One of the primary objectives of the AIDS Program is to support research activities which will provide information that can be used to improve the therapy of AIDS. The retrovirus HTLV-III/LAV has been identified as an essential factor in the etiology of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The findings of HTLV-III/LAV prompts research to develop and evaluate specific therapy against retroviruses and their maintenance enzyme systems. Nonhuman primates have been infected with HTLV-III/LAV although none of these animals have developed the cancers or opportunistic infections characteristic of AIDS. Therefore, no suitable endpoints exist to evaluate therapies in the infected primates. However, several naturally occurring retroviral diseases exist. The retroviruses that cause these diseases have many of the same enzyme systems as HTLV-III/LAV. Presumably understanding the activity of antivirals in animals will help plan clinical trials in humans infected with HTLV-III/LAV.
