Widely-used compound may provide AIDS breakthrough

06 March 2009

Researchers in the US have found that a compound widely used as an anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory agent effectively blocks infection of the non-human primate version of HIV in monkeys; a step that is being heralded as a breakthrough in developing a version that works in humans to help prevent the devastating disease that affects about 33 million people around the world.

The discovery is published as an advanced access online paper in the 4 March issue of Nature. The research was led by Dr Ashley Haase and Dr Pat Schlievert, principal and co-investigator respectively in the department of microbiology at the University of Minnesota, and colleagues.

The scientists discovered that a compound called glycerol monolaurate (GML) applied as a vaginal gel stopped transmission of the nonhuman primate version of HIV, known as SIV.

It is not a cure and the drug still has to undergo trials to prove it is effective in humans. The US Food and Drug Administration recognises that it is safe and has approved it as an anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory agent in food and cosmetics.

Haase said in a press statement, "After 25 years, an effective vaccine for HIV is still on the distant horizon, so not only vaccines, but all research into ways to prevent the continued spread of this lethal virus, remain critically important. If GML as a topical microbicide can add to our prevention, it could contribute to saving millions of lives."

That scientists would be so encouraged by two animal studies and a minor success in a human trial is a sign, in part, of how stymied they have been in two decades of trying to find a microbicide or a vaccine to stem the spread of HIV.