Researchers at Rutgers University may have found a way to stop HIV in its tracks. Researchers have developed a trio of drugs they believe can destroy HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to a report published last month in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry..Researchers at Rutgers University may have found a way to stop HIV in its tracks. Researchers have developed a trio of drugs they believe can destroy HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to a report published last month in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

The drugs, called DAPYs, are capable of changing shape to mimic the virus, which enables them to interfere with the way HIV attacks the immune system.

Tests conducted with Johnson and Johnson have shown the drug to be easily absorbed with few side effects. It can be taken in one pill, compared to the multi-pill drug cocktails currently taken by many AIDS patients.

The research team, led by Rutgers chemist Eddy Arnold, pre-published details of the most promising of the three drugs, known as R278474, last month in the electronic edition of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Full details should be published in the journal in early 2005. The optimism about R278474 comes from its potential to interfere with an enzyme that the virus needs to copy and insert itself into a human cell.

Arnold, 47, has worked at dismantling the AIDS virus over the last 20 years. He uses X-ray crystallography, a technique to determine the structure of molecules, the smallest particles that can retain all the characteristics of an element or compound. Arnold’s research team targeted reverse transcriptase, a submiscroscopic protein composed of two coiled chains of amino acids. It is considered HIV’s key protein.

YNOT contacted Dr. Sharon Mitchell, founder of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (AIM) (http://aim-med.org) for her perspective on this latest development in the fight against HIV.

YNOT: What are the some of the possibilities of this new development?

Dr. Mitchell: Well, it brings a quick fix to HIV, as it works with reverse transcriptase, the most difficult part of the HIV protein.

YNOT: Is there any way to know if/when new drugs based on this technology would be available?

Dr. Mitchell: It depends on FDA approval. I would say about three years, if all phases of research go well.

YNOT: Regarding the adult industry, has the industry done anything differently since the last outbreak of HIV to reduce risks?

Dr. Mitchell: Yes, we have put in place more suggestions that folks who travel out of the country, or new folks, must have two clean bills of health within two weeks before they can work. In other words, one now, and one in two weeks. We also are requiring all non-condom talent to test every two weeks with our PCR/DNA technology test for HIV.

We have also put in another database, wherein all production managers, or talent, input all sexual encounters that have been shot at the end of each working day. This database will insure an exact quarantine list, if the HIV situation ever comes up again. We have also updated all of our newcomer packets, including a 1-hour video-taped educational “porn 101” with more info on HIV, STD, and psych-social issues for the porn/sexworker.

AIM test over 1200 talent members each month, and we have a very low infection rate. HIV equals .0003%, and STDs other than HIV equals 1.9%. The general population is 12% [for] STDs, and the USA is still holding at 40,000 new infections each year.

YNOT: Do you support or oppose the idea of mandatory condom use for the filming of adult movies?

Dr. Mitchell: I, as a clinician, support [condom use] 100 percent; however it needs to be voluntary, and done by the industry, for the industry. If legislation were to come down from Sacramento making this into law, over 40 percent of all productions would go underground, and they would never even come in to test.

As it stands now, we (AIM) have 98 percent compliance within this community by suggesting requirements that work due to the fact they are made by and for the industry.

***

Dr. Sharon Mitchell spent 25 years in the adult entertainment industry as an actress, appearing in over 2000 movies, and as a dancer performing in venues all over the world, and she has produced and directed over 42 movies. She is now an MPH/Clinical Sexologist and has received her Ph.D. in Human Sexuality from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco.

Founded in 1998 by Dr. Mitchell, AIM is a non-profit organization serving sexworkers and the general public in areas of HIV testing and counselling of many types, including gynaecology services, STD testing and treatment, and industry related educational groups and videotape informational materials.

SexyScribe is a is an Assistant Editor with the YNOT writing team, and can be reached at scribe@sexyscribe.com.