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Send to friendOne of the challenges of modern anti-HIV therapy is the susceptibility of the drugs to degradation by the liver. To protect one of these compounds from degradation, LSI faculty member Jason Gestwicki and his lab have synthesized a modified version that enables the active compound to be "sequestered" into blood cells. When "hidden" within the blood cells, the modified compound lasted 20-fold longer than the unmodified anti-HIV drug. Although significant work remains to convert this initial finding into a viable therapeutic strategy for patients, these results suggest a new way of stabilizing current anti-HIV drugs so that they last longer and require less frequent dosing. This research was reported in a recent article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Access the article here.
