Aphios
Corporation Executes Collaborative R&D Agreement with
VivaCell Biotechnology España to Develop Combination
Therapy for HIV Latency
March
24, 2009 —
Aphios Corporation today announced entering into a Collaborative
Research and Development Agreement with VivaCell Biotechnology
España S.L., Cordoba, Spain to develop a combination
therapy for the treatment of HIV latency.
Currently, over 22 million people have died from AIDS and
there are over 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.
There is no vaccine against HIV, and AIDS, if untreated,
will lead to the death of over 95% of infected individuals
10 years post-infection. HIV infects several cell types
during the course of infection and progression to acquired
immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The persistence of latent
HIV-infected cellular reservoirs represents the major hurdle
to virus eradication with highly active anti-retroviral
therapy (HAART), by far the state of the art for treating
HIV/AIDS, since latently infected cells remain a permanent
source of viral reactivation. HAART remains problematic
because of long-term toxicity, development of drug resistance
and the inability to target persistent reservoirs.
Our scientists have discovered that bryostatin-1, a potent
PKC modulator, re-activates HIV-1 latency at concentrations
that do not activate signal transduction pathways that may
result in negative side effects. We have also discovered
that bryostatin-1 synergizes with Histone Deacetylases (HDAC)
inhibitors such as valproic acid to antagonise HIV-1 latency.
HDAC inhibitors alone do not significantly reactivate HIV-1
latency but reduces the concentration of bryostatin-1 (by
at least one order of magnitude to about 1 nanomolar) at
which HIV is released from its latent reservoirs [US Patent
Pending].
Dr. Eduardo Muñoz, lead inventor and Chief Scientific
Officer of VivaCell Biotechnology España states that:
“From our experiments using a specific and suitable
model for HIV-1 reactivation, we determined which combinations
of bryostatins and HDACs inhibitors synergise to antagonise
HIV-1 latency. This finding is essential for the formulation
of the combination therapy using low nanomolar concentrations
of bryostatins. We also showed that bryostatin-1 downregulates
the expression of the HIV-1 receptors CD4 and CXCR4, and
prevents HIV-1-induced cytotoxicity. While HDACs can be
administered in continuous dosing protocol, bryostatins
can be administered following a cyclical dosing protocol.
This combination therapy will be used in patients being
treated with antiretroviral therapy such as HIV-1 protease
inhibitors, reverse transcriptase inhibitors, integrase
inhibitors, CCR5 co-receptor inhibitors and fusion inhibitors.”
VivaCell Biotechnology España, a spin-off from the
University of Cordoba, Spain, is an emerging biotechnology
company that investigates and develops new medical products
derived from medicinal plants and marine organisms, and
is currently focused on the preclinical phase of drug discovery.
Aphios Corporation is a biotechnology company that is developing
enabling technology platforms and enhanced therapeutic products
from medicinal plants and marine organisms for health maintenance,
disease prevention and the treatment of certain cancers,
infectious diseases and CNS disorders.
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