Microbicide gels that use antiretroviral drugs to fight HIV infection could do more to protect men from getting HIV from women than the reverse, researchers said recently. And women could end up with drug-resistant virus if they become infected anyway, computer models show.
"Paradoxically, although microbicides will be used by women to protect themselves against infection, they could provide greater benefit to men," wrote Sally Blower of the University of California-Los Angeles and colleagues.
Blower and David Wilson of Sydney's University of New South Wales presumed the drugs could be systemically absorbed and, like any other monotherapy, cause HIV to become drug-resistant. In addition, the mathematical model they used took into account inconsistent microbicide users and the possibility of a microbicide that is only partially effective. The model incorporated data from ongoing microbicide trials, what is known about how HIV develops drug resistance, and how consistently people use condoms or would such a product.
"What we found out that was interesting or surprising or paradoxical, was that under some conditions males would actually benefit a lot more than females," Blower said.
The full report, "The Paradoxical Effects of Using Antiretroviral-Based Microbicides to Control HIV Epidemics," was published online ahead of print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2008;doi:10.1073/pnas.0711813105).
07/07/08
UNITED STATES: Gels to Protect Women from HIV May Help Men More
Source: Reuters:: Maggie Fox; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention