An FDA‑approved medication called spironolactone, often prescribed for heart and blood pressure conditions, may be a useful add‑on to the standard HIV treatment, according to new research from the Valente lab at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology.
Researchers treated HIV-infected mice with human immune cells with first‑line antiretroviral therapy plus a long‑acting form of spironolactone. Spironolactone is a widely used diuretic, or water pill.
The study, published in Emerging Microbes & Infections, found that adding spironolactone reduced more than four times the cell‑associated HIV RNA in the body and broadly lowered inflammation activity. The amount of proviral DNA, the HIV genetic material, that can persist in the body did not change, suggesting spironolactone helped quiet viral activity rather than remove infected cells.
Read the full news story here.
Source : University of Florida
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