OUR BODIES,

by

Harvey Thompson, M.D. "First Steps in AIDS Therapy"

A nutritionist Ph.D. from Fresno sent me a photocopy of a form letter from his health food store the other day, with a note on the bottom that wondered if I was aware of the AIDS epidemic. He even included a newsclip. He suggested I sell AIDS victems his "thymus pills" to bolster their immune system (...and his own wallet?)

It won't work. Eating brains does not make you smarter, ground up gonads won't cure impotence, and unless you like sweetbreads, swallowing thymus would probaly only give you an upset stomach.

The vitamin people were recently featured in an ADVOCATE article that covered everything from selenium to lysine and Vitamin E. It looked very official, complete with footnotes and a bibliography available on request. Unfortunately, medical centers have not found the answer to Kaposi's and opportunistic infections in vitamin stores. It's possible (but unlikely) that potential victims MIGHT stay out of the medical clinic by using the contents of a medicine cabinet stuffed with vitamins. American medicine has never been big on the once of prevention that's worth the pound of cure.

But the cure isn't qut in pounds yet. The interesting and fascinating possibilities are on the horizon -not on the drug shelf. Here's a look at state-of-the-art in immunotherapy.

INTERFERON: White blood cells in conflict with a tumor or a virus release an antagonist protein called "Interferon." Its major action may be potentiation (strengthening) and stimulation of natural "killer" lymphocytes. Interferon has been used against sarcoma cancers such as Kaposi's. Death rates in treated patients are half those of untreated ones. At a recent San Francisco symposium, immunotherapists showed slides of Kaposi's victims before

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OUR MINDS

and after Interferon treatment. Faces that that had been nearly covered with ugly purple tumors cleared miraculously after treatment. Looks promising!

IMMUNE RECONSTITUTION: The thymus is the master organ of the immune system, and teaches developing T-lymphocytes to become helper or suppressor. When it is congenitally absent, such as in the DiGeorge Syndrome, AIDS-type infections begin at birth. Affected infants have been saved by thymic implants. Could such treatment correct our acquired immune deficincy? THYMIC HORMONES: Many endocrine organs depend on hormonal stimulation to goad them into action. For the thymus, the stimulating hormone is thymosin, a 28-amino-acid protein from the thymus that promotes T-cells. Its concentration decreases with age. A shot of this stuff in the arm may be just what could help the T-cell deficient Gay male. But don't expect to get this in your health food store; it is very experimental. TRANSFER FACTOR: You may have a negative skin test for TB, but if you get a certain dialyzable leucocyte extract, or DLE from a person who is positive, reactivity is transfered to you. The "transfer factor" seems to educate your lymphocytes to the level of those of the TB-reactive person. Interestingly enough, 25-50% of family members have cell-mediated immunity to the tumor of a related cancer victim; household contacts seem to be a sourse of this "transfer factor." A lover of a Kaposi's victim should have high titres of this, just as if they were exposed to the cancer, but resisted it and acquired immunity.

BCG: Bacillus Calmette-Guerin is a tuberculous bacterium of an animal that is made relatively harmless, but still can stimulate the immune system. It's still occasionally used as a TB "vaccination." Some researchers think that children given this immunization had lower rates of acute leukemia. It has become an experimental treatment for cancer, and indeed, good results have been ob-

tained in cancers of the breast, head and neck, colon, lung, etc. Probably, it augments the natural "killer cells" of the lymph system. It can have severe side effects, and is not without danger. There can be severe sensitivity reaction, and in some cases, treatment has backfired' and 'stimulated suppressor instead of helper lymphocytes. When given by the "scarification" technique, the patient may feel as if he has been in a cat fight; 20 scratches of vaccine two inches in length are made across the arm and thighs each week.

VACCINES: If tumor particles are purified and reinjected into the patient, his body may respond to this "immunization with tumor" by producing antibodies that shrink the tumor. In fact, this technique often prolongs survival in lung cancer victims. An improvement to this treatment invovles the addition of a special Ribonucleic Acid to the particles. Animals have been immunized with this combination, and the complex of the two produced greater responce than the tumor antigen alone. It appears the RNA imparts additional information to the code for improved immunoglobulin or antibody formation. This "immune RNA" technique looks very promising and seems completely free of side effects. In fact, one half of cancer patients treated in this fashion improved.

An alternative to this "active" immunization is the passive method: let the lover do the work. Plasma of household contacts often reacts against the cancer of the victim. Patients with breast or colon cancer have been successfully treated using antibodies from their family members. Lovers of Kaposi's victims ought to have plentiful antibodies against the tumor of their partner. PLASMAPHERESIS: Plasmapheresis is a blood-letting procedure in which the red cells are returned, but the

fluid, or plasma, is removed. Replacement fluid, such as saline or protein solutions are given instead. Usually, this is done for "too thick blood"

in diseases such as multiple myeloma, but it has tumor treatment possibilities. Preliminary trials of plasmapheresis have shown encouraging results which suggest that blocking factors, or circulating tumor antigens in plasma might be removed and allow normal cell-mediated cytotoxicity to get at the tumor cells.

TO SUM UP: AIDS is proving difficult to find a reason for, and difficult to treat. Its group of viral, fungal, and protozoal infections are resistant to usual medicines; its cancer is resisant to chemotherapy. Medicine has never had such a challenge of an immunodeficient epidemic. Tragic as its effects are, though, the search for a solution to AIDS is already beginning to teach everyone a lot about immunology, cancer, and infection.

Stonewall Features Syndicate, 1983.

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