2 Diseases May Yield A Cystic Fibrosis Cur

[Guest guest]

" The idea of intentionally infecting someone with a blend of the two

killer viruses may seem bizarre, scientists said, but the new creation

lacks key components needed to cause disease. "

No, I'd say it sounds immoral, unethical and absolutely ludicrous.

Sheri

*****

Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2001 08:52:17 -0500

From: Belkin

" Scientists in Philadelphia have combined pieces from two of the world's

deadliest microbes, the ebola virus and the virus that causes AIDS, to

make a hybrid virus they hope will someday cure cystic fibrosis when

sprayed into patients' lungs ...

" I wouldn't want this thing put into me, " said Gallo, director of

the Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore and co-discoverer of HIV.

It's possible that the new virus could prompt an immunological response

severe enough to harm the patient, Gallo said. Equally frightening, he

said, the hybrid virus might combine with wild HIV to create an entirely

new kind of contagious virus. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6036-2001Feb28.html

By Rick Weiss

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, March 1, 2001; Page A04

Scientists in Philadelphia have combined pieces from two of the world's

deadliest microbes, the ebola virus and the virus that causes AIDS, to make

a hybrid virus they hope will someday cure cystic fibrosis when sprayed

into patients' lungs.

The idea of intentionally infecting someone with a blend of the two killer

viruses may seem bizarre, scientists said, but the new creation lacks key

components needed to cause disease. The goal is to make a virus with

ebola's unusual talent for attaching to lung cells and the AIDS virus's

exceptional ability to persist in the body, then use that new virus to

deliver curative genes to patients with the lung disease.

The hybrid virus, not yet ready for human testing, is the most extreme and

controversial example of a new strategy emerging in the field of gene

therapy, which aims to cure diseases by giving people new genes. After a

decade of failures using other methods to get helpful genes into patients'

cells, researchers are turning to some of the world's most notorious

microbes as tiny vehicles for delivering therapeutic payloads.

Hybrids made from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the ebola

virus, which causes the fatal bleeding disease featured in the nonfiction

thriller " The Hot Zone, " are not to be feared, according to the University

of Pennsylvania researchers who created them. The team removed the parts of

both viruses most responsible for their deadliness. Now, they plan to add

copies of the gene that cystic fibrosis patients lack.

Some researchers agreed that the approach is safe. " It's not even HIV

anymore; it's just pieces, " said W. French , a gene therapy pioneer

at the University of Southern California. " And ebola sounds horrible, but

this has nothing to do with the ebola virus that knocks out all your

defense mechanisms and kills you. Those genes are all gone. "

But others said they are not so sure.

" I wouldn't want this thing put into me, " said Gallo, director of

the Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore and co-discoverer of HIV.

It's possible that the new virus could prompt an immunological response

severe enough to harm the patient, Gallo said. Equally frightening, he

said, the hybrid virus might combine with wild HIV to create an entirely

new kind of contagious virus.

The Food and Drug Administration has already raised those and other yellow

flags. At a conference in 1998, FDA official Anne M. Pilaro warned that

such viruses would present " unique issues regarding determination of safety. "

The new work comes from Penn's Institute for Human Gene Therapy and its

director, . The institute has focused on inventing new gene

delivery methods since the FDA ordered it last year to halt all human

clinical studies after a young gene therapy patient died there.

, who in November settled a lawsuit filed by the patient's father

and is now fighting additional sanctions from the FDA, declined to be

interviewed. But another scientist on the project, Kobinger, said the

research offers early proof that the approach is worth pursuing.

" The words are scary or sound scary, but for now we are on the level of

science, not on the level of recruiting someone to try it, " Kobinger said.

The team combined the genes that allow ebola to attach to lung cells,

those that help HIV infect and persist inside cells, and " marker " genes

that helped the researchers track the fate of their new creation. The

hybrid virus infected, in test tubes, lung cells from mice and people, the

team reports in the March issue of Nature Biotechnology. And when squirted

into the windpipes of mice, the viruses infected the animals' lungs and

delivered the marker genes.

Work on the viruses was conducted on the Penn campus in a " biosafety level

3 " containment module, a double-doored, specially ventilated lab space that

federal regulations require for all experiments involving exotic microbes

that " may cause serious or potentially lethal disease as a result of

exposure by the inhalation route. "

Many questions remain unanswered, Kobinger and others said. Will the virus

attach to lung cells in cystic fibrosis patients, who typically have lots

of mucus in their lungs? Will a patient's immune system attack and

neutralize the virus? Could the new virus, like related viruses, disrupt

genes inside lung cells, causing lung cancer or other problems?

" It's quite a ways from being useful, " said Ashlock of the Cystic

Fibrosis Foundation in Bethesda. " But it's definitely a step forward in a

field that has not had many forward steps. "

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & UK

530-478-1242 Voicemail

http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm

" All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men ( &

women) do nothing " ...Edmund Burke

ANY INFO OBTAINED HERE NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE

DECISION TO VACCINATE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE.

Well Within's Earth Mysteries & Sacred Site Tours

http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin

International Tours, Homestudy Courses, ANTHRAX & OTHER Vaccine Dangers

Education, Homeopathic Education

CEU's for nurses, Books & Multi-Pure Water Filters