A special vaginal gel can potentially protect women from contracting HIV regardless if it is applied several hours after exposure, results of a new study suggest.
In the study "Postexposure Protection of Macaques from Vaginal SHIV Infection by Topical Integrase Inhibitors" published in the journal Science Translational Medicine March 12, researchers tested the efficacy of a special vaginal gel on six monkeys exposed to a laboratory strain of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
The researchers found that the gel, which contains an antiretroviral drug called raltegravir, which is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for HIV treatment, protected five of the six monkeys from infection when applied three hours after exposure. The researchers also applied the gel on three monkeys 30 minutes before exposure and found it protected two of the monkeys from infection.
Study author Walid Heneine, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, said it isn't clear why the two monkeys in the two separate trials were infected. "We puzzled about those two, but we could never pinpoint an explanation," Heneine said.
AIDS experts were nonetheless impressed by the results of the study. Sharon Hillier, a professor of obstetrics at the University of Pittsburgh said that if the gel works on human, it could be used as the equivalent of morning-after pill for HIV prevention. Rowena Johnston, vice president of research for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, also said that such gel could help protect women from HIV because it provides protection regardless if it is used before or after sexual contact.
"If you're having sex that's in any way not anticipated, you might not have an opportunity to apply the microbicide before the sex happens," Johnston told HealthDay. "In the heat of the moment, you might not always have time to say 'Stop, put everything on hold while I put this product in."
Johnston has likewise hailed the potentials of the gel saying that once approved, it could become as widely used as condoms and spermicidal gels. "It's really a very interesting leap. If you do want something that would protect against HIV after exposure, then you want a drug that acts later on in the virus' life cycle, "Johnston said.
It may still take years though before the gel will be available in the market because researchers still have to conduct human clinical trials, which unfortunately, do not always replicate the results of animal trials.
