Towards the AIDS dream drug
Monday, 27 August, 2001
La Trobe University researchers are working to develop a new weapon in the war on AIDS - a pill or capsule to inhibit fungal infection.
Like those who have cancer or have undergone major organ transplants, the bodies of AIDS sufferers are immunosuppressed - their natural immune systems can become so weakened they die from opportunistic fungal infections a normal body readily suppresses.
Called mycoses, fungal infections have not been an important research target in the past.
Due to the HIV-AIDS pandemic, and the huge increase in transplant surgery and emerging resistance, have meant that the development of drugs to treat mycoses have become prime research projects.
The La Trobe team is concentrating its research efforts on developing an orally-deliverable peptide-based drug and is focusing its efforts on the antifungal properties of a peptide called Petriellin A.
Petriellin A is an anti-fungal compound produced by the fungus Petriella sordida in order to protect itself. This self protection mechanism makes it a worthwhile subject.
Item provided courtesy of the La Trobe University Bulletin
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