Detection of drugs that prevent HIV from reproducing in cells

The dCA drug used in combination with existing antiviral drugs will prevent HIV reproduction and not spread to healthy cells.

On October 17, scientists at Scripps Research Institute in Florida, USA, said they found a new HIV drug called didehydro-Cortistatin A (dCA) . Accordingly, when using dCA in combination with currently used antiviral drugs can reduce viral load in the body of HIV-infected patients and prevent the virus from spreading to healthy cells.

The study was published in the Cell Reports journal after being tested on laboratory mice. Dr Susana Valente, the head of the research group, said: "There are no currently used anti-HIV drugs that can prevent the reproduction of viruses in infected cells."

dCA is expected to support HIV treatment.(Photo: Youtube).

According to the research team, this is only a " functional cure " method. This means that the HIV virus still exists in the body, functional treatment makes the virus weaken to reproduce or not be able to cause disease.

The discovery was published just a month after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that when HIV viral load falls below "detectable" levels, it is no longer possible to spread. Healthy cells.

Through studies in mice, after taking the drug above, the "undetectable" HIV viral load was twice as high as using the combination drugs still in use, which prevented the cells from HIV infection replicates itself, causing the virus to multiply.

After that, the dCA drug will put the HIV virus into a state of "hibernation". Research shows that dCA drugs can cause HIV to "hibernate" for 19 days. Meanwhile, the mice used only current drugs that caused the virus to "hibernate" for 7 days.

The Daily Mail said dCA's goal is to target the tat protein, which is the trigger for the HIV reproductive process. The team treated mice infected with HIV with daily ARV and dCA drugs for a month. The results showed that the number of viruses was reduced to "undetectable" , keeping HIV cells from regenerating more than 2 weeks after stopping the drug.

According to the team, although dCA is effective, it must combine the current standard of treatment, which is not a substitute for the anti-HIV drug currently in use.

Miami Herald quoted Dr. Paula Sparti, a retired family doctor in Miami, who has been treating HIV / AIDS patients since the 1980s, saying the study is promising for treatment. in the future.

Dr. Paula said: "People want to find something, a drug that invades and blocks the replication of the HIV virus and doesn't infect healthy cells."

The NIH Foundation, which funded the study, said the discovery was part of the next wave of anti-HIV therapies, but it is still too early to talk about the therapeutic effect in humans.