Gel shows promise in HIV fight
Source: Agencies |
January 7, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AN experimental gel protected female monkeys from the AIDS virus in a test designed to mimic human sexual transmission, according to researchers in the United States.
The gel uses an AIDS drug along with a zinc compound and protected all animals tested from infection with the monkey version of HIV, the researchers report in the Public Library of Science open-source journal PLoS ONE.
It "afforded full protection (21 of 21 animals) for up to 24 hours after two weeks of daily application," they wrote.
The gel uses a very small amount of active drug and thus might be safe and cheap, said the Population Council in New York, which led the study.
The study joins a growing body of experiments that are beginning to show progress in preventing AIDS, a fatal and incurable virus that infects 33 million people globally and which has killed 25 million.
Melissa Robbiani of the Population Council, who worked with the National Cancer Institute and other laboratories to test the gel, is hoping to test it on people.
In July, researchers stunned AIDS experts when they found a similar gel using the Gilead Sciences AIDS drug tenofovir reduced HIV infections in women by 39 percent over two and a half years.
Non-profit groups are moving ahead to develop that gel and the US Food and Drug Administration has given it fast-track designation.
"It is like a positive domino effect," said Bethany Young Holt, director of the Coalition Advancing Multipurpose Innovations, a women's health research and advocacy group and an expert on microbicides - gels, creams or other products that protect against infection.
A microbicide could help protect against HIV while allowing a woman to get pregnant, and, if necessary, she could use the product without letting her partner know.
The gel uses an AIDS drug along with a zinc compound and protected all animals tested from infection with the monkey version of HIV, the researchers report in the Public Library of Science open-source journal PLoS ONE.
It "afforded full protection (21 of 21 animals) for up to 24 hours after two weeks of daily application," they wrote.
The gel uses a very small amount of active drug and thus might be safe and cheap, said the Population Council in New York, which led the study.
The study joins a growing body of experiments that are beginning to show progress in preventing AIDS, a fatal and incurable virus that infects 33 million people globally and which has killed 25 million.
Melissa Robbiani of the Population Council, who worked with the National Cancer Institute and other laboratories to test the gel, is hoping to test it on people.
In July, researchers stunned AIDS experts when they found a similar gel using the Gilead Sciences AIDS drug tenofovir reduced HIV infections in women by 39 percent over two and a half years.
Non-profit groups are moving ahead to develop that gel and the US Food and Drug Administration has given it fast-track designation.
"It is like a positive domino effect," said Bethany Young Holt, director of the Coalition Advancing Multipurpose Innovations, a women's health research and advocacy group and an expert on microbicides - gels, creams or other products that protect against infection.
A microbicide could help protect against HIV while allowing a woman to get pregnant, and, if necessary, she could use the product without letting her partner know.
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