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COMBINATION DRUG THERAPY FOR AIDS

COMBINATION DRUG THERAPY FOR AIDS--MORE HOPE AT MID-1996

Encouraging results for yet more drugs for AIDS patients were announced at the 11th International Conference on AIDS, held July 7-11, 1996, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Because the data are so new, only popular press reports of the research protocols, findings, and prognostications are yet available; such sources are reviewed here.

While optimism is broadly expressed, it is not universal. And three weeks after enthusiastic chronicling of this multiple drug therapy (Gorman(a)), Time magazine moved on to peddle hope for AIDS patients in just as strident terms through placental blood transfusions (Gorman(b)). Clearly, multiple drug therapy is one in a continuing eruption of medical developments, all of which appear to be palliatives, none of which, so far, appears to be a cure.

The theory of combining drugs to attack the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) that produces AIDS is based on the virus' ability to replicate and mutate quickly to strains that are not affected by the latest single drug in its environment. Use of multiple drugs simultaneously is simply an attempt to inactivate or destroy the hardy and versatile virus, no matter how it reacts genetically to protect itself from chemical warfare. Until recently, AZT was the (single) best known anti-HIV, anti-AIDS drug. AZT attacks a viral enzyme, but not the same one as the newest FDA-approved anti-HIV drugs--the protease inhibitors [PIs here]--most recently combined in cocktails with AZT and possibly one or more of its lookalikes, such as 3TC (Maugh, 1996).

Sternberg (1996) reports that three PIs have been approved by FDA for this use thus far; they are ritonavir (with the trade name, Norvir), indinovir (Crixivan), and saquinovir (Invirase). [Maugh (1996) and still other reporters have spelled the latter two: indinavir and saquinavir.] Two additional PIs have apparently also shown promise in fighting HIV...

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COMBINATION DRUG THERAPY FOR AIDS. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 06:11, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1692418.html