Aids Triple Play

IT IS NOT A CURE. IT IS NOT EVEN A TREATMENT YET. But preliminary research, revealed in Nature, points to a new way to attack the AIDS virus. By targeting a single phase in the virus' life cycle with three drugs, Yung-Kang Chow and his colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital found that they could stop the infection cold -- in the test tube anyway.

Operating alone, each of the three drugs -- AZT, ddI and pyridinone -- merely slows down the virus' ability to reproduce. Eventually, the microbe mutates and becomes resistant to treatment. Chow's triple combo, however, appears to overwhelm HIV's ability to develop into new strains. More than a month after the scientists stopped treatment of their laboratory cultures, they could find no virus.

< This spring researchers will try out the combination therapy on 200 volunteer patients. Chow's approach could still wind up on the dustheap of medical history; numerous treatments that looked promising in the laboratory failed miserably in the clinic. Even if it works, the triple-dose treatment cannot eradicate virus particles that have already tunneled their way into human chromosomes. However, Chow's approach might transform AIDS into a more manageable chronic condition.