On the AIDS front.On the AIDS front * In the Aug. 8 SCIENCE, researchers from the National Institutesof Health in Bethesda, Md., Washington University in St. Louis “Washington University” redirects here. For other uses, see Washington (disambiguation). Washington University in St. Louis is a private, coeducational, research university located in St. Louis, Missouri. and Biotech Research Laboratories in Rockville, Md., describe two remodeled AIDS viruses. In one, they used enzymes that snip DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. at specific locations to omit sections of genes that produce an enveloping en·vel·op tr.v. en·vel·oped, en·vel·op·ing, en·vel·ops 1. To enclose or encase completely with or as if with a covering: "Accompanying the darkness, a stillness envelops the city" protein and a protein whose function has yet to be determined. The second variant lacks only the gene for the mystery protein. The virus without the two genes can reproduce in culture without killing T cells, unlike the intact AIDS virus. The virus lacking just the unknown gene does kill T cells. The findings, the researchers report, indicate that cell killing isn't necessary for the virus's survival, and that the mystery gene and its protein need not be present for the virus to infect and kill cells. But before the nonlethal strain can be used as a vaccine, much more work needs to be done, they caution. * Shyh-Ching Lo of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathologyin Washington, D.C., reports in the July AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AND HYGIENE that he has isolated a previously unrecognized virus from the blood of two people with AIDS The People With AIDS (PWA) Self-Empowerment Movement was a movement of those diagnosed with AIDS and grew out of San Francisco. The PWA Self-Empowerment Movement believes that those diagnosed as having AIDS should "take charge of their own life, illness, and care, and to minimize . The virus is not the AIDS virus, which was recently designated HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. (also known as HTLV-III, LAV-I, or ARV-I). He was unable to culture the new virus from normal human cells. Lo also found evidence of infection with the new virus in 23 to 24 AIDS patients but did not report doing tests on blood from healthy people for comparison. The new virus could be, among other things, a laboratory contaminant, a virus harbored by everyone, an opportunistic organism that establishes itself in AIDS or a cofactor cofactor An atom, organic molecule, or molecular group that is necessary for the catalytic activity (see catalysis) of many enzymes. A cofactor may be tightly bound to the protein portion of an enzyme and thus be an integral part of its functional structure, or it may necessary for establishment of the disease. |
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