HIV Drugs Block Virus Associated With Prostate Cancer & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

[Inchlingblue]

I've heard some people say that too much money goes toward HIV/AIDS research but there's a flip side to that argument since research into HIV/AIDS is bound to reap more "big picture" rewards in the understanding of the immune system, which inevitably leads to treatment of other diseases.


HIV Drugs Might Combat Two Other Diseases
Prostate cancer, chronic fatique are new research targets

THURSDAY, April 1 (HealthDay News) -- Four anti-HIV drugs inhibit a retrovirus recently linked to prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), say U.S. researchers.

If further investigation proves that the retrovirus xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) causes prostate cancer or CFS, these HIV drugs may be an effective treatment for the two conditions.

In this study, researchers from the University of Utah and Emory University/Veterans Affair Medical Center tested how effectively 45 compounds used to treat HIV and other viral infections worked against XMRV. Raltegravir was the most effective, and three other drugs -- L-00870812, zidovudine (ZDV or AZT), and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) -- also prevented XMRV replication.

"Our study showed that these drugs inhibited XMRV at lower concentrations when two of them were used together, suggesting that possible highly potent 'cocktail' therapies might inhibit the virus from replicating and spreading," Raymond F. Schinazi, a professor of pediatrics and chemistry and an investigator with the Center for AIDS Research at the Emory University School of Medicine and the Atlanta VA, said in a news release.

"This combination of therapies might also have the added benefit of delaying or even preventing the virus from mutating into forms that are drug-resistant," Schinazi added.

"These results offer hope to infected persons, but we are still at the early stages of our understanding of the potential link between XMRV and these diseases," Dr. Ila R. Singh, an associate professor of pathology at the University of Utah Medical School, said in the news release.

The study was published April 1 in the journal PLoS One.

LINKS:

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/637521.html

http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem.aspx?name=79300789

[mecch]

Very very cool. Tell Madbrain, he's been thinking about this!

[veritas]

Nice find, Inch.


v

[madbrain]

Interesting. I was browsing some articles on monday related to XMRV and one expert was saying that of the HIV drugs, only AZT had any chance of working against it. Guess he was wrong. I wish I had bookmarked this, but didn't.

Edit:

Here is what google found.

http://watchingthewatchers.org/indepth/901076/azt-inhibits-xmrv

Quote:

"None of the HIV-1 protease inhibitors, NNRTI, or integrase inhibitors blocked XMRV replication. Of the NRTIs, only AZT significantly inhibited viral replication. Fusion inhibitors were not examined in this study."

That seems contradictory with the other finding.