The Vitamin E Factor by Andreas Papas

Author:Andreas Papas [Andreas Papas ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062016829
Publisher: HarperCollins

17

BATTLING AIDS—AN

INDISPENSABLE ALLY

Giving the immune system a fighting chance

Reducing the risk of opportunistic diseases

Reducing the side effects of medications

The hypothesis is that we’d be taking them and making them into Bob Massies.

—Eric Rosenberg, M.D., fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital

Bob Massie, an Episcopal minister who was the 1994 Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, has become a celebrity in the medical research community. As far as we know, he is the person who has lived the longest infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). A hemophiliac, Massie was infected by tainted blood before acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was recognized as a disease. He has been living with HIV for more than twenty years, and yet the virus in his blood remains below detectable limits and shows no symptoms of the disease.

Massie is not alone. Two to three percent of those infected with HIV have beaten the odds and live normal, healthy lives. Researchers were so intrigued that they set out to find out what it was that let Massie and others survive and thrive.

LONG-TERM SURVIVAL IS POSSIBLE—VITAMIN E CAN MAKE

A DIFFERENCE

The helper T cells hold the key: Two researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, Drs. Bruce Walker and Eric Rosenberg, embarked on a quest to unravel the mystery of Bob Massie’s remarkable survival. They began at the most basic level of immune response: two sets of white blood cells called CD-4 helper T cells and CD-8 killer T cells.

What is the function of the helper CD-4 T cells? Whenever a virus invades the body, whether it’s measles, flu, or HIV, the immune system responds by generating a set of this helper T cells specially programmed to fight that particular virus. They send chemical signals and marshal an elite fighting force, the CD-8 killer cells. When summoned, CD-8 killer cells eradicate the virus. HIV is an especially ferocious enemy, however, because it infects and kills HIV-specific helper CD-4 T cells before they can marshal and instruct the CD-8 killer T cells. That leaves the killer cells without direction, helpless against HIV.

What made Massie and the other long-term survivors different is that their helper cells somehow survived, were built up to high levels, and helped beat back HIV.

Capitalizing on this major discovery, researchers set out to evaluate the following strategy: rescue the helper T cells in the early stages of HIV infection, and they will become the critical weapon in defeating the virus over the long term. Their strategy has been extremely promising and has kept the HIV at bay in many patients.

These researchers evaluated a cocktail of three antiviral drugs. The treatment worked. Patients who receive it show a substantial increase in the HIV-killing helper cells.

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