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Matt Lauer: On close up this morning, new hope in the fight against AIDS as we reported, the new study has some scientists excited and others skeptical. Doctor David Ho was Time magazine's man of the year in 1996 for his work on the treatment that has slowed the disease in millions of patients. He's a scientific director for AIDS Treatment at Rockefeller University. Dr. Ho, good morning, nice to see you.
Doctor David Ho: Good morning, man.
Matt Lauer: You were not involved in this study, the lead researcher which had it at the University of North Carolina. 4 patients over 3 months were studied in layman's terms if you can. What did this study accomplish that other studies haven't accomplished?
Doctor David Ho: Well, first, that's began about ten years ago when combination or cocktail therapy came along which allow us to control HIV quite well. The actively, the part of HIV that's active in the body could be controlled a thousand times. But there was always a little bit left hiding out in certain cells. And this group of researchers address that hidden pool, so called the reservior, and in this study they were able to lower that modestly in four individuals, so we have to be, it's a very interesting observation, but we have to be cautious in token(not sure) in those results.
Matt Lauer: You said uh lower that modestly, I've read in some places, I'd say it could be reduced by as much as 75 percent. And is that an overstatement?
Doctor David Ho: Ah, any word from about 20 to close to 80 percent, so, but the measurement of this test is not so precise. So we have to consider that modestly.
Matt Lauer: The way has been described to me again in layman's terms is that the, the sleeping cells are activated by this drug and then knocked down, is that true?
Doctor David Ho: That's the theory, now it remains to be seen whether the decrease is in fact due to the active drug valproic acid.
Matt Lauer: So, it, it, again, researchers and scientists in this field are loath to word, to use the word cure,(Sure)but does this present or represent a step in the direction of a possible cure?
Doctor David Ho: Absolutely, I think, now, this study will trigger further investigation into whether valproic acid indeed would turn on the cells so that the drugs could get at the virus.
Matt Lauer: If, if you can eliminate or lower the amount of cells by between 20 and 80 percent as you say, does that remaining 20 percent that remains in the body still represent the risk of the AIDS does not go away?
Doctor David Ho: It still does, but this is step forward in the sense that we now have a strategy to lower this pool if indeed the study is proven correct later on.
Matt Lauer: Can you just explain a little bit ,doctor, as why, why scientists are so cautious and so careful to raise any hopes when it comes to research like this?
Doctor David Ho: Well, HIV-AIDS has been a devastating disease and the virus insinuates itself into the chromosome of the cells in the body of the infected person, so in theory it's extremely difficult to get rid of, and so scientists do not want to raise false hope, and the disease has been devastating, so, too, so many raising false hope will only add insult to entry.
Matt Lauer: As I've mentioned four patients study there. How large the study do you need before we know more about this particular technique?
Doctor David Ho: I think this study will trigger many studies and some of which will reach 50 or 100 patients to see if this observation could be confirmed.
Matt Lauer: Keep our fingers crossed Dr. David Ho. Thanks for joining us this morning.
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