Review highlights how polymer therapies are helping fight HIV

A review has been published highlighting the current uses and potential new development of polymeric therapies in the fight against HIV.

The review, entitled ‘Polymeric Anti-HIV Therapeutics’ looks at how polymer-based therapies are used at several stages of the HIV life cycle, both in reducing transmission and infection, and in the treatment of individuals infected by the disease which, despite, decades of research, is still a major global health issue.

The report explains the importance of these therapies in the ongoing fight against the disease, as viral resistance to existing drugs increases and the toxicity of many established treatments becomes apparent.

Polyanionic, peptide, protein, polysaccharide and synthetic drug ligands are presented in the review, which, it says, combined with synthetic macromolecules, could provide novel and low toxicity HIV therapies.

Such therapeutics are said to be able to inhibit the HIV virus at critical stages of its life cycle. Polymeric therapeutics offer advantages over non-polymeric therapies, such as increased stability and efficacy, and the ability to act as a scaffold.

The review is highlighted in the ‘Best of Macromolecular Journals Edition 2016’