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Daily pill can prevent HIV infection

Last Updated on Thursday, 14 July 2011 11:36 Written by admin Thursday, 14 July 2011 11:36

The partners of people who have HIV can protect themselves from infection by taking a once-daily pill, two groundbreaking studies in Botswana, Kenya and Uganda have shown.

The discovery could bring work to combat Aids close to a “tipping point”, experts say. Attempts to promote condom use to protect against HIV in the hardest-hit parts of the world, and particularly Africa, have hit cultural barriers and had limited success.

But now it appears that men or women who know – or suspect – their partner has HIV could protect themselves, secretly if necessary. The larger study, involving 4,758 “discordant” couples (where one has HIV but the other has not) in Kenya and Uganda, led by the University of Washington’s International Clinical Research Centre, shows that those taking a single daily tablet of the Aids drug tenofovir had 62% fewer infections and those who took a pill combining tenofovir and emtricitabine had 73% fewer infections than those who took a placebo pill.

The drugs have few side-effects, which is important if they are to be given to healthy individuals. Both are made by Gilead, which has licensed their manufacture to generic companies in the developing world, allowing them to produce cheap copies – so this is a relatively inexpensive intervention.

“This study demonstrates that antiretrovirals are a highly potent and fundamental cornerstone for HIV prevention and should become an integral part of global efforts for HIV prevention,” said Dr Connie Celum, professor of global health and medicine at the university and principal investigator of the study, known as the Partners PrEP Study, which was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The second study in Botswana was conducted by the United States Centres for Disease Control. It followed 1,200 heterosexual men and women without HIV who received either a once-daily tenofovir/emtricitabine tablet or a placebo pill. The antiretroviral tablet reduced the risk of acquiring HIV infection by roughly 63% overall.

“This is a major scientific breakthrough which re-confirms the essential role that antiretroviral medicine has to play in the Aids response,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids). “These studies could help us to reach the tipping point in the HIV epidemic.”

The news follows hard on the heels of another very significant finding – that people with HIV who are taking combinations of antiretroviral drugs not only stay healthy themselves but are unlikely to infect their partner.

The two pieces of research give a massive boost to the cause of rolling out more Aids drugs and treating people at the earliest stage of their illness.

“Effective new HIV prevention tools are urgently needed, and these studies could have enormous impact in preventing heterosexual transmission,” said Dr Margaret Chan, WHO’s director general. “WHO will be working with countries to use the new findings to protect more men and women from HIV infection.”

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/14/hiv-daily-pill-breakthrough

Posted under Antibiotics, Cell Analysis, Discoveries, Innovations and Patents, Drug Development, HIV Research, Medicinal Chemistry, New Drugs, New Products, Press Releases, R & D, Reports  |  Comments Off

Could Starfish Inspire New Cure for Inflammation?

Last Updated on Monday, 13 December 2010 05:25 Written by Editor Monday, 13 December 2010 05:25

Lurking in the seas of Scotland is an unlikely candidate for a medical breakthrough.

But scientists believe the starfish could hold the key to finding a new treatment for inflammatory conditions such as asthma, hay fever and arthritis.

The species they are interested in is the spiny starfish (Marthasterias glacialis), and in particular the slimy goo that covers its body.

The team says that chemicals in this coating could inspire new medicines.
Diver with starfish The spiny starfish can be found on the west coast of Scotland

While most man-made structures that are placed in the water rapidly get caked with a mixture of marine life, starfish manage to keep their surface clear.

Dr Charlie Bavington, from GlycoMar, a marine biotechnology company based at the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban, explained: “Starfish live in the sea, and are bathed in a solution of bacteria, larvae, viruses and all sorts of things that are looking for somewhere to live.

“But starfish are better than Teflon: they have a very efficient anti-fouling surface that prevents things from sticking.”

And it is this non-stick property that has grabbed medical scientists’ attention, particularly in the field of inflammation.

Inflammation is the body’s natural response to an injury or infection, but inflammatory conditions are caused when the immune system begins to rage out of control.

White blood cells, which normally flow easily through our blood vessels, begin to build up and stick to the blood vessel wall, and this can cause tissue damage.

The idea is that a treatment based on starfish slime could effectively coat our blood vessels in the same way the goo covers the marine creature, and prevent this problem.

Dr Bavington said: “It is a very similar situation to something sticking to a starfish in the sea.

“These cells have to stick from a flowing medium to a blood vessel wall, so we thought we could learn something from how starfish prevent this so we could find a way to prevent this in humans.”

While many inflammatory conditions can be effectively treated, for example with steroids, these drugs can often cause unwanted side effects.
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But scientists at King’s College London (KCL) think starfish could offer a better solution, and they have been analysing the chemicals in the creature’s non-stick slime.

Clive Page, professor of pharmacology at KCL, said: “The starfish have effectively done a lot of the hard work for us.

“Normally when you are trying to find a new drug to go after a particular target in human beings, you have to screen hundreds of molecules to find something that will give you a lead.

“The starfish is effectively providing us with something that is giving is different leads: it has had billions of years in evolution to come up with molecules that do specific things.”

Having identified promising compounds, the team is now working on creating their own versions of them in the laboratory. They want to create a treatment that is inspired by starfish goo rather than one that is made from it.

Professor Page said: “Conceptually we know this is the right approach.

“It’s not going to happen tomorrow afternoon, but we are learning all the time from nature about how to find new medicines.”

While the starfish-based cure might be some years off, the race to explore the oceans for its medical potential is only just beginning.
Spiny starfish Starfish could be one of many marine creatures to inspire new medicines

A sea snail has already formed the basis of a new painkiller, and scientists are starting to look at a whole range of marine life, from sea cucumbers to seaweed.

Dr David Hughes, an ecologist from the Scottish Association for Marine Science, explained: “Some of the most widespread, widely used medicines come from nature.

“Penicillin is a mould that grows on bread, aspirin comes from willow trees, so it’s not too surprising turning to nature to find useful drugs. But we’ve only very recently begun to look to the sea for a useful source of medicines.”

And with the oceans covering nearly three quarters of the Earth’s surface, scientists have likened the deep to an untapped underwater pharmacy.

Dr Hughes told the BBC: “There is such a huge diversity of animals and plants living in the oceans and very few of them have been tested and investigated in any way.

“We know marine animals and plants produce a huge range of compounds, sometimes very different compounds from those produced by animals and plants on land.

“So many might have useful properties that could be brought into medicine and other medicinal applications.”

Source: BBC.com

Posted under Antibiotics, Discoveries, Innovations and Patents, Drug Development, Europe, Europe, New Drugs  |  Comments Off

Unique Fungal Collection Could Hold Key To Future Antibiotics

Last Updated on Monday, 4 February 2008 04:53 Written by Fred Monday, 4 February 2008 04:53

Scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London have joined forces with CABI to establish a facility to screen for potential new antibiotics. The aim of the project is to build a highly focused natural products drug discovery operation that will address the urgent need for bringing new antibiotic compounds to market.

Since their discovery, antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents have saved millions of lives and significantly eased patients’ suffering. However, over time, micro-organisms have developed resistance to existing antibiotics making infections difficult, if not impossible, to treat. The recent appearance of multiple-resistant bacterial infections has radically increased the necessity for new antibiotic discovery.

As part of a three-year programme, the joint research facility will utilise CABI’s unique collection of fungi gathered from all parts of the world, to screen for potential new antibiotics. Although the first natural product antibiotic to be used clinically, penicillin, was isolated from a fungus, these organisms have not been as extensively evaluated as bacteria as sources of new drugs for treating infections and so there is great potential for discovery in CABI’s 28,000 organism collection.

Furthermore, over the past 25 years companies have concentrated on using chemistry-based approaches to modify recognised antibiotic structures. However, the use of natural products, from fungi, which have evolved from millions of years of competition against bacteria is likely to lead to products with new modes of antibiotic action that disease-causing bacteria cannot counter. This new joint facility aims to harness these natural chemical compounds from fungi to offer potential new antibiotics. Similarly, compounds that have proven health benefits when taken in the diet (so-called nutraceuticals) are also likely to be found in fungi and the new joint research facility will also screen the collection for new nutraceuticals.

Professor Peter Bramley and Dr Paul Fraser in the School of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway and Dr Trevor Nicholls, CEO and Dr Joan Kelley Executive Director of CABI are managing the project. Professor Bramley and Dr Fraser’s extensive experience in molecular biology and analytical methodologies will be applied to state-of-the-art screening techniques for the discovery of new compounds and the manipulation, recombination and expression of their biosynthetic pathways to bioengineer new, related compounds. Dr Nicholls’ experience in the biotechnology industry and Dr Kelley’s expertise and knowledge of mycology and biodiversity will direct the research to identify strains which are likely to be more biochemically diverse and commercially valuable for screening.

Professor Bramley commented, “This joint initiative lays the foundations for a long term collaboration with potential strategic benefits, both research and commercial. A major focus will be the search for new antibiotics and nutraceuticals, for which there is now increasing commercial, nutritional and medical demand.”

Dr Trevor Nicholls, CEO CABI added, “This is a really exciting partnership and we are looking forward to working with the expertise of the scientists at Royal Holloway. We are hopeful that our collaboration will prove the winning formula for discovering new drugs to fight cancers, diseases and resistant strains of infections such as MRSA.”

The joint facility is located in the Royal Holloway’s School of Biosciences and houses a new state-of-the-art mass spectrometer. As part of this collaboration, two technicians will be employed and a PhD studentship funded.

Royal Holloway has also obtained early stage seed fund investment from the London Development Agency backed WestFocus PARK Fund, to commercialise any potential new discoveries emerging from this project. The project team will work closely with the Research & Enterprise department at Royal Holloway to protect, manage and exploit any new intellectual property.

About CABI

CABI is a not-for-profit organisation that provides information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment. Its mission and direction is influenced by its 45 member countries who help guide the activities undertaken as a business. These include scientific publishing, projects and consultancy, information for development and mycological services.

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