Doctors Rebuild HIV Patients’ Immune Systems

Doctors have shown for the first time that they can rebuild the immune systems of people infected with the AIDS virus, dramatically increasing the blood cells that HIV destroys.

If the new treatment--so far tried in only about 100 patients--is verified as effective, it could allow the body to produce white blood cells called helper T-cells faster than the virus can kill them.

The findings appear in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.

The approach involves on-and-off infusions of interleukin 2, a natural protein that regulates immune defenses. It worked only in patients who were infected with the virus but had not yet developed AIDS and still had T-cell counts of at least 400.

Some patients have been taking it for up to 3 1/2 years with no sign of waning effectiveness.

The treatment has serious side effects--symptoms that mimic an extreme case of the flu--and researchers cautioned that it had not been tested long enough to prove that it actually helps patients stay healthy longer.