HIV with soy sauce

Soy sauce component will become a new drug against HIV

Copper news from the University of Missouri: Soy Sauce Molecule May Unlock Drug Therapy for HIV Patients, MU Researcher FindsHIV-infected people often develop resistance to first-line drugs, such as Tenofovir, which is why patients are forced to switch to more powerful drugs.

Now American virologists have discovered a compound in soy sauce that can stop the development of the immunodeficiency virus and is more powerful than Tenofovir. The results of the study have been published in the journals Retrovirology, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and The International Journal of Pharmaceuticals.

In 2001, specialists of a Japanese soy sauce company, while searching for a suitable flavor enhancer for their product, accidentally discovered an EFdA molecule (4'-ethyl-2-fluoro-2'-deoxyadenosine), which belongs to the class of nucleoside analogues with antiviral action. Samples of the compound were sent for analysis, which confirmed its potential benefit against HIV, which marked the beginning of many years of scientific research.

EFdA and eight other existing HIV drugs belong to a class of substances called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). The mechanism of action of this class of drugs is based on the suppression of reverse transcriptase, an HIV enzyme that replicates (synthesizes) its DNA copy based on the RNA of the virus, which is subsequently embedded in the cellular genome. This prevents HIV replication and stops the spread of the virus in the body.

"Patients who are treated for HIV with Tenofovir eventually develop drug resistance that prevents effective protection against the virus," said Stefan Sarafianos, professor of molecular biology, immunology and virology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, one of the authors of the study. "The EFdA molecule begins to act faster and is destroyed by the body more slowly than the active substances of other drugs, so it is less likely that the immunodeficiency virus will acquire resistance to it."

In this study, Sarafianos and his colleagues from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the University of Pittsburgh found out how the detected compound works at the molecular level. Using virological research methods and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, they determined the exact structure and spatial configuration of the molecule.

Currently, scientists together with the pharmaceutical company Merck are testing the effectiveness and safety of the compounds obtained in the treatment of HIV infection. According to Sarafianos, there is every reason to assume that the EFdA substance will effectively suppress the human immunodeficiency virus, will not lead to the development of drug resistance, in addition, this compound will act effectively against HIV, which has become resistant to Tenofovir.

From the editorial office:
We really hope that this promising antiretroviral drug is not used as a flavor enhancer, and that this is a "soy sauce component" is on the conscience of the author of the press release and the thoughtless translator. Sarafianos and his team have at best just started clinical trials (and perhaps the efficacy and safety are being tested on animals so far), so its side effects are still unknown, but here are the side effects listed in the instructions for Tenofovir:

• From the side of metabolism: very often – hypophosphatemia; rarely – lactic acidosis; possibly – hypokalemia.
• From the digestive system: very often – diarrhea, vomiting, nausea; often – flatulence; rarely – pancreatitis, increased transaminase activity; very rarely – hepatitis; possibly – liver steatosis.
• From the musculoskeletal system: possibly – rhabdomyolysis, osteomalacia, muscle weakness, myopathy.
• From the urinary system: rarely – acute renal failure, proximal renal tubulopathy (including Fanconi syndrome), hypercreatininemia; very rarely – acute tubular necrosis; frequency unknown – nephritis (including acute interstitial), nephrogenic diabetes insipidus.
• Other: very often – dizziness; rarely – rash; very rarely – dyspnea, asthenia.

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