AIDSWEEKLY Plus; Monday, January 5, 2009
Staff Medical Writers

NewsRx --

2009 JAN 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- "T20 (generic name: Enfuvirtide, brand name: Fuzeon) is the only FDA-approved HIV fusion inhibitor that is being used for treatment of HIV/AIDS patients who have failed to respond to current antiretroviral drugs. However, it rapidly induces drug resistance in vitro and in vivo," scientists in the United States report (see also HIV/AIDS).

"On the basis of the structural and functional information of anti-HIV peptides from a previous study, we designed an HIV fusion inhibitor named CP32M, a 32-mer synthetic peptide that is highly effective in inhibiting infection by a wide range of primary HIV-1 isolates from multiple genotypes with R5- or dual-tropic (R5X4) phenotype, including a group O virus (BCF02) that is resistant to T20 and C34 (another anti-HIV peptide). Strikingly, CP32M is exceptionally potent (at low picomolar level) against infection by a panel of HIV-1 mutants highly resistant to T20 and C34," wrote Y.X. He and colleagues, New York Blood Center.

The researchers concluded: "These findings suggest that CP32M can be further developed as an antiviral therapeutic against multidrug resistant HIV-1."

He and colleagues published their study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Potent HIV fusion inhibitors against Enfuvirtide-resistant HIV-1 strains. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Oct 21;105(42):16332-7. Epub 2008 Oct 13).

For additional information, contact Y.X. He, New York Blood Center, Lindsley F Kimball Research Institute, New York City, NY 10065, USA.

The publisher's contact information for the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America is: National Acad Sciences, 2101 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20418, USA.

Keywords: United States, New York, HIV/AIDS, AIDS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Antivirals, Biotechnology, Drug Development, Drug Resistance, Drugs, Enfuvirtide, FDA, Fusion Inhibitor, Fuzeon, Gene Therapy, HIV, Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Pharmaceuticals, Regulatory Actions, Synthetic Peptides, Treatment, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Virology, New York Blood Center.

This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.

Ref: He Y, Cheng J, Lu H, et al. “Potent HIV fusion inhibitors against Enfuvirtide-resistant HIV-1 strains”, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Oct 21;105(42):16332-7.

2009-01-05

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