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From: werner@aecom.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.bio,net.med,net.motss
Subject: Re: AIDS Research - Antiviral Drugs (Query)?
Message-ID: <2141@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Dec-85 12:50:59 EST
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Posted: Wed Dec 18 12:50:59 1985
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> 
> 	In a discussion with my roommate last spring, it occurred to me that
> one useful line of therapy against AIDS and other retroviruses would be to
> develop drugs that SELECTIVELY inhibit reverse trascriptase, the enzyme that

	5 out of the 6 drugs approved for clinical trials are as you describe.
An old posting of mine listed them and their stages of trial.
	There are a few problems:
	1. Selectivity is a relative term -- these drugs are incredibly 
toxic.
	2. Once the virus has become resident in the cells of the immune
system, ReverseT becomes dispensable.
	3. There is so far little demonstration that stopping the spread of
the virus actually improves the clinical disease.  Consider the trial in
France with Cyclosporin -- the virus disappeared in the two weeks prior to
the Press conference AND all three patients died in the week following.



-- 

				Craig Werner
				!philabs!aecom!werner
                 "Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died."