While testing a database of natural substances, a US research team came across the substance hopeaphenol, which prevents the HI virus from becoming active and multiplying again.
Today, HIV-infected people can live a symptom-free life with antiretroviral therapies. However, a cure in which HI viruses are permanently removed from the body is a long way off: the viruses “hide” in immune cells and can spread again from there.
Hopeaphenol is a natural compound with antiviral properties from plants that is effective against HIV: In the laboratory, HIV stopped multiplying in human lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) after treatment with hopeaphenol. After treatment with Hopeaphenol, other blood cells (T-helper cells) were able to inhibit the reactivation of the virus.
“This is important because anti-HIV therapy stops symptoms but does not eliminate the underlying HIV reservoir from which the virus can re-emerge. Despite therapy, the virus is always there and always a bit active – a kind of rumbling – which stresses the immune system,” explained Dr. Ian Tietjen of the Wistar’s Center for Vaccines and Immunotherapy in Philadelphia, who along with colleagues published the results in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
The constant subliminal activity of the HIV virus in immune cells is associated with inflammation and a higher risk of cancer, metabolic diseases, heart disease and other diseases. “We believe that substances like hopeaphenol could prevent the reactivation of the HIV reservoir – which reduces the burden on the immune system and possibly prevents secondary diseases,” said Tietjen.