Cambridge Scientist Has Been Working On Developing An Effective Holding Treatment For AIDS Sufferers

Research on immunotherapy treatment for people with AIDS.

Dr Abaham Karpas is seen working at a bench and pouring liquids in his laboratory. Anglia TV reporter Greg Barnes explains that much of Dr Karpas’s work at Cambridge over the past 16 years has been research into leukaemia, and this is now in some ways related to the challenge of the AIDS virus. Dr Karpas has developed a screening test for AIDS which could be the most accurate to date. His treatment to arrest the development of AIDS is currently attracting interest as four patients have responded well since beginning the treatment two months ago. This is not a cure but can prevent deterioration by reinforcing the patient’s natural immune system. Dr Karpas says they hope the passive immunotherapy treatment will work as with other viral infections where the patient receives a transfusion from a person with the beneficial antibodies which the patient lacks. He stresses that this is not a cure, and as with herpes and shingles, the patient will remain infected with the virus for life but it is suppressed by their enhanced immune system. Greg Barnes asks Dr Karpas about recent French claims for a treatment with cyclosporine. He says that claims appear premature based on the experience of two patients announced just five days after treatment. This video was made to be shown in a news story on Anglia Television early evening news / magazine programme About Anglia.

Keywords

AIDS; Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; Medicine; Medical research; Viruses; Immunology

Additional Description

Research virologist Dr Abraham Karpas worked in the department of haematology of the University of Cambridge Clinical School for 36 years. Amongst the achievements in his CV, Dr Abraham Karpas was the first in the UK to develop human leukaemia cell lines that can proliferate indefinitely in vitro. From 1985 he pioneered passive immunotherapy (PIT) treatment for AIDS patients. In 1985 he also developed an AIDS cell test for anti-HIV antibodies that enables anti HIV-1 and anti HIV-2 infections to be distinguished easily.

French doctors explored cyclosporine as a potential AIDS treatment in the mid-1980s, hoping its immune-suppressing properties could affect HIV, but early findings were mixed, leading to controversy and caution from the international scientific community. It was superseded by more effective HIV therapies.