U. grad speaks on role in HIV research

Now more than ever, students are aware of the AIDS epidemic. But many students may be surprised to learn University researchers played a crucial role during the early 1980s in discovering the way in which the AIDS virus invades blood cells. Last Thursday James Hoxie, a 1976 graduate of the Medical School, spoke to a small group of students about his personal involvement in this important advancement in HIV research. Hoxie, who returned to study human lukemias for his Hematology/Oncology Fellowship in 1979, said he discovered some of these lukemias, called "CD4," were mysteriously vanishing. "After a while people began running into the lab talking about this new problem that people were getting admitted to the hospital with in which their CD4 cells were just disappearing," he said. The destruction of CD4 cells, Hoxie found out, is unique to AIDS. At the time, he said, his lab was the only one in the position to diagnose the new disease due to the equipment needed to study the CD4 cell. "It was really a remarkable time," said Hoxie. "For a couple of years we didn't know what was causing this epidemic." He explained that after its transmission, the HIV virus enters CD4 blood cells by binding to a part of the cell called the CD4 molecule. He said his lab is now examining the differences between viruses in both humans and animals from different parts of the world. "There are people in West Africa who are very healthy and have normal immune systems for eight, nine, 10 years of HIV infection and they are not getting sick," he said. "We are interested in what's different about viruses like that." Hoxie added that the AIDS virus' extraordinary ability to change and become resistant to drugs is the greatest obstacle for finding a vaccine. But many researchers said they believe that a combination of drugs such as AZT, DDT and DDI may prove to be an effective treatment. "I think one of the most exciting classes of drugs that are coming out now are the protease inhibitors which destroy the viruses being made," Hoxie said. "If you slow down their ability to replicate, you're going to slow down their ability to change." Students who attended Hoxie's talk said they learned a lot. "You usually hear about AIDS and how you get it, but not much about the scientific aspects," College senior Ming Ming Liu said. "I didn't know anything about CD4." Engineering senior Vanessa Chan said his experience gives credence to his speech. "He was there from the very beginning when the AIDS virus started," Chan said. "So the fact that he could answer stuff about the specifics of the molecular biology of it was really cool." Erick Santos, a second year medical student, referring to Hoxie's coincidental involvement with AIDS research, said, "I hope I'm in the right place at the right time doing research in a secure field when it explodes into something important."