Chasity Andrews, from the Aaron Diamond Research Institute in New York, and Gerardo-Garcia-Lerma, from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, presenting at CROI 2014. Photo by Liz Highleyman, hivandhepatitis.com.
Injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) could be possible, new research involving monkeys suggests.
Two separate studies showed that injecting the investigational integrase inhibitor GSK744LA provided long-lasting protection against HIV.
In one study, a single dose was protective for an average of eight weeks. Results of a second study showed that none of the monkeys given the drug became infected when exposed to SHIV (a virus that mimics the course of HIV infection in monkeys), and drug levels remained at potentially protective levels up to five weeks after the last injection. On the basis of these results, investigators suggested that monthly injections with the product could be enough to protect against infection with HIV.
The first human studies assessing the efficacy of injected GSK744LA as PrEP for humans will start this year.
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