New Drug To Overcome HIV
Tags: New Drug To Overcome HIV
REVOLUTIONARY drug that could help overcome HIV's growing resistance to existing antiviral drugs is about to be tested in combination with standard antivirals. Called PA-457, it is the first of a new class of anti-HIV compounds called maturation inhibitors. The drug is still in its early stages, and will not be generally available for at least three years.
Up to 80 per cent of HIV positive people on treatment show resistance to one or more of their drugs, according to Graham Allaway of Panacos Pharmaceuticals in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which is developing PA-457. Panacos hopes to begin trials this month to test how well the drug works in patients whose existing drug regimes are failing. PA-457 aims to overcome this resistance by attacking HIV on new front. Many existing drugs work by blocking reverse transcriptase, an enzyme that enables HIV to replicate within cell. Others disable protease, which helps to assemble the virus into particles that infect other cells.
Recent experiments in collaboration with Michael Sakalian and his colleagues at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City have shown that PA-457 works in a different way. It attacks HIV by disrupting formation of a conical shield, called the capsid protein, which stores and protects the RNA heart of the HIV particles as they bud out from infected cells.
The latest research, in which the virus was examined under a microscope, shows that the drug binds to the capsid protein at a crucial stage in its manufacture (Journal of Virology, vol 80, p 5716). Normally, the capsid protein is clipped apart from a major structural protein called the gag protein, and is then assembled into a cone. PA-457 stops it being clipped off, causing it to form a leaky sphere that leaves the core RNA exposed (see Diagram, left). This cripples the virus, preventing it from infecting any other cells once it buds out from the host.
The trial planned for this month is intended to discover how the drug performs as part of a combination treatment with other anti-HIV drugs, which is a more realistic situation. Fortyeight patients whose existing drug regimes are failing will receive either PA-457 or a placebo in addition to their standard drugs. There are plans to try the drug along with new regimes tailored to individual patients, though Allaway warns that larger trials are needed and PA-457 will not reach the market until 2009 at the earliest.
Up to 80 per cent of HIV positive people on treatment show resistance to one or more of their drugs, according to Graham Allaway of Panacos Pharmaceuticals in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which is developing PA-457. Panacos hopes to begin trials this month to test how well the drug works in patients whose existing drug regimes are failing. PA-457 aims to overcome this resistance by attacking HIV on new front. Many existing drugs work by blocking reverse transcriptase, an enzyme that enables HIV to replicate within cell. Others disable protease, which helps to assemble the virus into particles that infect other cells.
Recent experiments in collaboration with Michael Sakalian and his colleagues at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City have shown that PA-457 works in a different way. It attacks HIV by disrupting formation of a conical shield, called the capsid protein, which stores and protects the RNA heart of the HIV particles as they bud out from infected cells.
The latest research, in which the virus was examined under a microscope, shows that the drug binds to the capsid protein at a crucial stage in its manufacture (Journal of Virology, vol 80, p 5716). Normally, the capsid protein is clipped apart from a major structural protein called the gag protein, and is then assembled into a cone. PA-457 stops it being clipped off, causing it to form a leaky sphere that leaves the core RNA exposed (see Diagram, left). This cripples the virus, preventing it from infecting any other cells once it buds out from the host.
The trial planned for this month is intended to discover how the drug performs as part of a combination treatment with other anti-HIV drugs, which is a more realistic situation. Fortyeight patients whose existing drug regimes are failing will receive either PA-457 or a placebo in addition to their standard drugs. There are plans to try the drug along with new regimes tailored to individual patients, though Allaway warns that larger trials are needed and PA-457 will not reach the market until 2009 at the earliest.
Tags: New Drug To Overcome HIV
posted by raje at 9:04 AM
1 Comments:
I think its good to know that there are groups of medicine experts who continuously studying the treatments for killer diseases like the HIV. I am not an HIV patient I am just happy for those infected by these virus. Keep it up! Xtreme NO
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