The UCLA Office for Protection of Research Subjects is investigating the possible connection of two UCLA researchers with controversial malariotherapy HIV research being conducted in China by the Heimlich Institute. Steven Peckman, associate director of Human Research Subjects for the OPRS at UCLA, received an anonymous e-mail in early October of this year requesting an inquiry as to whether or not Drs. John Fahey and Najib Aziz of the UCLA AIDS Institute were involved in researching malariotherapy – which involves the injection of human HIV patients with a curable form of malaria. A UCLA statement released Wednesday said Fahey “did not collaborate on the malaria studies” and that “any claims of association with UCLA are inaccurate.” The Institutional Review Board of the UCLA OPRS is responsible for reviewing all research protocol and allegations involving the use of human and animal subjects, according to Peckman. “It’s not a concern of ours whether it’s threatening to (UCLA’s reputation) or not,” Peckman said. “The charge of our office is to ensure the rights and welfare of our subjects in research.” The Institutional Review Board of the OPRS has been reviewing the allegations since October and is expected to be completed within the next three to four weeks, Peckman said. Malariotherapy treatment has been discouraged by the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. The CDC issued a public health warning against malariotherapy for HIV treatment in April 1993. According to the fall 1999 issue of “Caring World,” the Heimlich Institute’s online fundraising newsletter, Fahey requested to join the Heimlich Institute, a non-profit organization based in Cincinnati, Ohio, in its malariotherapy experiments in 1996. “UCLA intends to ask Dr. (Henry J.) Heimlich to omit UCLA from all references relating to the malaria studies or other Heimlich Institute research,” according to the UCLA statement. The Heimlich Institute refused to comment. In December 1999, Dr. Xiao Ping Chen published a medical paper titled “Phase-1 Studies of Malariotherapy for HIV Infection” in the Chinese Medical Sciences Journal. The paper, which was co-authored by Heimlich, president of the Heimlich Institute, states that “levels of soluble immune factors in serum ... were measured by ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbant assay) in the University of California at Los Angeles, U.S.A.” The paper also acknowledged Fahey “for providing a part of financial support, suggestions, and comments.” According to the UCLA statement, Fahey and Aziz “helped to train Dr. Chen Xiao Ping of the People’s Republic of China ... on how to conduct and evaluate AIDS research studies,” and that this “was performed under the auspices of the UCLA/Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program.” “Dr. Fahey was not a co-author and did not collaborate on the malaria studies,” the statement said. Chen, who is in China, was not available for comment. The Fogarty program offers a three-month visiting-scholars course to select researchers from leading AIDS control programs and universities in developing countries. The goal for the program is to train these scientists in AIDS research so they can help control the epidemic when they return home. The Heimlich Institute’s newsletter also stated Fahey visited Chen and malariotherapy patients in China in the late 1990s. However, a standard part of the UCLA/Fogarty program is to follow-up in the scholars’ own countries, according to a second UCLA statement released Thursday.

Malariotherapy background

Heimlich, founder of the famed Heimlich Maneuver, proposed malariotherapy as a treatment for HIV in the early ’90s. He claimed high fevers induced by malaria could restore and stimulate the weakened immune system of a patient with HIV. HIV cannot be directly combated with drugs that intend to prevent viral reproduction due to the virus’ mutable nature. Malariotherapy suggests an indirect means of treatment through the increased production of immune cells stimulated by the malaria virus. Following Heimlich’s propositions, experiments have been carried out on human subjects in China. HIV patients are injected with a curable form of malaria, resulting in fevers of over 100 degrees for three weeks before the malaria is cured. However, the IRB approval that Heimlich obtained for these experiments was questioned by the Food and Drug Administration. The Heimlich Institute first received IRB approval from the Great Lakes College of Clinical Medicine for its experiments. In March 2000, the FDA issued a warning letter to the GLCCM for IRB procedural failures and prohibited the institution’s IRB from approving new studies. GLCCM ceased operation in March 2001. However, the institute’s Web site still states that approval has been obtained for its malariotherapy experiments. Heimlich has actively fundraised and promoted his research and affiliation to UCLA through his “Caring World” newsletter and in an interview in the United States, but his research has been conducted outside U.S. borders. The Heimlich Institute Web site states that “the U.S. is not a suitable country for malariotherapy studies at this time because malaria is not readily available.” According to an article in the L.A. Times in October 1994, Heimlich also promoted malariotherapy in the 1980s as a treatment for Lyme disease, an arthritis-like disorder caused by a tick bite. American patients with Lyme disease were brought to Mexico to receive malariotherapy treatment, the article says. Patients were injected with malaria-infected blood and experienced high fevers and the symptoms of malaria. No information on the benefits of malariotherapy for Lyme disease can currently be found on The Heimlich Institute Web site. Malariotherapy was used in the United States from 1931 to 1965 for the treatment of neurosyphilis, a form of syphilis which attacks the brain. Drugs or antibiotics were ineffective toward neurosyphilis because of the “blood-brain barrier” that prevented medication from reaching the brain tissue. This treatment was discontinued in 1975 in the United States with the introduction of more effective antibiotics and the near eradication of the disease.