Word: cancerous
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS. A synthetic copy of a natural protein, CD4 prevents the deadly virus from entering and infecting healthy cells. While it cannot destroy the invader, scientists hope that CD4 can neutralize its ability to attack the human immune system. Says Samuel Broder, a National Cancer Institute researcher who is a leader in AIDS drug development: "It is one of the most important steps we have ever been able to take...
Last week the National Cancer Institute began testing CD4 in AIDS patients. ! The arrival of CD4, which had been previously tested in mice and monkeys, marks the beginning of a promising new era in drug development. Scientists have traditionally stumbled onto treatments by testing existing substances for their therapeutic effects, as was the case with AZT, the only AIDS drug approved for widespread use by the Food and Drug Administration. But recent advances in the field of molecular biology have given researchers a clearer understanding of the most minute workings of the cell. This has enabled them to engineer structures...
...disease, the virus uses the natural CD4 to attach itself to a T-4 cell, which it invades and ultimately destroys. Synthetic CD4, however, acts as a decoy by latching onto the AIDS virus and rendering it incapable of binding to T-4 cells -- a process that a National Cancer Institute spokesman likens to "putting putty all over a porcupine...
...scientists point to possible complications involving the immune system. In a healthy individual, natural CD4 plays a regular role in fighting disease. It is unclear whether a flood of synthetic CD4 will interfere with that process. Another concern was raised by AIDS Researcher William Haseltine, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, at the Fourth International Conference on AIDS in Stockholm last June. Haseltine suggested that an influx of CD4 could itself trigger an immune response in as many as 10% of those receiving the drug, causing them to develop antibodies against their own T-4 cells...
...last September and signed by 37 nations, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered production limits on chemicals that are depleting the ozone in the upper atmosphere. Decreased levels of ozone, scientists have warned, would allow more ultraviolet radiation to reach the earth's surface and increase the incidence of skin cancer and other diseases. Under the new ruling, U.S. producers of halon, an ingredient in fire-extinguishing foam, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are widely used as coolants in refrigerators and air-conditioners, must halve their output within ten years. Nearly a dozen other countries, including Canada and Norway, have adopted similar...