AIDS Research Alliance in Los Angeles has signed a licensing agreement with Stanford University for exclusive rights to a technology developed by chemistry professor Paul Wender, PhD, and colleagues. The technology, reported in 2008 in Science, will allow AIDS researchers to synthesize the natural compound prostratin. Early tests conducted at the National Cancer Institute and ongoing preclinical studies conducted by the Alliance indicate that prostratin targets latent HIV — the virus not killed by existing anti-HIV therapies. Previously, prostratin had to be collected from natural resources — an expensive and cumbersome process. “Dr. Wender’s genius removes a major hurdle to the therapeutic development of this promising compound,” says Carolyn H. Carlburg, president and CEO of AIDS Research Alliance. The ability to produce prostratin synthetically will significantly reduce future costs, making prostratin a more viable drug candidate, she adds.
“When used in combination with existing antiretroviral drugs, prostratin may one day help treating physicians eradicate all virus from the body — a feat not yet possible using existing therapies,” adds Stephen J. Brown, MD, medical director at AIDS Research Alliance. Current therapies suppress but do not completely eradicate the virus from the body, he explains. Some viral particles lay dormant in pockets or ‘reservoirs,’ avoiding the reach of anti-HIV drugs. When treatments are interrupted, the HIV reservoir floods the body with new virus, re-igniting infection. The Alliance has been studying how to flush virus from the HIV reservoir for more than a decade. If approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, prostratin would become the first in a new class of drugs and introduce a novel treatment for HIV/AIDS, according to Carlburg.
Source: PR Web