14 DAY TRIAL // The anti-HIV virus we wrote about at the beginning of November could become one of the only solutions able to prevent the infection with the virus responsible for AIDS.
According to a statistic, women make up nearly half of all people living with HIV worldwide, and 80 percent of new cases of HIV infection in women result from heterosexual intercourse. A vaginal gel containing microbicides could be applied topically to reduce the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
The vaginal gel was tested first on monkeys by a team of researchers at the Tulane National Primate Research Center, and the results were promising, 16 of the 20 monkeys which were given microbicides resisting the infection.
Now, a new study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases and cited by Reuters, shows the efficiency of the PRO 2000 gel against HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and HSV (herpes simplex virus) on humans.
The gel contains a microbicide that inhibits the processes by which HIV attaches to and enters target cells.
The study was carried out by a team of researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York led by Dr. Betsy C. Herold, who collected vagina and cervix cells from 20 HIV-infected women before and one hour after vaginal application of 2 milliliters of the PRO 2000 gel or an inactive placebo.
The results open the way to a new pharmaceutical product, in the cells treated with PRO 2000, the HIV levels decreasing significantly.
"This trial demonstrates for the first time that a candidate microbicide is sufficiently bioavailable and retains substantial anti-HIV and anti-HSV activity after intravaginal application," Betsy Herold told Reuters.