AIM-HIV

"Hydroxitirosol, a new generation of microbicides targeting HIV through antiviral and anti-inflammatory pathways"

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Since the first cases of AIDS were reported 30 years ago, HIV remains a difficult target for the research field. Although there is no cure for AIDS, HIV infection can be prevented, however in many countries across the world access to prevention and treatment services is limited. Global leaders have pledged to work towards universal access to HIV prevention and care, so that millions of deaths can be averted.There is much that can be done to reduce the impact of AIDS, beginning with the prevention of HIV transmission. In this sense, the main objective of this proposal is to decrease the virus spread avoiding the infection among women. Diminishing HIV transmission among women is a key step towards undermine the virus presence since it will not be transmitted to the new generation of children and to their partners. AIM-HIV project aims to reduce the transmission of HIV in countries with high incidence through the development of a new effective and low-cost microbicide based on 5-Hydroxytyrosol. For this aim, the proposed Consortium will be composed by an SME company with strong research and development capacities and broad experience in the field of hydroxytyrosol, SEPROX Biotech S.L., and three European research groups with a profound knowledge on HIV and cellular HIV infection and integration: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux energies alternatives (CEA) and Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele (USR). The duration of the project will be 30 months, with a total budget of 2,331,804€ and a requested grant of 1,827,081€. The estimated EU contribution going to the SME SEPROX is a 25.3% of the total requested EU contribution for the project as a whole. The Consortium has already contacted with organizations and institutions that have a huge interest in the project´s result and will have an important role for assuring the proper dissemination of the final product which will be widely accessible and manage by women themselves'

Introduzione (Teaser)

HIV infection represents a significant medical challenge with millions of new cases every year. Designing new prevention strategies based on microbicides constitutes an attractive approach for reducing HIV sexual transmission in countries with high incidence.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Since its introduction a few years ago, highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) constitutes the only available pharmacological approach for stopping HIV replication. However, given the mode of HIV transmission and the high cost of HAART, prevention strategies remain the best option to reduce the impact of AIDS.

The EU-funded http://aim-hiv.isciii.es (AIM-HIV) project is working on the development of microbicides based on the compound 5-Hydroxytyrosol (5HT). The idea is to develop an effective and low-cost new microbicide that could be used to reduce HIV sexual transmission in developing low-income countries. This would be used in combination with other strategies to control HIV epidemics and improve life expectancy and quality of life.

So far, 5HT has been found to possess high antiviral activity against HIV, SIV and drug-resistant HIV strains. It also exhibits synergism with the reverse transcriptase inhibitor tenofovir, indicating that a combinatorial treatment approach might prove beneficial. With respect to its mechanism, 5HT seems to mediate antiviral activity irrespective of viral entry and is relatively immunologically inert (i.e.without stimulating inflammation).

Infection of cervical tissue explants in vitro has revealed that sexual HIV-1 transmission is more efficient during the secretory phase of the menstrual cycle. Ongoing evaluation of the efficacy and pharmacokinetics of 5HT in non-human primate models is necessary for moving onto clinical development of the drug and initiating a clinical trial.

The AIM-HIV data suggest that 5HT works through a cellular target which represents a great novelty in the field of microbicides. Targeting similar molecules could open up new avenues for antiretroviral therapy that includes HIV and other sexually-transmitted viruses such as herpes and papilloma.