Disappointing news for persons infected with HIV/AIDS. AIDS patients got no benefit from a Novartis AG drug that sparks the creation of immune cells to replace those destroyed by the disease, according to two studies released this week.
The two studies failed to show benefit from the treatment, doctors said today at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Montreal.
Researchers believe damage to the body’s protective immune system from HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, worsens the disease. While earlier results with the drug called interleukin-2 showed promise, treated patients fared no better than those who didn’t get it in the latest research.
The two trials looked at whether it helped people who were also getting treatment with powerful anti- retroviral drug combinations.
One study, funded with $65 million from the U.S. National Institutes of Health since 2000, looked at its effect in 4,011 people who began with more than 300 CD4 cells per milliliter of blood.
The second study examined the treatment in 1,695 patients who began with 50 to 299 CD4 cells per milliliter of blood.
Treatment raised immune cell levels in both trials more than researchers expected, said Marcelo Losso, an HIV researcher from the Hospital Jose Maria Ramos Mejia in Buenos Aires, who presented the results. However death and illness rates were the same in treated and untreated groups.
Interleukin-2 may encourage the body to make CD4 cells that respond to other types of illnesses than HIV, said Carl Dieffenbach, director of the Division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
In the study of people who began with more than 300 immune CD4 cells per milliliter of blood, serious side effects were more common among those who received the immune treatment, Losso said.Courtesy Bloomberg.net.
The two studies failed to show benefit from the treatment, doctors said today at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Montreal.
Researchers believe damage to the body’s protective immune system from HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, worsens the disease. While earlier results with the drug called interleukin-2 showed promise, treated patients fared no better than those who didn’t get it in the latest research.
The two trials looked at whether it helped people who were also getting treatment with powerful anti- retroviral drug combinations.
One study, funded with $65 million from the U.S. National Institutes of Health since 2000, looked at its effect in 4,011 people who began with more than 300 CD4 cells per milliliter of blood.
The second study examined the treatment in 1,695 patients who began with 50 to 299 CD4 cells per milliliter of blood.
Treatment raised immune cell levels in both trials more than researchers expected, said Marcelo Losso, an HIV researcher from the Hospital Jose Maria Ramos Mejia in Buenos Aires, who presented the results. However death and illness rates were the same in treated and untreated groups.
Interleukin-2 may encourage the body to make CD4 cells that respond to other types of illnesses than HIV, said Carl Dieffenbach, director of the Division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
In the study of people who began with more than 300 immune CD4 cells per milliliter of blood, serious side effects were more common among those who received the immune treatment, Losso said.Courtesy Bloomberg.net.
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