Studies show success of AIDS treatments

A new AIDS drug called T-20 has proven as effective as current treatments in reducing viral load, the number of HIV copies in a person's body, a study in the November issue of Nature Medicine shows.

In Phase I clinical trials, researchers for Trimeris, a North Carolina company, and the University of Alabama administered the drug to 16 HIV-infected men for 14 days and found the treatments to be safe. The drug must still undergo two more phases of clinical trials and Food and Drug Administration approval before making its way to the market.

T-20 uses a different mechanism than current drugs on the market, which could help patients in cases where HIV has developed resistance to the drugs they are taking.

Antiviral drug combinations available to the general population since 1995 have succeeded in slowing the onset of AIDS and lengthening a patient's life, according to a related study of HIV-infected men published in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Roger Detels, an epidemiology professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, and colleagues followed 3,431 gay men beginning in 1984 for up to 13 years. Of those men, 536 were infected with HIV, 231 developed AIDS and 200 died.

The researchers found that since so-called "drug cocktails" - combinations of powerful antiviral drugs - have been introduced, time from HIV infection to the development of full-blown AIDS has increased by 63 percent. That means the painful of effects of AIDS take longer to set in.

The study also showed the time to death increased by 21 percent compared to the period from 1990 to 1993 when AIDS treatments consisted of only one drug. CD4 cells, vital components in the immune system, also showed a reduced rate of decline.

Although clinical trials previously suggested the "drug cocktails" were effective when administered in controlled studies, Detels said, this report is the first to show the powerful effects of the drugs in real-life situations.

Taking the drugs is a complicated and painful process. Patients typically have to ingest between 12 to 25 pills a day during meals, with water or by themselves. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea and other symptoms.

"I suspect that many of the men were not taking them as prescribed," Detels said. "It shows though that it still had some impact."

Kenneth Mendez, a case manager and speaker for the HIV/AIDS Resource Center in Ypsilanti, can attest to the side effects of the drugs. Mendez said he and many of the HIV-infected individuals he knows and works with every day find it tough to stick to the medication routine.

"It's so much of a strain to take these drugs for such a long time," he said.

Mendez cautioned against the enthusiasm that surrounds the new drug therapies, which, though they show some effect in slowing the progress of AIDS, are no cure for the disease.

Although "drug cocktails" are unable to stop death from AIDS, Daniel Kaul, a clinical instructor for the HIV/AIDS program in the Medical Center, said the therapies give HIV-infected individuals something they really need - hope.

"There's a whole lot more hope than three years ago," Kaul said. "We've certainly seen patients who wouldn't be alive today without these drugs."

11-04-98