News (Updated December 24,
2004)
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Thu Dec 23, 2004 01:23 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Lab experiments show that cells that line the mouth
become more susceptible to infection with HIV when they're exposed to alcohol.
The finding suggests that drinking alcohol may facilitate HIV infection by oral sex, say Dr. Jun-ying Zheng of the UCLA Dental Institute and colleagues.
While alcohol consumption has been linked to HIV infection, the researchers note, most studies have focused on its effect on risky sexual behavior rather than any direct effect on the mechanism of infection.
To investigate, they exposed cells from the lining or epithelium of the mouth obtained from HIV-negative individuals to various concentrations of alcohol, and then to a strain of HIV modified with green fluorescent protein in order to make the detection of infection easier.
Oral epithelial cells exposed to 4% ethanol for 10 minutes showed three- to six-fold greater susceptibility to infection with HIV strain, Zheng's team reports in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
They note that the ethanol concentrations they tested are similar to the alcohol content of beer, "the most widely consumed alcoholic beverage of Americans."
SOURCE: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, December 1, 2004.
Wednesday December 22, 02:08 PM
LONDON (AFX) - GlaxoSmithKline said it has received marketing approval from the European Commission for Kivexa, a new HIV medication. Kivexa combines two antiretrovirals in one tablet dosed once a day with no food or fluid requirements.Kivexa comprises two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), namely Epivir (lamivudine, 3TC) and Ziagen (abacavir sulfate, ABC). The drug is to treat HIV infection in combination with other antiretroviral drugs in adults and adolescents over 12 years of age. jsa
Tuesday December 21, 9:48 AM
Two drug companies announced Monday they will collaborate on developing the first all-in-one, one-a-day pill to treat HIV infection _ a long-sought goal that would make it much easier for patients to stick with their medication.
Currently, the best AIDS treatment requires patients to take two to four pills a day. Less than a decade ago, many patients had to take 25 to 30 pills a day, often at precise times and under specific conditions such as with food, making it extremely difficult for patients to stick to the complex schedule. Missing doses makes it easier for the virus to mutate and become resistant to medication.
In the first collaboration by competing AIDS drug makers, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Gilead Sciences Inc. formed a joint venture to test and market a single pill combining three widely used medicines.
Because the three individual drugs already are on the market, the once-a-day combination could be approved and on sale as early as the second half of 2006, said David Rosen, a spokesman for Bristol-Myers Squibb.
"To have it all in a single pill is terrific," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The Associated Press.
The combination pill will be made up of Sustiva, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb, and two AIDS drugs made by Gilead Sciences: Viread and Emtriva.
The latter two drugs are members of the same class of AIDS drugs, but they block copying of the AIDS virus at two different points early in its replication cycle. Sustiva is from a different class of drugs and attacks the virus later in the cycle.
The pill is for people diagnosed HIV-positive who have never taken HIV medicines before.
The two companies will have to find a way to combine the component drugs so that the single pill is absorbed the same way, has identical effects, lasts in the body as long and has the same shelf life, said Robert Lipper, vice president of biopharmaceutics research and development at Bristol-Myers.
"It's the first time ever that two companies with competing products have worked together," said Dr. Michael Saag, director of the AIDS Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "This is something patient advocates and a lot of physicians have been pushing for for over a decade."
Fauci said: "We hope it's the beginning of future collaborations."
The three drugs, which are already becoming the treatment of choice, together cost $900 to $1,000 a month. Rosen said it is too soon to say how much the single pill will cost.
The combination does not include a protease inhibitor, a class of drug that has been standard in recent years but that also carries many side effects.
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AP Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this story.