Alcohol Drug Might Help Design Effective HIV AIDS Treatment: Study

Tags: HIV; HIV virus; HIV Treatment; Alcohol Drug; study; The Lancet; HIV AIDS

BY Megha Kedia Nov 17, 2015 10:58 PM EST

A new study has found that a drug designed to curb alcoholism might be able to draw out dormant HIV AIDS virus hiding in the body, potentially allowing other drugs to kill the virus.

According to a study published in the journal The Lancet, the drug, called Disulfiram, draws out the HIV AIDS virus in the body without causing any side effects to the patients. In AIDS patients, the virus takes cover and hides in certain cells only to reemerge once the therapy is stopped.

In clinical trials led by University of Melbourne professor, Sharon Lewin, the drug 'Disulfiram' was given to 30 HIV positive patients in the US and Australia, who were already taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) drugs, for a three day period.

At the highest dose, there was evidence of hiding HIV AIDS virus being stimulated, with no adverse effects, reported Reuters.

"This trial clearly demonstrates that disulfiram is not toxic and is safe to use, and could quite possibly be the game changer we need," Lewin said in a statement.

"The dosage of disulfiram we used provided more of a tickle than a kick to the virus, but this could be enough. Even though the drug was only given for three days, we saw a clear increase in (the) virus in (the) plasma, which was very encouraging."

The researchers say that any effective treatment which resulted from the research would include two parts- one to wake up the virus in the dormant HIV cells and another to kill them off. But, researchers have not yet been able to find the exact effective combination of drugs, according to The Guardian.

"Waking up the virus is only the first step to eliminating it," said the study's lead author Julian Elliott, head of clinical research in the department of infectious diseases at Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

"Now we need to work out how to get rid of the infected cell."

According to the United Nations HIV programme UNAIDS, approximately 34 million people have died of HIV-related causes worldwide since the 1980s.