Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 11:23:50 +0500 From: awilson@smtpinet.aspensys.com (Wilson, Anne) AIDS Daily Summary January 9, 1995 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public service only. Providing this information does not constitute endorsement by the CDC, the CDC Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information. Copyright 1994, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ************************************************************ "Researchers Look to Girl, 13, for Clues on Combating AIDS" "AIDS Plagues Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey Province" "Ex-Actress Says Driver Gave Her AIDS Virus" "Human Genome Sciences and Isis Pharmaceuticals Form Antisense Collaboration" "Association of Epstein-Barr Virus with Leiomyosarcomas in Young People with AIDS" "HIV Integrase Structure Catalyzes Drug Search" "Crisis in Cuba" "Broadening the Search: Bernard Fields" "A Blueprint for Housing" "New Faces for the New Year: Frank Moore" ************************************************************ "Researchers Look to Girl, 13, for Clues on Combating AIDS" New York Times (01/09/95) P. A10 Researchers at Johns Hopkins University hope that a 13-year-old girl who is HIV-infected, but has been healthy all her life, can help them determine how the body fights the virus. Her body appears to have suppressed the virus, says Dr. David Schwartz, who heads the team. While HIV can be replicated in virtually all other HIV-infected people, doctors have tried 30 times over six years to replicate in a test tube virus cultures taken from the girl's body, but have not been successful. Researchers say this could mean that she has very strong internal defenses or that her virus is defective. The researchers are using genetic methods to determine whether the inability to replicate her virus means it is defective or simply divides slowly. Known as Patient 3799, the girl contracted HIV through a blood transfusion during childbirth in 1981. Her immune system began producing HIV antibodies in 1985, which indicates that her body was trying to thwart the virus. Patient 3799, however, has never developed HIV-related diseases and has only a trace of the virus within her. Approximately 5 percent of people infected with the virus that causes AIDS show no signs of damage, despite 12 or more years of infection. "AIDS Plagues Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey Province" Reuters (01/09/95) A local Cambodian newspaper has reported that more than 90 percent of the prostitutes and 21 percent of the soldiers in the northwest Cambodian province of Banteay Meanchey are HIV-positive. The results come from blood tests for prostitutes, soldiers, police, and land-mine removal teams, said Eng Sophirum, provincial field director of venereal diseases and AIDS, in the Reasmei Kampuchea newspaper. He also said that, as of late 1994, 1.9 percent of the blood donors in Monkul Borei hospital, the main provincial hospital, were found to be HIV-positive--up from 0.06 percent in 1992. Sophirum warned that unless provincial authorities acted to stop the rapid spread of HIV, many people in the province would die. A doctor at the International Committee for the Red Cross said that the province, which has approximately 300,000 people, was "quite densely populated" with prostitutes and soldiers. He said that a special information center for sexually transmitted diseases is under consideration for the region. While the National AIDS Committee estimates that between 3,000 and 5,000 Cambodians are HIV-positive, foreign medical experts believe the actual figure could be 10 times higher and increasing quickly. "Ex-Actress Says Driver Gave Her AIDS Virus" Washington Post (01/09/95) P. C2 Former beauty queen and actress LaGena Lookabill Greene disclosed that race car driver Tim Richmond infected her with HIV the night he proposed marriage--three years before he died from the disease in 1989. Greene said she wanted to publicize her condition to draw attention to the increasing number of HIV-infected women. She met Richmond in 1980, when she was the Miss World 600 beauty queen and he was the Indianapolis 500 rookie of the year. The two dated occasionally as Greene pursued an acting career in Los Angeles. Greene was married in February 1990 to actor Danny Greene, who has tested negative for HIV. Richmond's sister, Sandy Welsh, said she objects to Greene tarring her brother's name. "Tim is not here to defend himself. I don't see the point of bringing Tim into it unless she can actually prove he gave it to her," said Welsh. "Human Genome Sciences and Isis Pharmaceuticals Form Antisense Collaboration" PR Newswire (01/09/95) Human Genome Sciences (HGS) and Isis Pharmaceuticals have formed a collaboration to create new antisense drugs. The initiative is based on the two companies' respective positions in the fields of gene discovery and antisense drug discovery. Isis' antisense drug discovery capability provides a fast and efficient means of exploiting HGS' unique library of novel gene targets to develop new antisense drugs. Under the agreement, Isis and HGS plan to develop corporate partnerships with established pharmaceutical companies to fund joint research and development programs to create antisense drugs aimed at novel gene targets. The two companies will jointly manage and share equally in the proceeds from any third-party collaboration. Isis and HGS plan on initiating collaborative programs to develop antisense drugs targeting novel genes discovered by HGS. HGS's goal is to develop and market unique drugs and diagnostic products based on its leadership in the discovery and expression of novel genes. Isis Pharmaceuticals is engaged in the discovery and development of novel human therapeutic compounds, such as ISIS 2922, which is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of CMV-induced retinitis in AIDS patients. "Association of Epstein-Barr Virus with Leiomyosarcomas in Young People with AIDS" New England Journal of Medicine (01/05/95) Vol. 332, No. 1, P. 12; McClain, Kenneth L.; Leach, Charles T.; Jenson, Hal B. et al The unusually high incidence of smooth muscle tumors--leiomyomas and leiomyosarcomas--in young AIDS patients caused researchers to test the hypothesis that the tumors in such patients are associated with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). The researchers studied tissue specimens of five leiomyosarcomas and two leiomyomas from five children and one young man with AIDS for evidence of HIV and EBV. Samples of leiomyoma and leiomyosarcoma from HIV-negative children were used for comparison. In situ hybridization revealed EBV genomes in all muscle cells of the five leiomyosarcomas and the two leiomyomas from the six HIV-infected young people. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction showed significantly high levels of EBV in tumor tissue. Two colonic leiomyosarcomas recovered from two different sites at two different times contained different episomal EBV clones, indicating the presence of distinct monoclonal EBV-related tumors. Biclonal EBV was found in the leiomyosarcoma of another patient. EBV was not detected in the HIV-negative patients. The researchers concluded that EBV can infect smooth-muscle cells, at least in AIDS patients. EBV may contribute to the pathogenesis of leiomyomas and leiomyosarcomas in AIDS patients, but does not appear to be related to smooth-muscle tumors in HIV-negative patients. "HIV Integrase Structure Catalyzes Drug Search" Science (12/23/94) Vol. 266, No. 5193, P. 1946; O'Brien, Claire Discovery of the three-dimensional structure of the catalytic domain of the enzyme called HIV-1 integrase and how it targets specific areas of the host cell's genome have provided drug designers with several promising lines of attack. Researchers Robert Craigie, David Davies, and their colleagues at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases determined the shape of HIV integrase by using x-ray crystallography. Knowledge of the shape offers researchers a better basis for designing drugs to block its activity. It is likely that researchers will follow up on several clues to how HIV integrase works, including the striking resemblance between its catalytic site and polynucleotide transferases--which transfer chains of nucleotides in a variety of biological systems. Another clue stems from research done by Goff et al at Columbia University, who found that a protein called INi1 may help direct HIV integrase to a suitable site on the host chromosome where the viral DNA is most likely to be transcribed quickly into multiple RNA copies. Goff suggests that someday it may be possible to inhibit HIV's replication by tailoring compounds that block the binding of Ini1 and HIV integrase. "Crisis in Cuba" Advocate (01/24/95) No. 672/673, P. 48; Bull, Chris; Morales, Jorge Fidel Castro's solution to the AIDS epidemic was to forcibly quarantine all HIV-positive Cubans. In January 1994, almost certainly in response to criticism from abroad, the sanatoriums were made voluntary, although some claim they are not and that there is discrimination within the facilities. Most foreign reporters to the Los Cocos sanatorium are usually introduced to 33-year-old Victor Peralta. He occupies a two-story apartment with shaded terraces and a weight room in the Maranon section of Los Cocos. Since 1991 however, 17-year-old Carlos Otero has lived in the Arcoiris section, where social outcasts such as prostitutes and drug addicts are kept in prison-like cells. "They took me out of school, and they stuck me in this disgusting place," says Otero. He speaks of a life in which patients slash their wrists to avoid brutal beating by anti-gay guards. He claims officials refuse to let him leave. Dr. Jorge Perez, director of Los Cocos, insists that the sanatoriums are voluntary. "When we announced the voluntary system, we thought people would want to leave, but that has not been the case," Perez claims. Most patients are forced to remain because of the severe shortage of food and medicine outside the sanatorium. The sanatoriums provide air conditioning and television--luxuries that are rarely available to the general public--but residents' movements are restricted. Only those deemed "trustworthy" by a panel of doctors and social workers are allowed passes to leave the sanatorium. "Broadening the Search: Bernard Fields" Discover (01/95) Vol. 16, No. 1, P. 86; Glausiusz, Josie Last May, virologist Bernard Fields called for a fundamental change in AIDS research. In a recent interview, he explained that the issue is not that AIDS researchers are doing anything wrong, but that priorities need to be balanced. "Let's look at where the money is least efficiently spent and redirect it," said Fields. The largest waste of funds may be in some of the clinical programs because "their funding is enormous relative to their results." Some of the money, said Fields, should be shifted into "broader AIDS-related research." He said that, based on the work done with the simian immunodeficiency virus by Ronald Desrosiers at Harvard Medical School, he expects a vaccine probably will be developed. Fields concluded by saying that AIDS is not an unsolvable problem, but "a difficult problem, and sometimes you can't solve a hard problem as fast as you'd like." "A Blueprint for Housing" Focus (12/94) Vol. 10, No. 1, P. 6; Peura, Stephan M. "Breaking New Ground: Developing Innovative AIDS Care Residences," by B. Lieberman and D. Chamberlain, describes the development of the Bailey-Boushay House and the Rosehedge Houses in Seattle's King County. Organized into four categories, "Breaking New Ground" covers planning, organizing, financing, and constructing housing facilities for special populations. The first section gives a history of the HIV epidemic and its impact on homelessness. The second and third sections deal with planning, the need for community and public relations, and the tasks involved in planning and developing a capital project. The authors provide a detailed guide to federal grants available to support HIV-related housing. The final section describes the challenges involved in constructing a facility, including the necessity for routine construction meetings, regulatory inspections, and permits. "Breaking New Ground" is a comprehensive guide to the philosophy, planning, and development of specialized residential facilities. "New Faces for the New Year: Frank Moore" Newsweek (01/09/95) Vol. 125, No. 2, P. 54 In March, artist Frank Moore's paintings will be included in the Biennial exhibition at New York's Whitney Museum. "It's always perplexed me that the health-care and environmental movements have not joined forces," said Moore, who has AIDS. One of his paintings features a giant DNA molecule rising out of the mist over a polluted Niagara Falls--Moore's view of AIDS as one point on a continuum extending to environmental issues. "When I represent AIDS within an iconic American landscape, people see just my perception of the way things are, with each situation having its unique beauty. Moore's solo show opens in late March at Manhattan's Sperone Westwater Gallery.