HONG KONG: PRESS CONFERENCE BY AIDS EXPERT DAVID HO ON HOPES OF DESIGNING A DRUG TO CONTROL THE SARS VIRUS.

Record ID: 190168

  • Title: HONG KONG: PRESS CONFERENCE BY AIDS EXPERT DAVID HO ON HOPES OF DESIGNING A DRUG TO CONTROL THE SARS VIRUS.
  • Date: 1st May 2003
  • Summary: (W3) HONG KONG, CHINA (MAY 11, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. WS: NEWS CONFERENCE. 0.06 2. MV: PHOTOGRAPHERS SOME WEARING SURGICAL MASKS. 0.10 3. MV: (SOUNDBITE) (English) DAVID HO AIDS EXPERT SAYING "We have to realise that the timeframe for everything has been very contracted for the SARS epidemic. Just look at how fast the syndrome was recognised, how fast the virus was isolated by the team here and then in six days by one group, the genome was sequenced. So things are moving very fast. We got involved only three weeks ago and here, we are telling you the inhibitor that works so things could go fast but I wouldn't want to tell you a particular date for which such therapies would apply in humans." 0.53 4. WS: NEWS CONFERENCE/CU: SLIDE SHOWING HOW THE PEPTIDE WORKS TO FIGHT OFF VIRUS/CU: SLIDES SHOWING THE SARS VIRUS GENOME. (3 SHOTS) 1.09 4. MV: REPORTER ASKING QUESTIONS. 1.13 5. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) DAVID HO AIDS EXPERT SAYING "We believe by looking at the sequence, the SARS virus probably uses the same mechanism to pull the cell membrane close to the cell allowing fusion to occur." 1.28 6. MV: PHOTOGRAPHERS, SOME WEARING SURGICAL MASKS. 1.31 7. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) HO SAYING "And what happens is we can make peptide that is similar to HR1 or similar to HR2 and they gum up this process so that the virus cannot pull. We haven't formally demonstrated that at this point but the fact that it's blocking the entry of the SARS into the cell suggest that our design might be correct." 2.03 (W3) HONG KONG, CHINA (RECENT) (REUTERS) 8. VARIOUS: SCIENTISTS WORKING IN A LABORATORY. (6 SHOTS) 2.40 9. VARIOUS: HOSPITAL SCENES. (3 SHOTS) 2.57 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 16th May 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HONG KONG, CHINA
  • Country: Hong Kong
  • Reuters ID: LVAEW3KRO2F5JPMYSLGHU8ZXFUBA
  • Story Text: An AIDS expert is collaborating with a team of
    scientists in Hong Kong to design a drug which they hope will
    control the SARS virus, which has killed more than 500 people
    world-wide.



    Experts around the world are racing against time to
    find a treatment for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS),
    for which there is no known cure. Existing drugs used in Hong
    Kong are ineffective for a fifth of victims there.

    David Ho, who helped pioneer treatment for AIDS, told a
    news conference in Hong Kong on Sunday (May 11) that
    scientists were now testing and refining a synthetic protein
    "inhibitor", or peptide, that is aimed at blocking the SARS
    virus from penetrating human cells.

    This approach used by Ho and scientists from the
    University Hong Kong in their battle against SARS is adopted
    from a drug that is used in an arsenal of medicines to fight
    HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

    Ho said the peptide proved successful in preventing the
    SARS virus from entering cultured cells in initial tests in
    Hong Kong this week, but more work and fine-tuning were needed
    before such a drug could be commercially available.

    Ho, who is in Hong Kong for a second time in a month,
    could not give a timeframe when that would happen.

    Ho said scientists have found similarities in the way the
    SARS and HIV virus attack human cells.

    "We believe by looking at the sequence, the SARS virus
    probably uses the same mechanism to pull the cell membrane
    close to the cell allowing fusion to occur," said David Ho of
    the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Rockefeller
    University in New York.

    Microbiologist Malik Peiris from the University of Hong
    Kong also said some signatures in the SARS virus were similar
    to the HIV virus.

    Doctors have been using a cocktail of the antiviral drug,
    ribavirin, and steroids to treat the 1,674 patients so far in
    Hong Kong but up to 20 percent have not responded to the mix.

    More than 210 people have died of the disease in the city.

    Experts elsewhere have questioned the cocktail, saying
    there was no proof that it worked. They also point to various
    harmful side-effects of the cocktail on the heart, liver and
    lungs. Ribavirin is also known to cause deformities in
    foetuses.

    Some hospitals in Hong Kong are now resorting to
    traditional Chinese medicine in the fight against SARS.




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