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New method may stop HIV spreading
By Zhang Feng (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-03-28 06:09
Chinese and American scientists have jointly discovered a way to prevent the
HIV virus spreading through the body.
Experts from the University of Science and Technology of China say that their
most important finding is a small-molecule compound.
A couple walk
before a poster promoting AIDS prevention in Beijing in this March 17,
2005 photo. Chinese and American scientists have jointly discovered a way
to prevent the HIV virus spreading through the body.
[newsphoto] | The compound can occupy a gap in a human cell ordinarily attacked by the HIV
virus, experts were quoted by China Youth Daily yesterday as saying.
Usually the HIV virus enters a cell through this gap and begins duplicating
itself immediately.
The result is that cells die and the immune system breaks down.
This finding provides a new method for further clinical research of HIV/AIDS,
said the experts.
The research was a joint undertaking by experts from the university based in
Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, and researchers from the United States.
The discovery has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical
Society, which says it is an important step on the way to developing drugs to
halt the virus.
Experts from the university said that further research work will be done in
the next three to five years.
By then a possible drug developed on the basis of the finding is expected to
enter clinical trials.
Shen Jie, director of the National Centre for AIDS/STD (sexually transmitted
disease) Control and Prevention, welcomed the breakthrough but warned that there
is still a long way to go.
Shen said that the new method needs to pass more replication tests.
For example, scientists must show that the compound can occupy the gap before
the HIV virus for an extended period.
If the process can be repeated many times not only in the laboratory of the
university but in other labs, the finding will become more reliable, Shen told
China Daily yesterday.
She said that discovering both effective treatments and vaccines against the
HIV virus will take a long time.
She said that it is encouraging that many new anti-HIV findings are coming
out of laboratories all over the world.
"A big quantity of new findings is a basis for a final and effective method,"
Shen said.
There are 16,000 new HIV cases every day, and five deaths caused by the virus
every minute across the world.
In China, the health authority estimates that there are 840,000 HIV/AIDS
sufferers including 80,000 AIDS patients.
However, among the 100,000 registered HIV/AIDS cases, only about 10,000
people are still taking free antiviral medicines dispensed by the health
authorities, said Hao Yang, deputy director of disease control at the Ministry
of Health.
Adverse side effects of present antiviral drugs are the main reason many
patients are giving up treatment, Hao said.
According to Wang Longde, vice-minister of health, several critical steps
will be taken this year to solve problems in the prevention and treatment of
HIV/AIDS in China.
One way is to establish a national database of patients' medical records to
make treatment more efficient. Disease control centres only have detailed
records of 35,000 HIV/AIDS sufferers, he said.
(China Daily 03/28/2005 page2)
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