DTC (Imuthiol)

Project Inform has just published a fact sheet on DTC, including instructions on how to obtain and use it. For a
copy, call them at (415) 928-0293, or (800) 334-7422 in California, or (800) 822-7422 from other states. For additional background on DTC, see AIDS Treatment News, April 10 and July 3. This immune modulator, developed in France, is now being tested at San Francisco General Hospital and several other U.S. medical centers. Results of a double-
blind trial with 80 ARC patients at five French medical centers were released at the "III International Conference on AIDS", June 1-5 1987, in Washington, D.C. The drug showed clear benefit in both blood tests and clinical improvement, with almost no side effects when used properly.
The Project Inform fact sheet omits the names of companies where you can buy DTC, a common industrial chemical. According to Project Inform, the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) has warned suppliers not to sell DTC to persons with AIDS, since it has not been approved for human use. Such approval will probably take years. Meanwhile, you usually have to be a business with an appropriate reason to buy DTC. For most people, the only workable way to obtain such unapproved treatments will be through affinity or support groups (see section below). DTC costs almost nothing to use and could easily be distributed free once anyone in the group obtained a supply.
One drawback to underground use is the difficulty of making the "enteric coating" required to protect the chemical
against stomach acid--and the potential danger of making the coating improperly. Because of this difficulty, the most
successful route of administration so far has been rectal, described in the Project Inform fact sheet. But few people
have used DTC this way, so there could be problems which have not appeared yet.
An alternative to underground use of DTC is disulfiram (Antabuse), a readily available prescription drug usually used
for alcoholics. Disulfiram turns into DTC inside the body. We have heard that four persons in an unrelated drug trial did
notably better than the others, and physicians who examined their medical records found that they were being given
disulfiram for alcoholism. At this time a number of persons with AIDS or ARC, in San Francisco at least, are receiving
disulfiram through their physicians, in amounts somewhat smaller than commonly used for alcoholics. We will publish
more information as it becomes available.