Subject: AIDS Conferees Told of Two New Drugs
Date: Published: 6/5/87 101 lines
Source:  WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   AIDS Conferees Told of Two New Drugs
   But the Effectiveness of One Is in Dispute
    ---
   By Marilyn Chase
   Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

   WASHINGTON -- The Third International Conference on
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome received word of two new
drugs -- one coming in a quiet scholarly publication and the
other amid the sound and fury of a scientific-political
battle -- that may fight the disease.
   The drugs are Ampligen, produced by HEM Research Inc., a
private Rockville, Md., company now in partnership with Du
Pont Co.; and Peptide T, a substance identified by Candace B. 
Pert of the National Institute of Mental Health, a unit of
the National Institutes of Health.
Both drugs have been subjected to small preliminary human
tests.  Now both are entering larger, random trials where each
will be pitted against placebos, or dummy drugs, and judged
 by doctors without knowledge of who's getting what.  That's
where their similarity ends.
   Mild side effects and some very preliminary clinical
benefits resulted when Ampligen was given to 10 patients with
AIDS, AIDS-related complex (ARC), or the lymphadenopathy
syndrome -- swollen glands that often precede AIDS or ARC. 
The report by HEM in collaboration with scientists at
Vanderbilt University and elsewhere, will appear in
tomorrow's edition of the Lancet, a British medical journal.
   Scientists reported that six of seven patients with AIDS
or ARC showed a reduction in the AIDS virus in their blood
after receiving the drug.  All 10 patients had improved immune
response as measured by skin tests, and seven of eight
experienced stable or increased levels of T-helper cells, key
sentries of the immune system.  A variety of clinical symptoms
abated, including swollen glands, yeast infections, fatigue
and weight loss.  Side effects included nausea and flulike
symptoms.
   "This really is a biological response modifier," said
William Mitchell, professor of pathology at Vanderbilt
University.  He said it triggers a cascade of effects,
including production of interferons and tumor necrosis
factor, and activation of enzymes thought to be steps in the
body's efforts to fight viruses.
   David Jackson, director of biotechnology research for Du
Pont, said HEM is now enrolling 200 patients for the
controlled trial.  He said it isn't yet known whether the drug
crosses the critical blood-brain barrier to reach the AIDS
 virus where it hides in the brain.  Nor is it known whether
the drug can penetrate macrophages, cells thought to help
spread the AIDS infection throughout the body.
   The Peptide T protein, which Dr. Pert believes blocks the
AIDS virus's access to T-cells and thus thwarts infection,
has just been approved for testing in AIDS patients in the
U. S. 
   But a bitter controversy erupted at the AIDS conference
over which scientists believe Dr. Pert's work and which
don't.  Dr. Pert's work was corroborated by scientists at the
Oncogen unit of Bristol-Myers, but disputed by William
Haseltine of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute of Boston.  Dr. 
Haseltine said six other academic and industrial labs share
his skepticism.
   So far only four patients have received Peptide T in a
small pilot study by Lennart Wetterberg of the Karolinska
Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.  Dr. Wetterberg gave the
protein to the patients for one month last fall, and again
this spring.
   Dr. Wetterberg asserted Peptide T may help clear the brain
infection and dementia caused by the AIDS virus, and to that
end showed a slide of one patient's brain depicting a retreat
of disease.  But he cautioned, "The clinical relevance of this
slide remains to be elucidated."
   One patient experienced a clearing of severe psoriasis,
which though rarely discussed in connection with AIDS, was
said by Dr. Wetterberg to be a complication of the disease.
 Two other patients are described as stable and back at work.
A fourth died after withdrawing from the study.
"A controlled study began last month in 50 patients," Dr. 
Wetterberg said.  "If Peptide T has any clinical relevance, it
certainly remains to be proven."
   In the field of AIDS diagnostic tests, there's new hope
for bringing fast, simple AIDS blood tests to hard-hit
central Africa, where 5% to 18% of blood donors carry the
virus.
   Companies are devising faster, simpler ways to detect
antibodies that tell doctors whether someone has been
infected by the virus.  Cambridge Bioscience Corp. of
Hopkinton, Mass., with the National Institutes of Allergy and
 Infectious Diseases, is developing a two-minute antibody test
that doesn't require sophisticated equipment or refrigeration
and "may not require confirmation" by a second test, says
Thomas Quinn, a scientist at the institutes.

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the 
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hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering 
from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]