HIV gel prevents infection in monkeys

An experimental gel has protected female monkeys from HIV in a test designed to mimic human sexual transmission, researchers said.

The gel uses an AIDS drug along with a zinc compound and protected all animals tested from infection with the monkey version of HIV, the researchers report in the Public Library of Science open-source journal PLoS ONE.

"[It] afforded full protection (21 of 21 animals) for up to 24 hours after two weeks of daily application," they wrote.

The gel uses a very small amount of active drug and thus might be safe and cheap, said the Population Council in New York, which led the study.

The study joins a growing body of experiments that are beginning to show progress in preventing AIDS, a fatal and incurable virus that infects 33 million people globally and which has killed 25 million.

Melissa Robbiani, of the Population Council, who worked with the National Cancer Institute and other laboratories to test the gel, is hoping to test the gel on people.

In July, researchers stunned AIDS experts when they found a similar gel using the Gilead Sciences AIDS drug tenofovir reduced HIV infections in women by 39 per cent over two-and-a-half years.

Non-profit groups are moving ahead to develop that gel and the US Food and Drug Administration has given it fast-track designation.

Most infections with the AIDS virus are in Africa and most new cases are among women infected during sex with men.

A microbicide could help protect against HIV while allowing a woman to get pregnant and she could use the product without letting her partner know if necessary.