Researchers have theorised that a peptide found in primates
could halt the HIV-1 virus from infecting blood cells. The
discovery could form the crux of an effective drug therapy,
which may overcome resistance exhibited by current treatment
use. Modern combinations of antiretroviral therapies have been
used successfully to treat many people with HIV. However,
concern is growing that new medications will be required as the
virus mutates to render current drugs ineffective. The HIV-1
virus often mutates quickly to overcome antiviral compounds
designed to prevent infections. But the researchers demonstrated
that over the course of 100 days the virus developed a weak
resistance to retrocyclin, a defence peptide still found in
monkeys and lower primates. Lead researcher, Professor Alexander
Cole of UCF's Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences said that
if additional laboratory tests could demonstrate only weak
resistance, the next step would be to study how retrocyclin
could be developed into a drug designed to pre