Clinical trials of immune-based therapies for HIV. (Clinical Immunology Society)

DATELINE: Clinical Immunology Society

Researchers using a variety of experimental strategies to control HIV infection reported progress in clinical trials at the Clinical Immunology Society -sponsored symposium "Immune-Based Therapies for HIV Infection", held October 15-17, 1993, in Williamsburg, Virginia.

The therapeutic modalities discussed included interleukin*2 (IL*2), alpha interferon (IFN*alpha), autologous lymphokine-activated killer cells (LAK), expanded CD8(+) cell populations, autologous HIV-specific cytotoxic lymphocytes (CTL), and hyperimmune plasma.

U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) researcher Joseph Kovacs noted that a number of cytokines have been tested in AIDS clinical trials. These include interferons alpha, beta and gamma; colony-stimulating factors, erythropoietin, IL*2, and tumor necrosis factor. The most studied cytokines have been IL*2 and IFN*alpha.

Recombinant IL*2 - the result of a decade of research - is now available and has been shown to restore natural killer cells (NK) function, CMV-specific cytotoxicity, and IFN-gamma production in AIDS patients. At the maximum tolerated dose (18 MU/day for five days), rIL*2 therapy can result in significant increases in CD4(+) lymphocytes that are sustained for two months. In an NIH clinical trial with 10 subjects, Kovacs and colleagues found that an …