Polymer Gel to Help Protect Against HIV/AIDS

Researchers at the University of Utah are currently working on a polymer gel that could possibly help fight HIV/AIDS. This gel is not a cure to HIV or AIDS, but has the potential to provide a protective barrier for women by acting as a condom, but in molecular form.

This gel starts out as a liquid and forms into a solid once it comes in contact with the area it is designed to protect. For women, they would apply this gel to the vaginal area before sex. Once semen comes in contact with the gel anti-HIV chemicals are released to essentially eliminate the spread of HIV.

The science behind this is that the gel solidifies in the vaginal area because the tissues are at a higher temperature. As the gel solidifies a thin protective layer is formed. Once in contact with semen, which is less acidic than the vaginal tissues, the gel melts and delivers a lethal dose of anti-HIV chemicals.

Kiser, an assistant professor of bioengineering, believes this is a breakthrough because "We are using the potential disease-carrying agent - in other words, the semen - to trigger the release of the drug with the hopes that this would make the microbicide much more active." By definition microbicides are chemicals applied to the vaginal area that are used to protect against HIV.

This gel will more than likely not be 100 percent effective therefore a condom should still be used. However, according to Kiser, it is possible to have this gel, or some other form of microbicide, to prove 90 percent effective.

This technology is still years in the making, as more research and testing needs to be done to test and improve its effectiveness. In the meantime condoms are still the best way to protect against HIV.

Hopefully one of these microbicides will soon prove to be effective because the benefits will be two fold. One is that in some cultures condoms are not accepted, and so this would provide means to help protect against HIV. Another is that this would essentially give women a means of protecting themselves under their own control instead of depending on their partner to use a condom.

HIV/AIDS

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