Professor plans to develop new HIV drug

Professor plans to develop new HIV drug
A Chinese professor who discovered a new inhibitor that prevents HIV from entering human cells last December is now planning to develop a new drug to treat AIDS with his colleagues in Shanghai.

"It will take at least three to five years to create the new drug and government support will be crucial," Tang Yun, 37, a pharmaceutical professor at East China University of Science and Technology and also a professor at Fudan University, said yesterday.

In December, Tang and his US colleagues, who worked for the US National Cancer Institute, published a thesis in the US science journal Computer-aided Molecular Design. They announced that an enzyme named "IN" stops HIV from entering human cells. The research took two years to complete.

Tang and his colleagues here have established a laboratory in ECUST to map out the precise structure of IN and how to effectively use it to protect people from acquiring HIV.

Eventually they hope to create a new drug.

However, he said the drug research project, particularly the clinical stage, will not be possible without appropriate funding by the city government. Tang said they need approximately 1 million yuan (US$120,482) in start-up costs to purchase equipment.

Zhao Guoping, a professor at the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, said: "Computer-based research is very promising for the development of new HIV drugs."

Tang said he chose to return to China because it's his home. He also said that his published scientific article on the IN enzyme can be used by other scientists to further the research.