Reaching for a Cure: HIV and AIDS

Anti-HIV Microbicide Gel Has Potential to Prevent HIV Transmission in Women

What is a microbicide?

A microbicide is a product, such as a gel or a cream, that could be applied topically to genital surfaces to prevent or significantly reduce the transmission of HIV and other disease-causing organisms during sexual intercourse. Microbicides could also take other forms, including suppositories, and slow-releasing sponges or vaginal rings. Safe and effective microbicides will help women substantially reduce their vulnerability to HIV infection during sexual intercourse. A safe and effective microbicide has not yet been found, but many substances are being tested and nearly a dozen microbicides have entered human testing.

. A new study from infectious disease researchers at The Miriam Hospital and Brown Medical School have found that a drug given orally to treat HIV is also safe when applied as a vaginal microbicide gel. Microbicides are designed to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and may be formulated as vaginal gels, foams, creams or suppositories.

“The results of this study may change the way the research community looks at developing safe and effective microbicides,” says lead author Kenneth Mayer, MD, an infectious disease specialist at The Miriam Hospital and professor of medicine and community health at Brown Medical School. “Analyzing the compounds that already have been shown to be successful HIV treatment drugs, and evaluating them for their potential to prevent transmission of infection is an innovative approach that shows great promise.”

Published in the February 28, 2006 issue of the journal AIDS, the multi-site study suggests that as a vaginal gel, tenofovir produced mild or no side effects in both HIV positive and HIV negative women. Tenofovir is the active ingredient in the antiretroviral drug Viread.

Currently, no microbicide has been approved for widespread use. The tenofovir study was a safety and product acceptability study and did not evaluate if the microbicide would be effective in preventing the transmission of HIV in women. Expanded safety and effectiveness testing is needed.

“The data will pave the way for further studies that will ultimately evaluate whether the gel protects women from HIV infection,” says co-author Lisa Maslankowski, MD, medical director of the HIV prevention research division at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. “As the first investigational microbicide to contain an antiretroviral agent, tenofovir gel can prevent HIV from replicating, unlike other microbicides which have been designed to block HIV entry into cells, or have other mechanisms of action.”

How a microbicide could work to prevent HIV >>

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