Monkeys raise hope for AIDS prevention

A long-lasting injectable drug being developed by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline protects female monkeys from HIV/AIDS, according to two studies published in the journal Science.

Business Day, 15 January 2015

While much more work has yet to be done to determine whether Glaxo's GSK744 LA is safe and effective in humans, the research strengthens hope that people may one day be able to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS with an injection every three months, just as some women do today with injectable contraceptives.

Helen Rees, executive director of the University of the Witwatersrand's Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, said she would be cautiously optimistic that the data from these monkey trials is likely to predict something very positive in humans, but there have been many cases in which the effects were not replicated.

The first study, led by Chasity Andrews from the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Centre at Rockefeller University in New York, gave eight female monkeys two shots of GSK744LA a month apart, and compared them with four monkeys with no shots. Researchers found that all the monkeys who did not get injections became infected with simian HIV (SHIV) within two weeks of their first exposure, while six of the eight monkeys who got shots were protected. The study authors said in their paper that these results supported further clinical development of GSK744 LA for pre-exposure prophylaxis. The monkeys in this study were treated with the contraceptive Depo-Provera, which makes them more susceptible to SHIV.

The second study, led by Jessica Radzio from the Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta, investigated whether monthly injections of GSK744 LA prevented SHIV infection in female monkeys who were repeatedly exposed to the virus. Six monkeys received the shots of GSK744 LA and six did not, and all were given doses of SHIV twice a week for 11 weeks. None of the monkeys that got GSK744 LA became infected, but those in the control group did.