Word: viruses
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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However, injecting people with a virus similar to AIDS is not the only kind of vaccine possible. In another approach, doctors insert part of the HTLV-III virus, like the virus' envelope or shell, onto the harmless portion of another virus. When that new half-breed virus grows, will have the HTLV-III shell without the virus' deadly properties. Then the human immune system may be able to develop protective antibodies to the AIDS virus by coming into contact with a harmless, "dummy" AIDS virus created...
Haseltine's discovery of the tat-gene may prove to be extremely important in the drug development process. Without the tat-gene the virus can't grow, so if researchers can find a chemical which interferes with the workings of that gene, or any other essential virus process, they are well on their way toward finding a drug treatment program...
...ideal drug stops some virus enzyme from working but doesn't interfere with normal cells," Haseltine says. So, the more doctors know about how the virus works, the more opportunities they have to stop it from functioning properly...
...This virus presents a plethora of targets because it's not a simple retrovirus. The more we know about it, the more complicated it is," Haseltine says. "It's like the difference between a cowboy's coffee not and an expresso maker: they both make coffee, but one comes with all those bells and whistles, so it's a lot easier to mess up. [The AIDS virus] comes with a lot of genetic baggage which might provide theraputic targets...
Even after scientists find drugs which can cure or arrest the AIDS virus, they face additional challenges. In order for the drugs to work patients will probably have to take a lot of them over a long period of time. Therefore researchers have to worry whether the chemicals could harm the body over the longterm. "We must imagine lifelong high dose therapy to keep the virus continually suppressed. We have to think about what those chemicals will do to the liver and kidneys," Haseltine says...