Researchers Recommend Combined Use of Viral Load and CD4 Counts in HIV Disease Management and Therapeutic Trials [International Conference on AIDS (11th: 1996: Vancouver, Canada)]

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"Viral load is important at all levels of CD4 cell count, and thus
both are key to predict disease progression and, guide the clinical
management of patients," says Alvaro Munoz, Ph.D., professor of
epidemiology, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, and
principal investigator of the data center for the MACS.
Results from a recent MACS, published in the May 24, 1996 issue of
Science (Mellors, et. al. ), determined that a single, or baseline, viral
load measurement provides an excellent indication of both time to AIDS
and time to death. The study suggested that measuring viral load is
better than CD4+T-cell counts in monitoring disease progression when
using either marker alone. Typically, HIV-1 levels begin to increase
before CD4+T-cell counts decline. The current larger study confirms the
superiority of viral load over CD4+T-cell counts as a prognostic marker.
According to Charles Rinaldo, Ph.D., professor of pathology at the
UPMC and principal investigator of the Pittsburgh site of the MACS, "We
are optimistic about the potential to manage and treat HIV as a chronic,
rather than fatal, viral disease."
The MACS is an ongoing study funded by the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases and is being conducted at four sites
around the country including the University of California Los Angeles,
Northwestern University in Chicago, Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, and the University of Pittsburgh. The study investigators
include Dr. Roger R. Detels, principal investigator at the UCLA site;
Dr. John P. Phair, principal investigator at the Northwestern site; Or.
Alfred J. Saah, principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins site; Dr.
Alvaro Munoz, principal investigator of the data center located at Johns
Hopkins; and Dr. Charles Rinaldo, principal investigator of the
Pittsburgh site.
The bDNA-based assay, the Quantiplex(R) HIV-1 RNA Assay, is
currently under active review by the Food and Drug Administration.
HIV-1 RNA viral load measurement utilizing bDNA technology is available
to physicians from the Chiron Reference Testing Laboratory, a service of
Chiron Diagnostics.
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/CONTACT: Lisa Rossi of the University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center, 412-624-2607; Larry Kurtz of Chiron Corporation, 510-601-2476;
or Christie Hazel of Ogilvy Adams & Rinehart, 212-880-5326/