Proleukin aldesleukin: Phase II; marketed to treat renal cell carcinoma and metastatic melanoma

NIH researchers and colleagues published in Nature Medicine a comparison of 12 HIV-1 infected patients receiving HAART and with undetectable viral loads with 14 similar patients receiving HAART plus CHIR's Proleukin IL-2. Patients on IL-2 had a significant reduction in the pool of resting CD4 T cells containing replication-competent virus (p=0.01). Virus was not detected in the T cells of 6 of the 14 IL-2 patients, while it was detected in all 12 controls. Moreover, virus could not be isolated from the T cells of 3 IL-2 patients or from the lymph nodes of 2 of those 3.

Separately, French researchers published in The Lancet a study of 94 asymptomatic HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy comparing intravenous IL-2 with subcutaneous administration of a pegylated version. Both regimens produced a significant increase in CD4 T cell counts compared to antiretroviral therapy alone (p=0.0001). A total of 68 percent and 77 percent of patients in the subcutaneous and intravenous groups, respectively, showed an 80 percent increase in CD4 T cells. ...