From: KutchScience@hotmail
To: 'Dr.H.L.Udeshi' ; 'Dr.M.Azim Sheth' ; 'Dr.Mahesh Punjabi - Kota' ;
'Dr.Shashiben Vani - Ahmedabad' ; 'Dr.Upendra Vasavda - Mehsana' ;
'Dr.S.K.Takker-Baran' ; drskb@... ; drsahai@... ;
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Atul
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2005 10:30 AM
Subject: Hello Doc this may interest you : Powerful drugs used to treat HIV can
also block malaria, @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4070250.stm


Dear Docs and science friends,

HIV drugs block malaria in tests This may interest you
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4070250.stm Powerful drugs used to treat HIV
can also block malaria, researchers say they have shown for the first time. A
team at Australia's University of Queensland found antiretroviral drugs stopped
the parasite that causes malaria from growing.
These drugs also worked on parasites that had developed resistance to common
malaria drugs, laboratory tests showed. The researchers said their findings were
particularly important for areas where both HIV and malaria were rife. Malaria
kills over one million people a year, with more than 90% of cases reported in
sub-Saharan Africa. This is also the region with the highest HIV toll. People
with HIV have been shown to be twice as likely to catch malaria as those who do
not have the virus. Recent studies have indicated that a group of HIV drugs,
called protease inhibitors, may affect the outcome of malarial disease. To
investigate further, Dr Kathy Andrews and colleagues at the Queensland Institute
of Medical Research looked at what action these drugs had on the malaria
parasite.

Dual action

These drugs stop HIV by blocking a key enzyme which the virus requires to
reproduce itself. Five out of seven different protease inhibitors were also able
to kill malaria parasites grown in the laboratory. The researchers then
confirmed their findings in malaria-infected mice. Dr Andrews said:
"Importantly, these drugs are effective against malaria at clinically relevant
concentrations." The most significant results were obtained using protease
inhibitor combinations of ritonavir with either saquinavir or lopinavir.
Although the financial cost and side-effect profile of these drugs is unlikely
to make them a first-line choice for treating malaria, Dr Andrews said the study
suggested that more widespread use of them in people infected with both HIV and
malaria would be beneficial. Also, they might point to a new way to combat
malaria.

"Their anti-malarial activity does suggest a unique parasite target that has yet
to be exploited by any of the currently available anti-malarial drugs," Dr
Andrews said. However, she said it was not yet clear exactly how the drugs
blocked the parasite. One theory is that they interfere with the parasite's
ability to digest the contents of the red blood cells that they infect in the
human body. Professor David Warhurst, malaria expert at the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said another possibility was that the drugs
prevent the malaria parasite from entering the red blood cells in the first
place. "It's very interesting. It is certainly something which might have an
impact where so many HIV cases are also exposed to and carrying malaria. It
would be a double target." Lisa Power, from the Terrence Higgins Trust, said:
"This is very good news. It will be important to find out whether this effect
applies to only one class of anti-HIV drugs or to all of them.

"If it is only true of protease inhibitors, it may impact on prescribing for
people living or regularly visiting malaria-prone countries. Currently many
Americans and Europeans do not use this class of drugs in their combination."

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