Word: chowed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...CURE. IT IS NOT EVEN A TREATMENT YET. But preliminary research, revealed in Nature, points to a new way to attack the AIDS virus. By targeting a single phase in the virus' life cycle with three drugs, Yung-Kang Chow and his colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital found that they could stop the infection cold -- in the test tube anyway...
Operating alone, each of the three drugs -- AZT, ddI and pyridinone -- merely slows down the virus' ability to reproduce. Eventually, the microbe mutates and becomes resistant to treatment. Chow's triple combo, however, appears to overwhelm HIV's ability to develop into new strains. More than a month after the scientists stopped treatment of their laboratory cultures, they could find no virus...
...Chow and his colleagues found that AZT and ddI, added separately, caused the virus to mutate to different forms, but did little to halt its function...
...Although our strategy stopped viral replication in the laboratory, it is far too early to say how it will work in patients," Chow said in a statement. "But in the laboratory, it seems to work better than conventional combination therapy...
...Chow added, "At the very least, we hope this new strategy will prolong the lives of people infected with HIV-1. Only time will tell...