CONFERENCE YIELDS ENCOURAGEMENT IN WAR ON AIDS.

Byline: Charlene Laino Chicago Tribune 

HIV-infected patients taking a potent experimental anti-AIDS drug may want to wash it down with a glass of orange juice, a new study suggests.

The citric juice appears to enhance the effects of the new drug, known as delavirdine, reported researchers at the University of Buffalo School of Pharmacy in Buffalo, N.Y.

Too little stomach acid, a frequent complication of AIDS, can interfere with the absorption of delavirdine, pharmacist Gene Morse reported recently at the 11th International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver, British Columbia.

But a glass of OJ boosts the level of stomach acid and, in turn, the level of the drug in the blood, Morse said.

Delavirdine, being developed by Upjohn Pharmaceuticals under the brand name Rescriptor, works to prevent HIV from replicating in the body.

In the new study, 20 patients swallowed a consumable radiotelemetry device that, upon reaching the stomach, sent a signal to a computer that recorded their gastric-acid levels.

Patients with low levels of stomach acid were given orange juice along with their delavirdine.

``The juice was effective in boosting acid and drug levels to the point where the expected therapeutic benefit should be achieved,'' Morse said.

Evergreen also fights AIDS: An extract of the boxwood evergreen tree acts as a natural anti-AIDS drug, results of international trials suggest.

In a six-month trial of 332 HIV-infected patients taking the extract, known as SPV-30, 63 percent experienced decreases in the amount of HIV in their blood, reported U.S. study coordinator David Stokes, of Brookline, Mass. More than one-third of the patients experienced a decrease of more than 70 percent, he added.

The extract did not appear to be toxic, and few participants reported side effects, he said recently at the 11th International Conference on AIDS.