Word: cd4
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...example, scientists hope to give patients genes that will enable their bodies to mass-produce such anticancer agents as interleukin-2 and tumor necrosis factor. Anderson believes the day is not far off when it will be possible to transplant a gene containing instructions for the manufacture of CD4, a substance that combats the AIDS virus. Ultimately, researchers think they may be able to conquer some hereditary diseases by replacing defective genes with normal ones...
Although Groopman, Byrn and their colleagueswere not available for comment, Schooley said theDeaconess study involved a drug known as Solublet4 or CD4...
AIDS sufferers and their support groups have reacted enthusiastically to CD4, but researchers strongly caution against premature euphoria. Says Ronald Mitsuyasu, associate director of UCLA's AIDS Clinical Research Center: "In the test tube, a lot of these drugs look like they inhibit the virus 100%, but when you use them on patients in a clinic it's a different story...
Although the tests on animals revealed no toxic effects, 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...
...promise, no one expects that CD4 will cure AIDS. Yet the drug is a potentially important new weapon in a growing arsenal of treatments. Researchers are learning how to use AZT more effectively to interrupt the virus' life cycle inside a cell. Probably the best hope for a successful AIDS treatment lies in a combination of these and other drugs...