Potential AIDS treatment 'binds' virus.

Potential AIDS treatment 'binds' virus

Treatment with cell-surface molecules that bind the AIDS-causing HIV virus may at least partially block infection by the virus, according to recent results from five independent research groups. CD4 receptors -- proteins that seem to serve as "docking sites" for HIV on certain lymphocyte cells -- are thought to play a pivotal role in HIV infection. Adding excess CD4, made with genetic engineering techniques, apparently can trick the virus-to-cell binding system and adsorb viruses before they can attack cells, say the scientists.

Groups led by scientists from Harvard Medical School in Boston, the Basel (Switzerland) Institute of Immunology, Biogen Research Corp. in Cambridge, Mass., and Smith Kline and French Laboratories in King of Prussia, Pa., reported their results in the Jan. 7 NATURE. Another research team at Genentech, Inc., in South San Francisco, Calif., and Harvard Medical School reported similar positive results in the Dec. 18 SCIENCE. While the same basic principles apply to all the in vitro studies, the different CD4 preparations were made with a variety of recombinant DNA methods, using either insect viruses or mammalian cells inserted with CD4 genes.

Commenting on CD4 in the same issue of NATURE, Robin A. Weiss at London's Institute of Cancer Research at Chester Beatty Laboratories says his studies show the CD4 preparations can inhibit multiple strains of HIV-1, HIV-2 and monkey immunodeficiency viruses. All the authors emphasize that studies using the protein preparations in humans, while a hoped-for consequence of the current work, may show that CD4 is not an appropriate treatment for AIDS.