Houston researchers cite HIV breakthrough - Houston Business Journal:

A chemical that occurs naturally in green tea appears to prevent HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, from infecting cells in the immune system and could prove a valuable component of treatment for the disease, according to a report by researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital.

After further research, the study could move to human trials, the researchers said Thursday.

In previous studies, Dr. Christina Nance, assistant professor of pediatrics at BCM, and Dr. William Shearer, professor of pediatrics at BCM, had demonstrated that epigallocatechin gallate — EGCG — found in green tea, inhibited infection in a specific HIV-1 strain.

The latest discovery shows EGCG can inhibit infection in multiple HIV-1 strains.

“This is paramount from a global aspect,” Nance said. “Most initial studies with HIV-1 in the Americas are based on subtype B.” However, she added, most of the world is infected with other strains.

“EGCG may represent a potential low-cost inhibitor of global HIV-1 infection that could be used at least as adjunctive anti-HIV therapy,” said Nance and Shearer in their report.

Previous drugs developed to block the entry of HIV-1 into cells proved ineffective because the virus mutated. Nance hopes that EGCG, derived from a natural product, will be less likely to generate such mutations.

BCM has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to being a phase 1 trial to study the safety of the compound in HIV-1-infected people.

Funding for the research came from the National Institutes of Health and the Baylor Center for AIDS Research.

The report appears in the current issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Houston researchers cite HIV breakthrough - Houston Business Journal: