"Chemical Condoms" Safe, Effective For Primates.(vaginally inserted anti-viral compounds prevent HIV transmission)(Brief Article)

2001 SEP 6 - (NewsRx Network) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - A number of "chemical condoms" now being studied may help protect women from sexual transmission of HIV, according to researchers in England.

"Vaginal agents which are antiviral and/or inhibit the entry of HIV into the cell could prevent heterosexual transmission of HIV, and protect women who cannot negotiate condom use," explained Jonathan Weber and colleagues at the Imperial College School of Medicine in London, St. Bartholomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, and the National Institute of Biological Standards and Control in Hertfordshire.

Weber and coworkers found four such agents whose safety and effectiveness in primate studies, they argue, warrant further clinical trials with humans.

The researchers studied the effectiveness of nonoxynol-9, a commonly used spermicide and virucide, the cyclic peptide ionophore gramicidin-D, and two anionic polymers, dextrin-2-sulphate (D2S) and PRO 2000 (P2K). They tested the ability of these agents to prevent infection in rhesus macaques after vaginal challenge with the [SHIV.sub.89.6PD] strain of simian-human immunodeficiency virus, according to their report.

Nonoxynol-9 was able to prevent infection in three of four macaques challenged twice with SHIV injections containing 10,000 times the 50% tissue culture infectious dose, study data showed. The other antiviral ...