Protein for Blocking AIDS Virus Hailed

Scientists from four major research institutions have independently confirmed in lab experiments that a synthesized protein can prevent the AIDS virus from entering immune system cells and killing them, it was reported Wednesday.

The initial discovery, announced last month by the California biomedical research company Genentech, was hailed as extremely promising by many leading AIDS researchers.

The synthesized protein, called CD4, appears to impede the ability of the AIDS virus to bind with healthy immune system cells, according to four separate papers published in the British science journal Nature by research teams from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Biogen Research Corp., both in Boston, Smith Kline & French Corp. of Pennsylvania and the Basel Institute of Immunology in Switzerland.

The scientists hope that the protein can become the basis of a drug that would be given to people who have been exposed to the virus to prevent it from replicating in their bodies.