Word: viruses
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...widely assumed to include at least its share of homosexual men. Male homosexuals constitute the largest single group of AIDS victims. For Hollywood's female stars, the most pressing career decision of late has become how to handle a kissing scene. The issue is not entirely frivolous. The AIDS virus sometimes shows up in an AIDS sufferer's saliva, though no known cases of infection have resulted from kissing. Said Shirley MacLaine: "I have decided that I would not be justified in being nervous about kissing...
...humans in the U.S. This antiviral compound has previously been used to treat several dozen American AIDS sufferers, including Hudson, who entered experimental programs in Paris. While it proved ineffective in Hudson's case, HPA-23 has been credited with at least temporarily slowing the replication of the AIDS virus in some others. In no known case, however, has it completely cured a patient or restored his impaired immune system. Initially, American testing of HPA-23 will be restricted to AIDS patients who began the treatment in France and want to continue...
...resembles a soccer ball. The sides consist of three identical triangles each containing three proteins on its irregular surface, and one below it. On the surface proteins, the researchers discovered, features that resemble mountaintops are actually antigens, structures that antibodies seek out and attach themselves to when attacking the virus. A "canyon" snakes between these mountaintops and is believed by scientists to be shaped specifically to fit over projections, or receptors, on the surface of human cells. The virus may use this canyon to attach itself to a receptor, like a keyhole receiving a key, before attacking the cell...
Armed with this knowledge of the viral topography, scientists, at least in theory, can begin closing in on a cure for the common cold. For example, a lab-made antibody designed to slide into the canyon and block it would prevent the virus from attaching to a cell. One problem with that approach, researchers say: antibodies are too large to enter the canyons. But another approach is possible, involving the key (the receptor) instead of the lock (the canyon). By developing a drug that somehow coats the receptors, scientists may prevent the virus from joining the cell...
...fathoming the shape of HRV14, the Purdue and Wisconsin teams depended heavily on high technology. Using X rays produced by Cornell University's High Energy Synchrotron Source, they passed a beam through crystallized samples of the virus. Data derived from the interactions between the X rays and the viral atomic structure were then fed into Purdue's Cyber 205 supercomputer, which enabled the researchers to produce a detailed three-dimensional picture of the virus. In fact, the supercomputer was the hero of the project. "The final set of calculations were made in a month," says Michael Rossmann, who headed...