treating acquired immune deficiency
syndrome (AIDS).
These drugs are significant because they attack the virus itself,
rather than merely treating the infections and malignancies associated with
the disease. Five drugs are now being tested in AIDS patients, the sixth is
undergoing in-vitro study.
Each of the agents acts by interfering with the replication of the
AIDS-associated virus, HTLV-III/LAV.
[]
The most promising drugs are:
1. Suramin. Commonly used to treat sleeping sickness. It is thought to block the
cytopathic effect of the virus. Although it can produce severe toxicity in
Africans with parasitic disease, it appears well tolerated in US AIDS patients.
2. HPA-23. This drug also is an inhibitor of the reverse transcriptase enzyme.
Tested at the Pastuer Institute in France, two of four AIDS patients show no
sign of virus one month after receiving the drug.
3. Phosponoformate. MGH researchers have shown this drug has persistent
anti-viral action ... Two Swedish patients now are receiving the drug.
4. Ribavirin. This decade old drug, believed to act as a nucleotide analog,
appears to inhibit HTLV-III replication in cultured cells. It's exact
mechanism action remains unknown.
5. Alpha Interferon. This has previously been shown to be effective against
Herpes Zoster, CMV, and influenza. It is furthest along in clinical testing.
Stage 2 and 3 trials are planned in Boston, Seattle, and New York.
6. Amsanycin. In CDC in-vitro trials, this drug reduces infective virus by
90%. It is the least studied of the anti-AIDS drugs, and its mechanism remains
unclear.
No single "magic bullet" drug stands out as the answer to the AIDS epidemic.
Because they act on different sites, it may be best to use them simultaneously
or in sequence. There could be an additive, even synergistic, effect.
[Editor's Comment: The above, while edited, contains none of my own prose.
Therefore, I'd appreciate no flames, thank you.]
--
Craig Werner
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"The world is just a straight man for you sometimes"