The
human immunodeficiency virus was discovered more than thirty
years ago and since then a cure for AIDS has eluded researchers. A
viable vaccine that can prevent the spread of that disease has also
eluded medical science despite huge amounts of research. The
insidious nature of the HIV virus causes the problem. The virus
destroys functions of the immune system that protect the body from
viral pathogens. The immune system is so weakened that viral antigens
in vaccines don't evoke a strong enough immune response to stop the
HIV virus particles from infecting lymphocytes. Dozens of vaccines
have been tried and none work.
Gene
therapies have also been tested- most of them in animals and a few in
humans. They can reduce the viral load somewhat but they cannot cure
AIDS or prevent it. Current gene therapies don’t prevent
transmission of the virus to uninfected partners either. Gene
therapies are not vaccines- they are therapies using vectors that
insert DNA into a person's cells. That causes the DNA to be
incorporated into the genetic machinery in the nucleus of lymphocytes
to transform them. The DNA endows them with extra genes that kill the
HIV virus or that prevent the infection of lymphocytes and other
immune system cells by blocking their entry via the CCR5
receptors.
CCR5
is
the chemokine receptor which HIV uses as a coreceptor to gain entry
into lymphocytes and macrophages.
None
of those gene therapies has produced a cure of the disease.
Vulvox is working on a new kind of genetic therapy that has the
potential of curing
AIDS.
We do not claim to have a cure now, but we have reason to think that
our new type of gene therapy will be able to cure that disease
instead of keeping patients dependent on a cocktail of protease
inhibitors and AZT that causes adverse side effects. Vulvox wants
joint research and development partnerships and both public and
private funding to test our theories and to perfect our gene therapy
in animals and humans.
Corporate
and academic R&D partners and investors should contact Neil
Farbstein President of Vulvox Nanobiotechnology Corporation at
vnbcinc@gmail.com