HEALTH REPORT - Drug for Other Diseases May Have Use Against

HEALTH REPORT - Drug for Other Diseases May Have Use Against AIDS
By Cynthia Kirk

Broadcast: Wednesday, August 31, 2005

I'm Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Health Report.

Scientists say they were able to decrease levels of the AIDS virus with a drug designed for other conditions.

 
Researchers have tested Valproic acid as a treatment for AIDS
AIDS suppresses the immune system so the body cannot fight deadly infections. Currently, medicines can reduce the virus to levels low enough to keep people alive. But these drugs are not a cure. Very small amounts of virus hide in what scientists call resting cells in the immune system.

If an infected cell reawakens, the virus becomes active. It begins to copy itself again. So people must continue to take antiretroviral drugs.

The new study involved four patients. They had already taken combinations of AIDS drugs for more than two years. The researchers intensified¹ the effect of the drugs. Then they added one more, valproic acid. Valproic acid is used to control seizures² in the treatment of epilepsy. Some people with depression take the drug for bipolar disorder³.

But valproic acid has also been shown to block an enzyme⁴ that helps H.I.V., the AIDS virus, to hide. The patients took the medicine two times a day for three months.

The researchers say the number of infected cells decreased by an average of seventy-five percent in three of the four people. But the numbers returned to earlier levels when the treatment ended.

Doctor David Margolis led the study at the University of Texas. He just took a new job at the University of North Carolina at Chapel⁵ Hill. The team reported the results in the Lancet medical journal.

Valproic acid has some serious risks, including to pregnant women. Doctor Margolis says more study is needed into its use against AIDS. But the scientists do say that their early finding suggests that new methods "will allow the cure of H.I.V. in the future." Some other scientists, however, say it is too early to talk of a cure for a virus that is so difficult to destroy.

They say a cure would have to get every last infected cell. And the virus might not hide only in the immune system. Still, in a related commentary, AIDS researcher Jean-Pierre Routy says the early results call for "further urgent study."

H.I.V. is spread through bodily fluids. AIDS is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome⁶. Last year, more than three million people died and an estimated five million more became infected.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk.  I'm Barbara Klein.

1 intensified   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Violence intensified during the night. 在夜间暴力活动加剧了。
• The drought has intensified. 旱情加剧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 seizures   

n.起获( seizure的名词复数 )；没收；充公；起获的赃物

参考例句：

• Seizures of illicit drugs have increased by 30% this year. 今年违禁药品的扣押增长了30%。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Other causes of unconsciousness predisposing to aspiration lung abscess are convulsive seizures. 造成吸入性肺脓肿昏迷的其他原因，有惊厥发作。 来自辞典例句

3 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

4 enzyme   

n.酵素，酶

参考例句：

• Above a certain temperature,the enzyme molecule will become unfolded.超过一定温度，酶分子将会展开。
• An enzyme that dissolves the fibrin of blood clots.能溶解血凝块中的纤维的酶。

5 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

6 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。