Aids virus syringe is designed to protect against HIV

AIDS virus: Syringe can protect you from HIV for months

08/03/2014

New advances are constantly being made in HIV research. Now researchers have found that a new syringe could protect people at risk from infection for months on end. Another study found out a long time ago that a tablet could greatly reduce the risk of virus transmission.

Depot syringe could protect for several months
Prophylactic pre-emptive medication may protect people at risk of HIV infection, such as Aids patients, from getting infected. But they would have to take tablets every day, as researchers to David Ho of Rockefeller University in New York in the journal „Science“ write. In the long term, however, many would not be able to persevere and if taken irregularly, the effectiveness of prophylaxis would suffer considerably. The protection could therefore be significantly improved by a depot spray for several months, at least until there is an effective HIV vaccine. The scientists tested the drug GSK744, which is similar to the recently approved HIV drug dolutegravir. The substance inhibits a virus enzyme and prevents the pathogen from multiplying.

Tests on monkeys were effective
The drug was administered to eight macaques twice at intervals of four weeks, and then each week they were given a dose of SHIV, a virus type that contains parts of the HI virus and the monkey pathogen SIV. The researchers did not detect any infection in any of the animals in the next few weeks. On the other hand, all of the control animals that did not receive the remedy were infected. In a second experiment it was determined how long the effect of the syringe stops. As expected, the protection decreased with decreasing concentration of the drug in the plasma and so on average the animals became infected after about ten weeks. Because the remedy is rapidly degraded in monkeys, the researchers assume that the effect lasts longer in humans. You write that for effective protection one syringe will suffice every three months.

Currently the most exciting of HIV prevention studies
According to a report from „Science“-Correspondent Jon Cohen, said virologist Robert Grant of the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the investigation: „This is the most exciting thing I know about HIV prevention studies right now.“ But even a depot preparation such as GSK744 must be administered countless times in the course of a lifetime, Philip Johnson of Children's Hospital in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) said. He himself would work on a gene therapy in which a virus is genetically modified so that it constantly forms an antibody against HIV. „Our goal is: an injection, a meeting, and that's it.“

Combi-pill reduces HIV transmission by up to 73 percent
Another investigation gives hope. For example, studies in Uganda, Kenya and Botswana have shown that the risk of HIV transmission in couples is reduced by up to 73 percent if the healthy partner takes a combination pill containing tenofovir and emtricitabine on a daily basis. This was announced years ago by the United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The risk of infection was still down to 62 percent, if the tablets only Tenofovir included. UNAIDS Director Michel Sidibé said: „This is a great scientific breakthrough that reaffirms the vital role antiretroviral drugs play in AIDS control.“ In the research language, this new type of HIV prevention is called PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis). The aim is to treat people who are not infected with HIV against the possibility of contagion with antiretroviral drugs. These funds are also given to HIV patients. „These studies could have a tremendous impact on the heterosexual transmission of HIV“, WHO chief Margaret Chan. „The World Health Organization will work with each country to apply the new research for the protection of men and women.“

WHO warns about weighing tablets in safety
The „International Clinical Research Center“ The University of Washington had started its study in the summer of 2008 with 4,758 couples, one of which was infected with HIV. All participants were given detailed advice and received condoms for men and women. Of the healthy participants, one part took the antiretroviral drugs and the other part received placebos. Forty-seven of the placebo participants had been infected by the end of May 2011, but only 18 out of those taking tenofovir and 13 in combination with tenofovir and emtricitabine. At the same time, UNAIDS and WHO warned against being safe with tablets: „No single method completely protects against HIV.“ The drugs would have to be combined with other methods such as condoms or medical male circumcision.

Second baby released from HIV
Also pleasing is the announcement from a few days ago that doctors have succeeded in releasing a newborn baby from HIV. This was after the now three-year-old first healed HIV-infected child, which was also known under the name Mississippi baby, the second case. Successful, relatively high-dose drug treatment was initiated as early as possible. It is a girl born at the Miller Children's Hospital in Long Beach, California, whose mother is suffering from advanced AIDS. (Ad)

Image: Henrik Gerold Vogel