Science / Medicine : FDA Approves AIDS Trials
<i> From Times Staff and Wire Reports</i>
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved preliminary clinical tests of a novel approach to AIDS therapy, based on a protein that blocks the ability of the AIDS virus to infect human cells. In laboratory experiments, the genetically engineered protein, known as CD4, can act as a decoy to prevent the AIDS virus from infecting human cells. The tests, involving about 50 AIDS-virus-infected patients, will be conducted at San Francisco General Hospital, the New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston and the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md. The CD4 being tested is manufactured by Genentech Inc. of South San Francisco.
