The latest research has shown that scientists in search of a remedy or the AIDS Virus have determined that the same drug intended to ward off alcohol addiction is able to get rid of dormant HIV within the body, Reuters reports.
The drug labeled as Antabuse and as well distributed as a generic known disulfiram, was given to thirty HIV affected individuals in America and Australia who were up to now taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) AIDS drugs.
Experts claimed in a study published in The Lancet HIV journal on Monday that at the maximum dosage, there seems to be an indication that "dormant HIV was activated" without having negative outcomes.
According the co-researcher of Lewin, Julian Elliott of the department of infectious diseases at The Alfred in Melbourne, Australia, waking up the virus was simply the starting point in getting rid of it.
"The next step is to get these cells to die," he said.
HIV latency, in which the virus continues to be inactive in the body in persons taking ART, is among the major challenges in obtaining a medical solution for the viral infection that causes AIDS. As per the United Nations HIV programme UNAIDS, HIV/AIDS has claimed almost 34 million lives since 1980.
HIV may possibly be held under control by ART, and by the end of 2014 more or less 36.9 million people worldwide were suffering from the HIV. About two million men and women each year are affected.
Researchers believe developing ways of 'waking up' the virus of these dormant cells then eradicating them is the integral remedy approach but researchers until now are struggling to discover the most appropriate composition of drugs.
Sharon Lewin of University of Melbourne professor as the head of the research said that while researchers have made headway into triggering latent HIV, one of the primary concerns is the negative effects of the drugs used in the test.
Having said that, this did not seem to exhibit an issue with disulfiram.
"This trial clearly demonstrates that disulfiram is not toxic and is safe to use, and could quite possibly be the game changer we need," she said in a statement.
"The dosage of disulfiram we used provided more of a tickle than a kick to the virus, but this could be enough. Even though the drug was only given for three days, we saw a clear increase in (the) virus in (the) plasma, which was very encouraging."
