Our laboratory has been for some years reconstituting the human immune response with recombinant lymphokines in a number of immunodeficient states. These include lepromatous leprosy, Disseminated Cutaneous Leishmaniasis and HIV-1 infection. Through the use of recombinant IFN- , IL-2 and GM-CSF we have been able to improve the patients' cellular immune responses to these intracellular pathogens as well as dissect the mechanism underlying selective cellular emigration into the tissues. We believe that similar approaches applied to patients with tuberculosis alone or tuberculosis complicated by the immunodeficiency of AIDS may be beneficial. In these studies, we plan to administer recombinant human IL-2 (rhu IL-2) to patients with tuberculosis as an intradermal injection for 30 days.
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