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> June
> June 19, 1998:
Hour One: AIDS Update
| The Twelfth World AIDS Conference is set to start in Geneva next week. Scientists attending will have a lot to talk about, armed with new reports on almost every aspect of the disease from basic science on how the virus binds immune cells, to public health reports about the spread of the disease. |  | Articles in this week's journals Science and Nature report on an important part of the virus responsible for AIDS - the means by which a protein on its surface, gp120, binds to target cells. By examining crystallized portions of gp120 bound to receptors on the surface of T cells, scientists were able to identify the sections of gp120 that are neccessary for binding. And because those sections of the protein may not be able to change shape and still bind, scientists may be able to target them in efforts to develop a vaccine for the notoriously shape-shifting virus.
In other news on the vaccine front, this month the FDA authorized the first full human tests of a vaccine for HIV. The trial, being run by the Vaxgen pharmaceutical company with thousands of volunteers in Thailand and North America, will not show results for at least four years. The vaccine, called Aidsvax, uses a piece of the gp120 protein to stimulate antibodies to HIV.
Another effort to curb the effects of the epidemic may be facing a downturn. Protease inhibitors, key ingredients of the much-touted multidrug "AIDS cocktails," suddenly seem to be causing problems in some patients. The problems, including unusual fat deposits and soaring cholesterol counts, may be caused by an inability to properly metabolize fat - and they make it even harder for patients to adhere to the already demanding requirements of near-toxic antiviral therapies.
An AIDS update - on this hour of Science Friday.
Guests:
Donald Francis
President, Vaxgen Inc.
South San Francisco, CA
Joel Gallant
Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Director, Johns Hopkins Moore HIV Clinic
Baltimore, MD
John Moore
Senior Scientist
Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center
Rockefeller University
New York, NY
Anthony Fauci
Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD
Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Johns Hopkins AIDS Service - ask a question!
Vaxgen, Inc
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention AIDS office
The World Health Organization
Development of Vaccines to Infectious Diseases
The AIDS Clinical Trials Information Service
The AIDS Education Global Information System
National Institutes of Health Office of AIDS Research
UNAIDS
Listen to previous Science Friday broadcasts about AIDS!
March 15, 1996
June 28, 1996
December 20, 1996
May 9, 1997
October 24, 1997
February 6, 1998
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