Tag Archives: Médecins Sans Frontières

University of Liverpool announces work on HIV/AIDS nanomedicines

Given that Vancouver (Canada) is a world centre for HIV/AIDS  research (courtesy of Dr. Julio Montaner‘s work), the Aug. 30, 2012 news item on Nanowerk  about nanomedicines being developed at the University of Liverpool, which are less toxic therapeutic alternatives to current HIV/AIDS medications, caught my eye. From the news item,

Scientists at the University of Liverpool are leading a £1.65 million project to produce and test the first nanomedicines for treating HIV/AIDS.

There aren’t many details about how they are going to produce these nanomedicines other than what’s in these paragraphs in the Aug. 30, 2012 University of Liverpool news release,

The research project, funded by the [UK] Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), aims to produce cheaper, more effective medicines which have fewer side effects and are easier to give to newborns and children.

The new therapy options were generated by modifying existing HIV treatments, called antiretrovirals (ARVs). The University has recently produced ARV drug particles at the nanoscale which potentially reduce the toxicity and variability in the response different patients have to therapies. Drug nanoparticles have been shown to allow smaller doses in other disease areas which opens up possibilities to reduce drug side-effects and the risk of drug resistance. Nanoscale objects are less than one micron in size – a human hair is approximately 80 microns in diameter.

If I read the news release for this project rightly, there aren’t any immediate plans for making these nanomedicines widely available for treatment (from the University of Liverpool news release),

The project aims to deliver highly valuable data within three years and provide a platform for continual development and testing during that time

Elsewhere in the news release they do mention clinical trials,

Professor Andrew Owen, from the University’s Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, added: “We have integrated an assessment of pharmacology and safety early in the research and this has allowed us to rapidly progress lead options for clinical trials. The work has been conducted with the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Drug Safety Science also based at the University.”

“Our data so far looks really exciting, offering the potential to reduce the doses required to control the HIV virus.  This work builds on initiatives by Médecins Sans Frontières and other groups to seek ways to improve ARV therapy and could have real benefits for the safety of ARVs globally. Importantly we also hope to reduce the costs of therapy for resource-limited countries where the burden of disease is highest.”

Interestingly, the other mention of taking this medicine into the field is in a  photo caption for the research team’s other featured member,

Professor Steve Rannard: “This project is the first step towards taking nanomedicine options out of our labs and into the clinic”

Good luck to them all!