New Gel may prevent AIDS!

[3113]

A new kind of vaginal gel prevents sexual transmission of the AIDS virus in monkey studies. "...the AIDS virus gains a foothold in the vagina by taking advantage of the body's immune system. Immune responses to the virus draw T cells -- the white blood cells HIV loves to infect -- to the site of infection. Without T-cell recruitment, HIV loses its grip. That's where GML comes in. The antimicrobial agent affects immune responses and breaks the chain of events that let HIV spread through the body.

"We thought if we could modulate the immune response at the portal of HIV entry, we could block sexual transmission," Haase said. "[Colleague] Patrick Schlievert's work with GML showed that it had many properties that might block HIV expansion and systematic spread." Haase, Schlievert, and colleagues gave five rhesus macaque monkeys daily GML treatments before putting 200 infectious doses of deadly SIV -- the monkey version of HIV -- into their vaginas. Another four animals got a gel without GML. The four animals not given GML got AIDS. Those treated with GML showed no sign of infection during the short-term study, although one of the five animals showed signs of infection several months later. But just as HIV drugs with different modes of action are more effective when mixed into a drug "cocktail...."

GML is found in breast milk, Schlievert says, and it is used in many cosmetics and in medicines taken orally or used on the skin. And recent studies show that GML kills many different kinds of germs -- including vaginal yeast infections and several different sexually transmitted diseases, said Schlievert, professor of microbiology at the University of Minnesota. "GML is presently being considered as an additive to tampons because of its ability to interfere with bacterial growth, including the bacteria that cause toxic shock syndrome," Schlievert said at the news conference.

...However, Schlievert said GML has not yet been tested for long-term human use. And there's a lot more work to do with monkeys before GML gel is ready for human tests. That will have to be done before human studies of GML gel for HIV prevention.

Full story here.

 

[JackLuis]

Way cool !

Yeah, it is a long way off but it sure sounds like it might be useful.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

If people would just use condoms, AIDS could be eliminated in a single generation. It ain't all that easy to catch, yanno.

 

[3113]

If people would just use condoms, AIDS could be eliminated in a single generation. It ain't all that easy to catch, yanno.

Granted, but rapists aren't always that considerate.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

That's not that surprising. The AIDS virus is very easy to kill outside of a host, and even exposure to air will do it, which is why it can't be transmitted by sneezing or coughing. I don't know why they're messing around trying to mediate the immune response when they could just kill it chemically. I'd suppose that most contraceptive foams already on the market would kill it, and a quick post-coital douche would be pretty effective too. It's not a very viable little bug on its own. It's only once it infects a cell that it's so damned intractable.