CONTACTStaffCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2024 Pride Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
Offering a promising new way to attack HIV, research on monkeys suggests that an experimental drug helps keep HIV in check by blocking an enzyme that is crucial to infection. The target is integrase, an HIV enzyme that the virus needs to hijack a patient's cells and spread. Repeated attempts to inhibit integrase's function and stall the virus have failed. But Merck researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science that they have developed an integrase inhibitor that significantly protected monkeys when given early in infection and provided some benefit to the very sick as well. Merck is now studying some integrase inhibitor candidates in a handful of people to see whether the pills seem safe and to check for any early signs of viral suppression. Results, due early next year, will determine whether larger studies should be performed on any of the prospective inhibitors. Far more research is needed, but the monkey results have leading AIDS researchers watching closely to see whether it might finally be possible to attack integrase. Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, cautioned that he wasn't "doing cartwheels over this," but said, "This is the next step in the process that the field, myself included, has been looking for for some time now. It's a very important target." Integrase is crucial to the melding of HIV genes with patients' own DNA. Fauci said that step is key to HIV's sneakiest trait--its ability to hide inside cells so it can rebound after therapy. But blocking integrase has proved notoriously difficult. Just last year GlaxoSmithKline and Japan's Shionogi abandoned one experimental integrase inhibitor after initial human studies, going back to the lab to search for stronger candidates. Merck researchers gave their candidate, code-named L-879812, to six monkeys newly infected with a combination monkey-human version of HIV. The animals experienced only a mild decrease in crucial immune cells called CD4s, and four had their virus drop to undetectable levels, lead researchers Daria Hazuda and Steven Young report. In contrast, six untreated monkeys saw their CD4-cell levels plummet and viral levels soar. Almost three months later Hazuda treated those monkeys, who by then had become very ill. All improved somewhat but didn't rebound nearly as well or for as long as the newly infected monkeys. Hazuda said drug-caused viral suppression apparently worked more in concert with a monkey's immune system when it hadn't yet been ravaged, allowing the body a greater capacity to fight back. (AP)
Want more breaking equality news & trending entertainment stories?
Check out our NEW 24/7 streaming service: the Advocate Channel!
Download the Advocate Channel App for your mobile phone and your favorite streaming device!
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
Meet all 37 of the queer women in this season's WNBA
April 17 2024 11:24 AM
Here are the 15 gayest travel destinations in the world: report
March 26 2024 9:23 AM
21+ steamy photos of Scotland’s finest gay men in Elska Glasgow
February 01 2024 10:07 PM
More Than 50 of Our Favorite LGBTQ+ Moms
May 12 2024 11:44 AM
Conjoined twins Lori Schappell and trans man George Schappell dead at 62
April 27 2024 6:13 PM
Latest Stories
Kamala Harris rides wave of Democratic energy at kickoff event in Wisconsin
July 23 2024 3:36 PM
'Devastated:' A six-week abortion ban will go into effect in Iowa next week
July 23 2024 2:28 PM
Four hours, 44,000 Black women, and one Zoom call
July 23 2024 2:17 PM
Record 1.2 million people show out for Cologne’s Pride parade
July 23 2024 10:51 AM
Here's how far-right activist Leonard Leo helped fund Bud Light boycott
July 23 2024 10:27 AM
Elon Musk’s comments about his trans daughter prove why she doesn’t speak to him
July 23 2024 9:16 AM
Nancy Pelosi endorses Kamala Harris for president
July 22 2024 4:07 PM
Charli XCX declares Kamala Harris IS brat & our next President's campaign agrees
July 22 2024 3:08 PM
Pete Buttigieg roasts JD Vance and his gay tech bro billionaire
July 22 2024 1:42 PM