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In separate developments, scientists in Britain, the US and Germany have made discoveries about HIV which promise to significantly improve the effectiveness(Of a drug or treatment). The maximum ability of a drug or treatment to produce a result regardless of dosage. A drug passes efficacy trials if it is effective at the dose tested and against the illness for which it is prescribed. In the standard procedure, Phase II clinical trials gauge efficacy, and Phase III trials confirm it. of future treatments.

The British team, working at the National Institute of Medical Research in London, say they have identified a single geneThe most basic unit of genetic information. which could hold the key to preventing HIV-positive from progressing to AIDS. Trying to determine why rhesus monkey cells are resistantHIV which has mutated and is less susceptible to the effects of one or more anti-HIV drugs is said to be resistant. to HIV, the investigators found that in monkeys, a gene called ‘Trim 5 alpha’ prevents the virus from replicating inside the cells. Only a tiny difference between the monkey Trim 5 alpha gene and its human counterpart was needed to stop HIV replication.

While urging caution about the amount of time it would take to develop a treatment, the institute’s head of virology, Dr Jonathan Stoye, said the discovery had “significant implications for the development of an effective gene therapy to combat AIDS.”

In a separate discovery, researchers at Thomas Jefferson University in the US say they have found a way to flush dormant HIV out of hiding, reopening the hope of viral eradication using current-day antiretroviralA medication or other substance which is active against retroviruses such as HIV. drugs. Dr Roger Pomerantz and his team discovered that interleukin-7, a naturally occurring immune system protein, could stimulate latent virusesA small infective organism which is incapable of reproducing outside a host cell. to leave the viral reservoirs where they lie tantalisingly out of reach of drugs.

The researchers hope that by combining IL-7 with antiretroviral drugs, the ‘turnover’ of latent virus would be increased, leading to a gradual depletion of the viral reservoirs.

Finally, German researchers say they have found a completely new target for antiretroviral drugs, an enzyme called deoxyhypusine synthase, or DHS. In test-tube experiments, they say an experimental(Of a drug) Not licensed for use in humans, or as a treatment for a particular condition. Experimental drugs are studied in clinical trials to determine their safety and efficacy, and are sometimes made available via Special Access Schemes prior to their approval. DHS inhibitor drug called CNI-1493 was able to suppress HIV in infected cell cultures by up to 98 percent.

The team says the discovery could open up a new class of anti-HIV drugs, DHS inhibitors. They say their experiments suggest that such drugs would not only be effective against HIV but unlikely to lead to resistance.