Interleukin-2 AIDS Treatment 'Ineffective'

An international research team has shown that treating HIV-AIDS with interleukin-2 (IL-2) is ineffective.

An international research team has proved that HIV-AIDS treatment with interleukin-2 (IL-2) is ineffective.

The researchers, therefore, suggest that clinical trials on this compound be stopped.

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AIDS or HIV is an epidemic disease, a potentially deadly infection that can be prevented with precautions. AIDS/HIV symptoms manifest long after the actual infection occurs.

IL-2 is currently used as a complement to highly active antiretroviral therapy (known as HAART), which is administered to patients with HIV-AIDS. Since HAART controls replication of viruses in the blood, doctors thought that IL-2 would help regenerate more CD4+ immune cells, which serve as an indicator of viral progression.

It was thought that IL-2 increased the natural immunity of patients by helping immune cells mature and multiply.

"Our results show that IL-2 has no effect on the development of AIDS or on patient survival," says Dr. Jean-Pierre Routy of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC).

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"More precisely, while the presence of IL-2 leads to a faster increase of CD4+ immune cells, these cells are less functional than the CD4+ cells that regenerate naturally in patients who do not receive IL-2. This means that IL-2 treatment provides no benefit and does not prevent AIDS-related infectious diseases.

"For the first time, a study has shed light on recurring questions concerning the value of biological markers and their limitations in assessing patient health.

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"Our challenge now will be to develop tests that assess the function of immune cells and not simply their quantity. This will ensure that HIV treatments indeed have a clinical benefit for patients," Routy added.

This 8-year study involved over 5000 patients in 25 countries, and was one of the largest ever conducted on HIV-AIDS.

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"The fact that data from developing countries was used in biomedical research on innovative compounds is very revolutionary in the history of HIV-AIDS research," Routy said.

The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Source-ANI
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