Subject: Prototype Vaccine For AIDS Is Said To Offer Promise
Date: Published: 6/23/86 77 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   Prototype Vaccine
   For AIDS Is Said
   To Offer Promise
    ---
   Genentech to Report on Tests
   Using Protein Produced
   By Gene-Splicing Method
    ---
   By Marilyn Chase
   Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

   PARIS -- Genentech Inc. scientists are expected to report
that a prototype AIDS vaccine, in test-tube experiments,
killed the deadly virus and prevented it from infecting human
immune-system cells.
   The findings are scheduled to be presented today by
Laurence Lasky and Phillip Berman, both Genentech senior
scientists, and Jerome Groopman, New England Deaconess
Hospital, at the Second International Conference on Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome here.
   While the vaccine is far from ready for use in humans, the
scientists said their research demonstrates gene-splicing
methods can be used to make a virus protein that triggers
large amounts of a "neutralizing" antibody in test animals.
   Vaccines generally are made from a fragment of a virus's
outer coat that mimics the infectious agent.  Injected into
the body, the vaccine tricks the immune system into mounting
a defense, thus creating antibodies that would surround a
virus invader in the event of a real attack.
   To make the prototype vaccine, Genentech used cells of a
Chinese hamster, onto which scientists spliced the gene that
makes gp120, a major protein that coats the AIDS virus.  In
February, Genentech said it had synthesized the gp120
protein.
   Dr. Lasky said the vaccine faces years of animal and human
tests before it is known if it can prevent AIDS. The next
logical step, industry sources said, would involve injecting
the AIDS virus into chimpanzees that have been vaccinated.
   "There is the possibility that humans or chimps could
respond differently from rodents and may not mount the same
neutralizing antibody response because immune systems vary,"
Dr. Lasky said.
   Also, AIDS virus strains vary widely and a vaccine from a
single strain might not offer complete protection.  Dr. Lasky
said Genentech probably will try mixing proteins from several
viral strains and concoct a "polyvalent" vaccine, like those
for polio.
   Nevertheless, the scientists were optimistic.  The
Genentech experiment shows that "the structure of the
(synthetic) protein is so similar to that found in the
virus," Dr. Lasky said, "that when put into animals, it
elicits an antibody that kills the virus and prevents it from
infecting human T-cells" in the test tube.  T-cells are part
of the human immune system and are targeted by the AIDS
virus.
   Especially encouraging was the amount of antibody
triggered by the protein, Dr. Groopman said.  Concentrations
were so high that a drop of blood from a test animal "could
theoretically protect an 80-pound chimp from the virus," he
said.
   Genentech, in South San Francisco, Calif., is a
gene-splicing company.  Among others working on AIDS vaccines
are Chiron Corp., Emeryville, Calif., and the Genetic Systems
division of Bristol-Myers Co., New York.
   In the U. S., the AIDS epidemic has afflicted about 22,000,
of whom half are dead.  Many more people suffer a related
syndrome known as ARC, or AIDS-related complex.

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