One of the most interesting reports from CROI 2008 described new types of drug delivery using "nano-technology." While scientists have been experimenting with such approaches for a number of years, presentations at CROI showed that this technology is much closer than previously believed.
Nano-technology offers the possibility of treatments taken only once every few weeks or even once every two months. This would usher in a whole new paradigm of HIV treatment, one that makes even today's "one pill once a day" regimens seem primitive and intrusive. Scientists revealed this approach using a number of different currently available drugs. Still, obstacles remain before anyone can expect to order an HIV nano-drug at the local pharmacy.
The term nano has become part of the language in many areas of science, including biology and drug development. It entered the public consciousness mostly through science fiction, associated with hordes of self-replicating tiny robots that either help or destroy human kind. In the real world, is simply refers to things that are very tiny. Nano is simply a term of measurement, very much like the "centi" in centimeter (one hundredth of a meter). In the simplest terms, nano means one-billionth of some measure. Scientists have shown the ability to make tiny but functional mechanisms and processes that operate on the nano scale, including drug delivery.
Tibotec, who already brought two new HIV drugs to market in the last year, revealed an encouraging approach. They have a third drug, rilpivarine (TMC-278), moving toward FDA approval. It was with this drug that they showed their new nano-technology. Rilpivarine is a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI), in the same class as Sustiva (efavirenz) and Intelence (etravirine).
In experiments, they combined the drug with nano-crystals, creating a "nano-solution" which suspends the drug in the blood and particularly in lymph nodes. The HIV drug is released very slowly as the solution breaks down over many months, all the while maintaining adequate levels. So far, the drug in this solution has only been given to 48 HIV-negative volunteers, so its antiviral properties against HIV have yet to be measured. Studies are currently planned.
It is easy to imagine the potential benefits of such an approach. Instead of a daily diet of pills that are processed through the digestive system, a patient would simply get an injection, similar to a flu shot, once every few months, or as seldom as twice a year.
Although the Tibotec experiment used only one HIV drug, there's no reason that similar technology couldn't deliver several drugs at the same time. In fact, lab studies are already doing so. In another experiment, researchers at Creighton University in Omaha, NE combined Kaletra (lopinavir + ritonavir) with efavirenz into nano-particles and tested them in lab studies. Results showed that the nano-particles could provide sustained release of the three drugs for at least two weeks from a single dose. Longer release may well be possible.
Other experiments have been reported recently using nano-technology as a delivery mechanism for CCR5 entry inhibitors. There appears to be a great deal of interest in exploiting various forms of nano-technology for the next wave of simplifying therapy in HIV and other diseases.
One important concern with this approach is what might happen if a person has a serious allergic reaction to a drug that has been given this way. With most drugs, the harm of allergic reactions begins to lessen as soon as a person stops taking the drug. But when the drug has been given by nano-technology, it is in the bloodstream for weeks or months to come. This is not believed to be a major obstacle, however. It requires that the manufacturer develop some form of fast acting antidote or antibody that will destroy or block the activity of the nano-drug. Such an antidote is currently under development for rilpivarine, and it's safe to assume that any company using this technology will be required to do this.
It is amazing to see how far HIV drug technology has come in the last dozen or so years. When truly effective therapy first became available in 1996, it often required large numbers of pills that were difficult to swallow and had to be taken at least three times a day, often with great quantities of water and with or without food. By 2005 we had one-pill, once-a-day regimens. Now, just a few years later, we are on the can see the possibility of treatment that might be taken as little as a few times a year. Advances like nano-technology are exciting on their own. The speed at which this technology is advancing leads us to ask, can a true cure really be that far away?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was provided by Project Inform. It is a part of the publication Project Inform Perspective.
ronaldinho:
I posted a thread about this some time ago:
http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=18880.0
I have noticed that people post repeatedly news about HIV research here, sometimes news that have already been covered in one or more threads.
jportland:
And what is your suggestion on how to avoid somthing that? Am I suppose to click on each topic and thread for hours on end on all former posts from monthes and years ago before I post my own? Also this article that I posted was CURRENT and just released from the website THEBODY.COM APRIL 7, 2008. And is an original article unto itself that people might be interested in reading about. Also I am sure that many threads and posts are similiar in nature as things change in treatment, things are updated, people have new questions, etc. Everything on this site is somewhat similar anyway as it ALL has to do with hiv. The topic might have been the same as yours but SEVERAL people post things all the time that are similar. I really don't see what the point of your comment was at all is what I am trying to say. If you go far back enough in ANY topic there is sometimes a post or question that is similar in nature in ALL sections. So then basically should we just stop posting anything at all is what you are saying?. Then why have a forum at all is what your saying?. However what I posted was something I thougth people might want to read... Sorry if YOU happened to have posted something monthes back that just happened to be a little bit along the same lines. Sorry I won't look for things or current stories on research or anything else that people might want to read about in the future since they can go back themselves in OLD posts and find them themselves... Is that what you want? Also so when the story of Nano and hiv is updated or a new story about it comes out in the future in say 3 or 6 monthes or 9 monthes PLEASE DON'T POST IT is what you are saying as it is already on here rite? So we should see NOTHING and no more stories posted on nano and hiv in the future... EVER. From me or you! I'll make a note of it. Actually I have been on this site or joined the VERY end of December of 2007, so hardly at all. All I can say is I wonder how much longer I will be on this site as far as I may just delete my memebership and return to just being a guest and read only since I get attacked when I write a post. And look how many I have written! Hardly any! Maybe I will just stop posting all together. Sorry to have posted this thing on nano and hiv and wasted your time and everyone else's. Actually I think I am done now that I think about it. So maybe I'll stop posting all together and may think about leaving the site alltogether and just being a guest again. Have a great day. Good bye.
jportland:
You might wanna think twice before biting someone's head off before you post and why people leave and how uninviting you make someone new feel... You can write things in a different manner or make a suggegtion but that doesn't seem to be the way some people do things here. Some often do it in an unfriendly manner. This site will NEVER grow when people are new and if you have regular people snapping at them as soon as they join...
thunter34:
--- Quote from: ronaldinho on April 08, 2008, 03:37:16 pm ---I posted a thread about this some time ago:
http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=18880.0
I have noticed that people post repeatedly news about HIV research here, sometimes news that have already been covered in one or more threads.
--- End quote ---
Well, for the record, I personally never saw it until today. And I thought it was a good read and appreciated it. A lot of topics get reposted all the time. Big deal. Hell...just look at damn "Disclosure". We never hear the end of that old chestnut. As new people come on to the site, they may not know we've talked about something before. And even so, we haven't talked about it with them yet, so...there ya go.
If it is something that is current and actively being discussed, the mods will merge the threads. Otherwise, big deal. Things are bound to get repeated / updated.