Expel HIV under the gun
The drug for alcoholism turned out to be promising in HIV therapy
Scientists engaged in the search for a method of treating HIV infection have found that the drug disulfiram used in the treatment of alcoholism is able to activate the virus, "sleeping" in cells, for its subsequent destruction with antiretroviral drugs. The results of the work were published in The Lancet (Elliott et al., Short-term administration of disulfiram for reversal of latent HIV infection: a phase 2 dose-escalation study).
The ability of disulfiram to activate HIV transcription was discovered in laboratory experiments. To confirm their discovery, the scientists conducted a pilot study with an increase in dose.
The clinical trials involved 30 patients undergoing antiretroviral therapy in clinics in Melbourne and San Francisco. In all participants, the HIV RNA level was less than 50 copies/ml, and the CD4 index exceeded 350 cells/ml. Patients were randomized into three groups and received 500, 1000 or 2000 mg of disulfiram for 3 days.
According to the data obtained, after administration of the drug, patients experienced a jump in the level of viral load, which indicates the activation of the virus. It is emphasized that disulfiram was well tolerated by patients. Also, no serious side effects of the drug were noted during the CI.
Currently used antiretroviral drugs prevent the replication of the virus in cells of the immune system that have CD4 receptors on their surface. Nevertheless, the viral genome remains in a "dormant" state in the cells of the immune system, which form the so-called "viral reservoir". In case of discontinuation of antiretroviral drugs, HIV replication resumes and the disease leading to the development of AIDS begins to progress. Currently, a promising direction in the search for treatment of HIV infection is the study of methods of forced activation of viruses "sleeping" in cells.
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18.11.2015