Project Inform cited in the press
Anti-AIDS Gel Shows Promise in Early Trials—
By Randy Dotinga, HealthDay Reporter
KPHO Phoenix Channel 5
February 10, 2006
(mention of Project Inform in bold below)
FRIDAY, Feb. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers are reporting some
encouraging news on the HIV prevention front: Preliminary tests
have found no safety problems with a vaginal gel designed to keep
the AIDS virus at bay during intercourse.
The gel includes a dose of tenofovir, an AIDS drug normally given
orally to people already infected with the virus. In recent years,
scientists have been studying whether the antiviral drug can stop
the virus from infecting people in the first place.
Study findings suggest that there's reason for hope, said Dr. Willard
Cates, president of the non-profit Family Health Institute, whose
parent organization helped support the new research. "It's
past the first several hurdles, but there are major hurdles to go."
The search for an effective way to prevent HIV transmission other
than abstinence or condoms is taking on greater urgency as an AIDS
vaccine remains elusive. Researchers are also looking at giving
tenofovir (also known by the brand name Viread) to uninfected men
and women in pill form before sexual intercourse.
The researchers behind the new study recruited 84 women from Providence,
R.I.; Philadelphia; and New York City. They ranged in age from 18
to 45, and 24 were infected with HIV.
The women tried the tenofovir gel for 14 days in a row to see if
it caused any physical problems. According to the researchers, the
women didn't experience any serious side effects, although some
had itching and vaginal discharge.
The study results appear in the Feb. 28 issue of the journal AIDS.
The study wasn't designed to gauge whether the gel actually works;
those tests will come later. But studies in monkeys suggest that
the gel can prevent infection with simian immunodeficiency virus,
which is similar to AIDS but only infects monkeys.
The drug works by stopping the AIDS virus from hijacking cells
and using them to reproduce itself, said study lead author Dr. Kenneth
Mayer, an infectious-disease physician at Brown University.
The idea behind the gel is that it would get tenofovir into cells
in the vagina and protect them just like the oral version of the
drug, he said.
The next study will look at women at higher risk of getting HIV
and at the longer use of the product, Mayer said. "If the drug
gets into the tissue and stays around for a while, maybe you don't
have to take it right before you have sex. Maybe you could take
it once a day," he said.
Cates said it might even be possible that women could wear some
sort of vaginal ring containing the gel and let it stay in place
for weeks.
But Mayer cautioned that any new treatment involving a tenofovir
gel is far in the future because it will take at least three to
five years to determine if it works. "This," he said,
"is the first of many steps."
More information
Learn more about tenofovir from Project Inform (www.projectinform.org).
