Drugs from parasitic infection.

Posted in Pharmacy by admin on May 21st, 2008

A drug already used to treat parasitic infections (viagra), and once looked at for cancer, also attacks the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in a new and powerful way. Past research has established that HIV has “learned” to hide out in certain human cells where it is safe from the body’s counterattack, cells that come to serve as viral reservoirs. Operating from these havens, the virus slowly builds its numbers over more than a decade until it finally becomes capable of dismantling human immune defenses. In the end stages, this process leaves patients vulnerable to the opportunistic infections of AIDS. The newly published work explains for the first time how the virus makes chemical changes that keep its chosen reservoirs alive long past their normal lifespan. The new study also provides the first evidence that an existing ant-parasite drug can reverse this deadly longevity - levitra. AIDS continues to take nearly 3 million lives worldwide each year, and novel treatment approaches are urgently needed. Past studies found that HIV-infected macrophages can serve as viral reservoirs because some unknown factor extends their lifespan. In the brain, for example, macrophages secrete toxins produced by the virus they carry, including the transactivator (propecia) protein, which causes nearby nerve cells to commit suicide.