WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (AFP) - Garlic can have a serious impact on anti-HIV/AIDS treatment based on saquinavir, a medication which slows down the progress of the infection, US researchers said Thursday.
Garlic, popular among HIV-infected patients because of its reputation as a natural cholesterol fighter, cuts by around half the level of saquinavir in the blood, doctors from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said.
Saquinavir, a protease inhibitor, is usually prescribed by doctors to be taken with several anti-HIV drugs.
The results of the study, carried out on nine healthy, HIV-negative people were published Thursday on the online edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases magazine. Dr Stephen Piscitelli, a former researcher at the pharmalogical centre at the NIH headed the study.
The volunteers were given injections of saquinavir for three days and the baseline levels of the drug in their bloodstream was measured.
The volunteers then took two daily does of garlic tablets for three weeks.
Blood samples then showed a drop in the levels of saquinavir of between on average 51 percent to 54 percent. Ten days later, even without garlic supplements, their blood levels of saquinavir still averaged around 35 percent lower than the expected baseline amount.
"We saw a definite prolonged interaction. The clear implication is that doctors and patients should be cautious about using garlic supplements during HIV therapy," concluded Dr Judith Falloon, co-author of the study and a researcher at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
The researchers do not know exactly how garlic has such an effect on saquinavir concentrations in the blood.
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