Potential HIV-Preventing Drug

PIE12-trimer, a new anti-HIV drug that prevents the virus from attacking human cells has been developed by a University of Utah biochemist and colleagues.

The senior author of the study and associate professor of biochemistry in the University of Utah School of Medicine, Michael S. Kay, MD, PhD is raising funds to begin animal safety studies,hopefully followed by human clinical trials in two or three years.

The research group is mainly focused on preventing the spread of the virus in Africa, continent that has already two thirds or the 33 million patients worldwide, so Dr Kay believes that PIE12-trimer would be perfect as a vaginal microbicide (topically applied drug).

He explains: “We believe that PIE12-trimer could provide a major new weapon in the arsenal against HIV/AIDS [and] because of its ability to block the virus from infecting new cells, PIE12-trimer has the potential to work as a microbicide to prevent people from contracting HIV and as a treatment for HIV infected people.

“HIV can develop resistance rapidly to existing drugs, so there is a constant need to develop new drugs in hopes of staying ahead of the virus,” he added.

The PIE12-trimer has a one-of-a-kind “resistance capacitor” that gives it a strong defense against drug-resistant viruses and it consists of three D-peptides (PIE12) that are connected and block a “pocket” on the surface of the virus without which it cannot enter the cells.

D-peptides are mirror-image versions of natural peptides that cannot be broken down, that can lead to higher potency and longevity in the body.

“Clinical trials will determine if PIE12-trimer is as effective in humans as it is in the lab,” Kay stated, according to Science Daily.

Even though in the entire world HIV has many strains and the ability to resist drugs, because of the high conservation of the pocket region across strains, PIE12-trimer was efficient against all major strains worldwide, in Southeast Asia, South America as well as in the United States and Africa.

Kay and co-authors Brett D. Welch, PhD, and Debra M. Eckert, PhD, research assistant professor of biochemistry, formed a company, Kayak Biosciences, owned by the University of Utah Research Foundation, in order to help advance research toward human clinical trials.

If the drug proves to be efficient and safe against HIV, the same D-Peptide drug design principles can be applied against other viruses, and the approval of the first D-peptide drug would also boost the development of other D-peptide drugs.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the University of Utah Research Foundation and it was published on August 18, 2010, online by the Journal of Virology.