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Herpes Virus Transforms Acyclovir into Weapon against AIDS

September 10, 2008

- National Institutes of Health –

Herpes virus changes acyclovir medication into a form that prevents the virus from further reproduction. Working this way, acyclovir has long been used as one of the most effective remedy against oral and genital herpes. Now the researchers from the National Institutes of Health report that acyclovir after it is changed by herpes virus, may also interfere with AIDS virus, suppressing its ability to reproduce.

"The findings open up promising new avenues of investigation in the fight against the AIDS virus," underlined Duane Alexander, M.D., director of one of the NIH institutes, in which the major part of the research was conducted. The scientists from the leading universities of Canada, Great Britain and Belgium also participated in the study, initiated by their American colleagues.

Previous researchers of acyclovir did not notice any influence of the medication on AIDS virus. However, during other studies acyclovir was shown to have some influence on the ability of AIDS virus to reproduce. That is why the scientists from the National Institutes of Health decided to clear up the situation.

First, the researchers grew HIV and herpes simplex virus in the surgically removed tonsils. The tissue of tonsils was used in order to imitate the environment where both viruses (herpes and HIV) live and reproduce within the infected human organism.

When the scientists added acyclovir to the tissue infected with herpes simplex-2 and HIV virus, the levels of both viruses dropped down. It is interesting to note that at some moment investigators added acyclovir to the tissue with HIV but without herpes simplex virus, and the result was the same – obvious decrease in the amount of HIV virus.

However, later scientists found out that though the tissue was not infected with herpes simplex virus, it did have the traces of another representative of the numerous family of herpes viruses. When acyclovir was added to the tissue infected with HIV, but free of any form of herpes virus – the level of HIV was unchanged.

Thus, the scientists assumed that herpes virus is what turns acyclovir, one of the most usual and widely used medications, into a weapon against HIV, one of the most dangerous health disorders nowadays.

The representatives of NIH explains that herpes virus changes acyclovir chemically, namely the virus adds a phosphate group to the chemical structure of the medication. Being altered in such way, acyclovir does not allow herpes virus to reproduce itself. Taking into account the findings of the recent research, it appears that such form of acyclovir, altered by herpes, has also an ability to prevent AIDS virus from reproduction.

Of course, the above described findings only opens a new way in the discovery of new medications against AIDS or HIV virus. Yet, Dr. Margolis, one of the authors of the research, suggested that acyclovir might become a part of the bunch of medications against HIV for those people, who are also infected with some form of herpes virus.

Nick

External resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aciclovir
http://www.nih.gov/news/health/sep2008/nichd-10.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpes_simplex_virus