In my (seemingly) endless wanderings around the world of Biotech/Research talking to researchers, I found another interesting little piece of information concerning AIDS treatment. Up until now most therapies have concentrated on combating HIV after it has set up an infection in the host, but now a new product in the final stages of testing in Uganda on prostitutes has shown a new way to combat the spread of HIV. This product actually uses a microbicide (PSC-RANTES) to stop the infection from even occuring.
Quick background on the way HIV enters your body. To cross the mucosal epithelium into your body to devastate your immune system, the virus needs to utilize Langerhan cells which are resident dendritic cells. Once in these cells have been infected CD4+ T cells form on the Langerhan cells and become infected, which destroys the immune cell and leads the virus into your body.
To combat this the microbicide stops the initial infection of the LC cells, so the virus cannot enter the body. The product is being developed as a vaginal gel and can be effective for several days. Let’s see if it works.
Posted by scottm at 05:50 PM