DRUGS used to treat HIV may also prove useful in combating cancer. This hope is raised by the discovery that HIV drugs, in particular the protease inhibitor nelfinavir, encourage the thymus gland to crank up its production of naive T-cells. These cells help marshal the immune system’s fightback against bacteria, viruses and cancer cells that the body has never encountered before.
Researchers had previously noticed that some people taking drugs to combat HIV infection produce more T-cells, but it was thought that the infection itself was responsible. Now immunologist David McKean of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues…
