Japanese Researchers Claim HIV Drug Breakthrough - 365Gay.com

Japanese Researchers Claim HIV Drug Breakthrough
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: July 7, 2005 12:01 am ET

(Tokyo) A team of Japanese researchers say they have developed a potent new drug that blocks HIV from entering human cells and causes almost no side effects.

The drug, named AK602, was unveiled at the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in Kobe on Tuesday the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The scientists, from Kumamoto University say that the the drug's main feature is that it shuts out the AIDS virus at the point when it tries to intrude into a human cell.

Current AIDS medicines often lose their effectiveness in a few days because the virus changes and develops a resistance to those drugs.

But the AK602 is different because it reacts to human cells instead of attacking the virus, Hiroaki Mitsuya the lead researcher in the study told the paper.

According to Mitsuya AK 602 sticks to a protein called CCR5 that acts as an entrance for HIV into human cells. When the new drug becomes attached to the protein, Mitsuya says, it can prevent HIV from entering, and thus stop the virus from spreading.

The paper reports that the researchers conducted clinical tests on 40 AIDS patients in the United States.

When the patients took 600 milligrams of AK602 twice a day for 10 days, the number of HIV viruses dropped to about 1 percent on average.

Almost no side effects were reported, according to Mitsuya

AK602 does not cover the entire CCR5 protein, he said. It only shuts the specific area where HIV can enter, leaving open the sections necessary for normal bodily operations.

Half of the 40 patients tested had taken other anti-AIDS drugs before, Mitsuya told the Asahi Shimbun, but those medicines were no longer effective because the virus had already developed resistance.