Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 16 Nov 1995
Joanne Kenen / Reuter

If the leap can be made from monkeys to humans -- and that has not yet been proved -- one of the most promising areas for the drug is in preventing women from passing the virus to their babies during labor and childbirth, scientists said.

It could also be a lifesaver for health care or rescue workers pricked with a contaminated needle or sprayed with AIDS-tainted blood. It may even help rape victims avoid infection, said Che-Chung Tsai, lead author of the report appearing in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

"This data is very encouraging," Tsai, a pathologist and veterinarian at the University of Washington Regional Primate Research Center, said in a telephone interview.

PMPA, as it is called, "is the most effective drug we've seen," he added.

PMPA is one of the new antiviral compounds known as nucleotide analogues. Like AZT, the best known anti-AIDS drug, it blocks an enzyme needed for HIV cells to reproduce.

The treatment worked when begun up to 24 hours after exposure to simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). And unlike other AIDS drugs, there are no signs yet the virus mutates to resist the drug, Tsai said.

PMPA is licensed to Gilead Sciences, a biotechnology company in Foster City, Calif. The company said in a statement Thursday it was conducting additional preclinical testing in preparation for human trials.

PMPA was given to 25 monkeys for four weeks. The researchers experimented with different timetables, starting the injections from two days before exposure to 24 hours after exposure to SIV, a monkey virus similiar to HIV that causes AIDS in humans.

It safely blocked infection in all of the treated monkeys, and they stayed virus-free during a year of follow-up.

In contrast, a control group of 10 monkeys were all infected within three weeks.

"Such complete protection with no toxicity is unprecedented in the monkey model of AIDS and suggests a potential role for PMPA in preventing HIV infection in health care workers or others accidentally exposed to the virus," Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a statement. His government agency helped fund the research.

The experiment showed that the drug stopped SIV from establishing itself in the monkeys. It did not show how effective it would be as a treatment in animals already infected, although some preliminary animal research in California and Washington is showing some promise in that area as well.

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