Novel Attacks on HIV Move Closer to Reality

摘要

DENVER, COLORADO—Neither the hunt for an AIDS vaccine nor the search for a cure has made much progress lately, but at the 13th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections held here last week, researchers reported several advances that may lead to novel ways to treat and prevent HIV infection, as well as to a clearer understanding of the epidemic's origins. Perhaps most encouraging, said one of the meeting organizers, Constance Benson of the University of California, San Diego, a powerful new drug that cripples HIV's ability to weave itself into human chromosomes has made an important leap forward in human trials. The drug, made by Merck and dubbed MK-0518, inhibits the integrase enzyme, which the virus requires to copy itself. The antiretroviral drugs now on the market target different parts of HIV's life cycle.