Word: arve
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...help breaking into a grin whenever he discusses the new project, and smiles haven't come easily to him of late. In the 1990s, he and ADARC established themselves as leaders in the AIDS field by pioneering the early use of the antiretroviral (ARV) cocktails that have reduced the death rate from AIDS (for which Ho was named TIME's Person of the Year in 1996). But in recent years, the center has suffered a series of setbacks, including a scientific paper that required a partial retraction, and the departure of key scientists. These challenges have some in the field...
...field. As director of ADARC, which was founded in 1991 and was one of the first research centers dedicated solely to the study of AIDS, he led a team that pioneered the "hit 'em early and hit 'em hard" approach to drug therapy, now the core of the ARV-cocktail treatment that is keeping millions of HIV-positive patients alive. His lab showed how HIV therapies would be most effective in the days and weeks immediately after HIV infected a new host. That understanding came from their breakthrough finding that rather than sitting latent for years after infection, as many...
...didn't take long before these futile efforts began to wear on the researchers in the field, not least of all those at ADARC, where Ho's group was attempting to develop its own vaccine - with little success. The center - which had earned such laurels for its ARV triumph - began to suffer a scientific slump and lack of direction, according to those who left in the early 2000s. Some blame Ho's management style, which, they say, changed in the aftermath of media attention that came with his recognition as Person of the Year. They describe a highly competitive atmosphere...
...given a briefing on a new agent called ibalizumab, an antibody that appeared able to block HIV's entry into healthy cells. In the 200 or so HIV-positive patients tested in the early trial, the compound was effective, but Tanox was worried about resistance. No matter how promising ARV drugs were, HIV inevitably found a way to evade them. So while the agent seemed to reduce the burden of virus in the blood up to 90% in patients with full-blown AIDS, no one knew how long the viral standoff would last. The company's leaders wanted...
Looking at the numbers, Ho saw more than just another member of the growing arsenal of ARV cocktails. Each of the ARVs focuses on thwarting just one of several different steps in HIV's infection process. Ibalizumab works at the critical juncture where the virus meets a healthy CD4 cell - a critical component of the immune system - essentially interposing itself between the two and preventing infection. If ibalizumab was so good at tamping down HIV in AIDS patients who were already infected, then maybe it could be tweaked to prevent AIDS in the first place. In other words, maybe...