New HIV drug appears powerful

According to clinical evidence, a new drug invented for the cure of AIDS has been able to reduce the number of HIV viruses circulating in the bloodstream of the patients.

The report of the new discovery will be presented in the International AIDS Conference in Toronto later this week.

The much awaited drug, after long discoveries, belongs to a new class of HIV medications known as integrase inhibitors. The enzyme, with which the virus uses to incorporate its genetic material into the DNA of the host cell in order to make copies of it, is hindered by these inhibitors.

As these days more and more people are opposing to drugs in the standard therapies, integrase inhibitors are elevating hopes of a new first-line treatment against the AIDS virus.

Martin Markowitz, clinical director at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York, said that the new drug will offer hope to the people who otherwise resist from taking certain drugs.

The drug is being developed by Merck & Co and is known for now as MK-0518. The research is being going on with 198 HIV patients who had previously been untreated for their infection. The studies are being conducted at 28 different centres around the world, including two in Canada.

Treatment can be given to those patients who have more than 100,000 copies of the virus or below 350 CD4 cells, which the HIV attacks. In the trial, 160 patients were given the new drug orally along with two other antiviral drugs, while 38 patients were given an already existing HIV medication along with two antiviral drugs.

Based on the data drawn from the trials, Merck reported that 85 to 95 per cent patients had an acute drop in the number of virus copies in their bloodstream if they rigidly followed the integrase inhibitor drug intake regime.

The patients who were given the other drug showed identical results but it took longer to achieve the effect.

Dr. Markowitz said that the striking feature of this potent drug is that it makes the patient speedily reach the lower levels of viral load. He however said that the results right now are based on a handful of patients and the data is preliminary.

The drug's antiviral effect was seen in patients taking the oral drug at doses ranging from 100 milligrams to 600 milligrams twice a day.

A press release from Merck showed that the drug has certain side effects too which includes nausea, dizziness and headache.

Mark Wainberg, Director of the McGill University AIDS Center and co-host of the Toronto conference, said that the results sound beneficial. He said that the integrase inhibitors are the most promising new class of drugs under development.