Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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New Vision (Kampala) - December 10, 2001
Charles Wendo
The team led by Dr Andrea Savarino of the University of Turin, Italy, said chloroquine interferes with the process by which the virus enters the human cells. Without entering the cells, the virus cannot multiply. The team's findings were published in the November 23 issue of the journal AIDS.
However, Dr. Peter Mugyenyi, Director of the Joint Clinical Centre (JCRC), on Friday said the announcement should not cause excitement. He said JCRC had tested chloroquine on a small number of people with HIV/AIDS but the results were not encouraging.
"We cannot dismiss their research but at the same time it (chloroquine) does not look like a drug that can replace antiretrovirals. If anything happens it (chloroquine) can only supplement the existing treatments," he said.
He added, "This is not a new idea. It has been around for almost 10 years. Savarino himself told the Reuter that their research was only done in the laboratory and it was too early to draw conclusions. He said the drug needs to be tested in animals then in human beings but chances are high that it can be used for treating HIV infection.
In an interview with Reuter, Savarino said chloroquine had shown signs that it could attack HIV strains that exist in the West (Europe and America) as well as those found in Africa. "Chloroquine is a cheap drug that is endowed with broad-spectrum anti-HIV activity," he said.
Savarino also said chloroquine works differently from other drugs used in HIV/AIDS treatment. Therefore if these drugs were used in combination with chloroquine, it would constitute a multi-pronged attack on the deadly virus.
In addition, he said, chloroquine accumulates in tissues and continues working after the person stops taking the drug. "Tissue accumulation of chloroquine would be an advantage in settings where outpatient counselling and follow-up is most difficult," he said.
Mugyenyi said the JCRC research did not rule out the possibility of using chloroquine in HIV treatment, but said the drug by itself would not serve the purpose.
"Chloroquine did not show very clearly that it had much effect on HIV. You cannot just dismiss it but it needs more research," he said.
He said the study would take only a couple of years but most organisations that fund research on HIV/AIDS treatment are not interested in chloroquine. This is partly because there is no strong sign that chloroquine might be successful in HIV treatment.
This research is quite expensive and if money was available it would not take long but nobody is coming in to assist," he said.
He also said chloroquine might have some use in prevention of malaria if people living with HIV/AIDS take it regularly, but this needs research. He said people with HIV/AIDS suffer severely from malaria and should therefore be protected from the disease.
Should chloroquine prove effective against HIV, it might regain its waning popularity. The drug has recently been losing popularity since 35% of the malaria cases in Uganda are now resistant to it.
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