Altered Milk Protein Can Be Used to Cure Infants with AIDS

Source: biotechnology.com

A recent research done in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences reports that milk powder containing Ritonavir can be used as a transport system to deliver drug that is not very soluble in water.

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According to Harte, one of these researchers involved in this research, an altered protein with an antiretroviral drug in milk promises to greatly improve treatment for infants and young children suffering from HIV/AIDS,

The World Health Organization has reported that there are an estimated 3.4 million children living with HIV/AIDS, and 1/9 of them live in countries and regions where effective antiretroviral treatments still are not widely accessible or available. Most of those children cannot receive a proper treatment due to limited resources.

Another problem is that most antiretroviral drugs are not well tolerated by very young children. Ritonavir, as the most commonly prescribed antiretroviral drugs for treating and preventing HIV has undesirable side effects and important oral-delivery problems.

Ritonavir is with high hydrophobicity and low solubility in water, which leads to insufficient bioavailability. Besides, the liquid formulation to deliver Ritonavir not only tastes bad, it can also cause side effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. For those reasons a new alternative pediatric formulation of Ritonavir with better water solubility and oral flavor is needed.

Harte’s team has recently found a protein named caseins in cow's milk and this protein is said to be responsible for the white color of milk. They find that these casein micelles are able to carry molecules that have very little solubility in water with low molecular weight and could be bound to triclosan- an antimicrobial used in deodorants and vitamin D, which is added regularly to skim milk. This finding shows that casein micelles are natural delivery systems for amino acids and calcium from mother to young.

“We don't have the data yet- we find that the Ritonavir is being adequately delivered by the protein in milk. So if that works, I think we are pretty close to having a formulation that can be used with hydrophobic drugs." Harte said.

He also noted that he has made a proposal for research funding and hoped that they could finalize with a new formulation to help those children suffered from AIDS.

Their study has yet not entered the trail stage and further works are needed.