Progress on AIDS

2000/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

A quarter of AIDS patients carry in their blood viruses that suffer the most important drugs on the market. Researchers have created a more effective drug, the T-20, which can now serve these patients, and which promotes the action of all these drugs.

Classic drugs attack the reproductive enzyme of the virus, while T-20 mimics a certain protein molecule, preventing viruses from contaminating cells. Viruses cannot reach cells because they are trapped with the protein molecule. In tests to date, scientists have managed to reduce the number of patients' viruses and believe that within two years they will be able to market the drug.

The only drawback is that T-20 is protein and that it has to be injected twice a day directly into the blood.