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Ronald S. Veazey of Tulane National Primate Research Center in New Orleans successfully used vaginal gels containing the fusion inhibitory peptide T-1249 to protect rhesus macaque monkeys against vaginal transmission of multiple strains of simian/human HIV, or SHIV.

The study, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that vaginal microbicide containing fusion inhibitors remain a potential method for protecting women against infection by HIV type 1 during sexual intercourse.

"Here we have shown that the vaginal application of gel-formulated T-1249 can protect rhesus macaques from infection by three different SHIV challenge viruses", the researchers said in a statement. "The protection we observed was dose-dependent and at the higher concentration, robust, in that all the test animals resisted infection."

Fusion inhibitors such as T-1249 operate to inhibit infection by preventing glycoprotein molecules on HIV particles from binding to their receptors on the surface of the immune cell. The T-1249 peptide is a fusion inhibitor that targets one of the main cellular receptors that HIV uses to infect cells in the mucosal surface.

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