| Biotech News | Monday, September 6 2010 |
| |
Stopping HIV at the Gate (3) comments
By Nnaemeka Nwachukwu | Saturday, October 4 2008 | Biotech
  
 As the speculated HIV vaccine remains elusive, researchers have become more focused on newer methods of preventing the transmission of the disease especially in situations where prevention has proved most difficult. Take the case of mother to child transmission via breastfeeding as example.
With about 25 Million people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa and 10 million potential mothers amongst them, we have 700,000 children born each year to HIV-positive mothers in the region. An estimated 40% of these children will be infected with the virus through breastfeeding if there’s no intervention.
Several studies in the past have led to the design of some intervention techniques such as flash-heating which has been shown to effectively remove HIV from milk. Flash-heating is a type of pasteurization that brings the milk to a higher temperature for a shorter period of time, a method known to better protect the anti-infective and nutritional properties of breast milk. Procedurally, using the flash-heating method, 75-150 mL of breast milk is expressed into a glass jar. The jar is then placed in a pot of water, which is brought to boil. At this point the milk can be removed, and fed to the baby once it cools to an acceptable temperature. Unfortunately flash-heating has not gained acceptance in most parts of Africa because of financial, cultural factors and stigma concerns. The quest for a better solution has recently turned up interesting results.
The International Design Development Summit (IDDS) in the United States commissioned a team of researchers led by Stephen Gerrard, a Cambridge University engineer, to create a more practical design for heating breast milk in order to deactivate the virus however due to the contextual problems already faced by flash-heating the researchers felt that a different approach would be a better solution.
Their invention is one that has shown the best potential for implementation and adaptation so far.  The device is a small nipple-shield filter made of a very thin layer of silicone which uses a cotton wool soaked in a common detergent, sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) to deactivate the virus.
SDS also known as Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), has been used by scientists for a long time to denature proteins for analysis, it is also used in toothpaste, shampoo, etc. Gerrard explained that choice of SDS amongst other options was based on the fact that SDS can kill the virus quickly and in fairly non-toxic concentrations, as opposed to copper compounds. SDS is also extremely inexpensive.
Gerrard’s design was presented at the September 2008 summit of the International Development Design Summit in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The summit brings experts together for one month to develop products that will aid people in developing nations.
This project could also have benefits that reach beyond prevention of HIV. “We’re concerned that using our nipple shield could be stigmatizing, since it would identify a mother as HIV infected” Mr Gerrard said. “We’re considering marketing it as a way to deliver medicines or micro-nutrient supplements to aid breastfeeding. For example, they can be used for cases of iron or iodine deficiency.”
Whatever way the shield is finally marketed, as long as it is delivered to the women that need it, this finding brings more hope for our realization of a HIV-free generation in the near future. Also as important, it’ll encourage breastfeeding among these women thus creating that bond between a breastfeeding mother and her child.
| |
| |
|
(3) comments Click Here to Add Your Comment |
 |
Affordability
By buya | on Saturday, October 4 2008 | 09:43:25 AM
Its a great invention and i hope it is cheap - because most that have are HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa -poorest of the poor. |
|
|
Kudos
By Orch | on Saturday, October 4 2008 | 10:05:17 AM
I really commend you for your wonderful article. my comments....What happened to the flash machine. Is it no longer used...Is there no way it could be modified to be less expensive?
For the nipple-shield filter, I suggest it should be marketed notwithstanding the stigme the patient might receive. Keep on the good work! |
|
|
When did Gerrard leave Liverpool for Cambridge?
By Ibukun Afolami | on Monday, October 6 2008 | 11:47:12 AM
On coming across Stephen Gerrard as the inventor of the HIV nipple shield, I smiled at the coincidence. Stephen Gerrard would need to be superman to combine the arduous demands of professional football with the not-less-rigorous demands of intellectual research.
For fifteen years now, the HIV virus has constantly demonstrated a kind of \"intelligence\", getting more and more elusive each time. It is therefore consoling to come across any reasearch geared at preventing its transmission to the innocent child.
What doesn\'t stop amazing me is the domineering nature of this tyrannical agent. The HIV is just a tiny strand surrounded by a small protein coat, which it even drops at the door of the cell before it invades it. And yet, with just nine genes in its stand, it\'s able to take full control of millions of cells in the body. It only takes a \"smart\" molecule to do this and get away with it. The HIV virus has been doing this for fifteen years, and each time, it has gotten away with it.
Numerous drugs have been designed to curb the excesses of this deadly virus - drugs targetted directly at attacking it. However, owing to its cunning nature, HIV keeps on getting resistant to these drugs. It\'s amazing! It doesn\'t even have to move a muscle. All it needs is just a few readjustment of DNA.
I think scientists should start exploring indirect ways of tackling the virus. With Gerrard\'s invention, it becomes even easier for the infected mother to breastfeed her baby, and with proper marketting, the stigma already anticipated would wear out with time. Ongoing research led by Stephen Elledge at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is also seeking an indirect way of dealing with the virus. Through the discoveries of Andrew Fire and Craig Mello - 2006 Nobel prize co-winners for Medicine - it was possible to determine how many of the human proteins the HIV virus uses in its \"molecular dirty work\". I\'m sure you\'ld be as amazed as I was to discover that at present, 273 human proteins have been implicated. I would like to see the HIV virus as another Kizar Sose (Usual suspects). On its own, it appears weak and even crippled with just nine genes, But in its weakness lies its meanness.
Ibukun
|
|
|
