HIVResearch Design

HYPOTHESIS

• My hypothesis states that the protein kinase C activator, Prostratin from the Samoan mamala tree can treat HIV with its antiviral activities. Prostratin has potential to be useful in the treatment of HIV as it could flush viral reservoirs in latently infected CD4+ T-cells.

• Prostratin is of interest because of its unique ability to activate latent viral reservoirs, while preventing healthy cells from infection

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AIM/OBJECTIVE

• To use a compound named prostratin to battle and treat the deadly HIV in its latency.

• To amplify the molecule prostratin to produce a feasible cure for HIV

• To reduce the mortality rate of HIV

Experiment Design

• The research experiment will include;

• Problem and goal

• Feasibility

• Unique Molecule

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Research design

The experiment

Expected results

Inference

Long term goal

Alternative Approach

Conclusion

Problem and Goal

• HIV is one of the most deadly diseases worldwide

• HIV has no cure

• The virus is a tricky disease that changes form and hides within cells.

• One in every five people are unaware of their infection, Every day nearly 6,300 people contract HIV—nearly 262 every hour.

• In 2012, 1.6 million people died from AIDS.

• The goal is to reduce the incidence of HIV by using prostratin to fight and treat the HIV virus.

Feasibility

The molecule Prostratin can be justified as a treatment for HIV because of the mechanism of action and its proof of safety in human cells.

The HIV infection has been extremely difficult to cure because the virus hides within the CD4+ cells around of the body and the Antiretroviral drugs available that fight HIV at the different infection stages treat the diseases when it becomes active and comes out in the open.

Prostratin, treats HIV when it is hidden in the cells in its latent stage, which has not been done before.

Unique Molecule

• Prostratin is a protein kinase C activator found in the bark of the mamala tree of Samoa.

• Prostratin is of interest because of its unique ability to activate latent viral reservoirs, while preventing healthy cells from infection.

• The compound is obtained from nature and can be synthesized and amplified to treat HIV and other illnesses.

Research Design

• The purpose of the research experiment will be to prove that Prostratin is more effective and efficient in treating HIV than the Highly active antiretroviral drugs.

• The research will be carried out In vitro before it can be carried out In vivo (within a living organism) and finally human studies will be performed.

• The Experiment in vitro will involve two varying cell cultures cultivated from human blood (culture A and culture B)- the two cultures will be control groups both infected with the virus.

• Culture A would be given prostratin while culture B would be given ART

• The two cultures would be put in the right conditions (temperature, surface) for the virus and the cells to thrive.

• The two culture would be left to take effect

Experiment 

• In Vivo

• The test will be carried out using two groups of about 10 lab rats.

• They will be infected with the HIV virus cells

• The first group of rats will be given ART while the second group will be given prostratin

Expected Results

• In vitro

• In the vitro experiment, for culture A, we would expect to find that there would be barely any virus in CD4+ cells, prostratin would have expelled the virus from the cells, they may still be in the culture but they would be out in the open for destruction.

• For culture B we would expect to find that the CD4+ cells in the culture would still contain latent HIV but would not contain virus outside the cell because of the effect of the Antiretrovirals

• The expected results would be about the same in the in vivo experiment

Human study

• If the experiment yields a positive result in the rats, a human study (clinical trials) can be performed.

• Initially, the corrections from the mistakes from the In vitro and In vivo study would be incorporated into the human study.

• Two groups of infected humans will be asked to volunteer for the experiment and they would be given full disclosure of the procedure

• They would be already be on ART

• The first group will be given prostratin while the second group will be given a placebo.

Expected Results

• Initially, the two groups would be on ART

• The first group will be expected to have no trace of the HIV virus in their CD4+ cells and since they were on ART, once prostratin destroys or expels the virus from CD4+ cells, the ART would kill the cells outside.

• The second group would still have latent HIV in their cells but the ART activity would have destroyed hive cells that have emerged out of the cells.

Results

ART/Pros-tratin

ART Prostratin0

2

4

6

8

10

12

HIV cured

Antiretroviral Drugs

Inference

• From the experiment, we can infer that Prostratin and ART should be used for the treatment of HIV to achieve the best possible outcome which is curing HIV.

Long-term Goal

• The long-term goal is to progress beyond the use of preventive and management treatments drugs for HIV and reach a new era where a cure for HIV will be found.

• The cure will be found after extensive clinical and experimental trials of the prostratin drug which attacks latent (Inactive) HIV cells in combination with antiretrovirals which target the virus when they are outside.

Alternative Approach

• The use of Prostratin is already an alternative approach which is more efficient not to talk of cost-effective to the use the already existing antiretroviral drugs.

• A better alternative approach would be to combine advanced versions of the already existing antiretrovirals with prostratin for a double effect.

Conclusion• Prostratin can be used as an effective agent in the

treatment of HIV in its latent stages as opposed to the antiretroviral drugs administered for each stage of the HIV infection that attack the diseases in the open.

• When used in combination with existing antiretroviral drugs, prostratin may one day help treating physicians eradicate all virus from the body—a feat not yet possible using existing therapies.

References

• Korin, Y. D., Brooks, D. G., Brown, S., Korotzer, A., & Zack, J. A. (2002). Effects of prostratin on T-cell activation and human immunodeficiency virus latency. Journal of virology, 76(16), 8118-8123.

• Biancotto, A., Grivel, J. C., Gondois-Rey, F., Bettendroffer, L., Vigne, R., Brown, S., ... & Hirsch, I. (2004). Dual role of prostratin in inhibition of infection and reactivation of human immunodeficiency virus from latency in primary blood lymphocytes and lymphoid tissue. Journal of virology, 78(19), 10507-10515.

• Daar, E.(2013). Human Immunodeficiency Virus(HIV Management). Retreive from;

• http://www.onhealth.com/human_immunodeficiency_virus_hiv_aids/article.htm

• Dragic, T., Litwin, V., Allaway, G. P., Martin, S. R., Huang, Y., Nagashima, K. A., ... & Paxton, W. A. (1996). HIV-1 entry into CD4+ cells.

• Kulkosky, J., Culnan, D. M., Roman, J., Dornadula, G., Schnell, M., Boyd, M. R., & Pomerantz, R. J. (2001). Prostratin: activation of latent HIV-1 expression suggests a potential inductive adjuvant therapy for HAART. Blood, 98(10), 3006-3015.