DURING THE NEXT 6 months, a change in emphasis in research on HIV disease should begin to take hold.
Work that focuses more on repairing the damaged immune system than on directly killing the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) shifts into high gear.
The necessity of both treatment approaches has been evident since the early days of the AIDS epidemic. But research on immune restoration languished after the approval of the antiretroviral drug zidovudine (Retrovir, commonly called AZT, Burroughs Wellcome, Research Triangle Park, NC). What trials were done had disappointing or equivocal results.
The pace is picking up now, in large part due to a unique think tank called Project Immune Restoration. It is made up of a broad array of researchers, government officials, and activists who, for the past 18 months, have focused intensively on finding out what can be done in the clinic now and what needs to be