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NanoViricides Signs anti-HIV Drug Candidate Testing Agreement with University of California, San Francisco
WEST HAVEN, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NanoViricides, Inc. (OTC BB: NNVC.OB) (the "Company"), announced that it has signed a Research Agreement with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for testing of its anti-HIV drug candidates. Cheryl Stoddart, PhD, Assistant Professor in the UCSF Division of Experimental Medicine, will be the Principal Investigator.
Dr. Stoddart is a recognized investigator in preclinical studies of anti-HIV compounds using the standard SCID-hu Thy/Liv humanized mouse model. In particular, she is well known for her work in validating that this mouse model is capable of accurately predicting clinical antiviral efficacy in humans. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has recognized UCSF as an important site for anti-HIV drug screening studies.
Dr. Stoddart’s in-vivo testing of anti-HIV nanoviricides will complement the Company’s previously announced in-vitro anti-HIV testing that is currently underway at the Southern Research Institute in Frederick, MD.
The Company has previously performed anti-HIV nanoviricides testing in vivo at KARD Scientific, Beverly, MA. In these studies, several nanoviricide drug candidates were shown to have equal effectiveness in terms of multiple parameters to a clinical anti-HIV HAART three-drug cocktail. The HAART cocktail drugs were administered at a much greater total dosage (4,100 mg/kg of HAART) than the nanoviricides (only 150mg/kg of the nanoviricides). This study evaluated several parameters including the reduction of HIV viral load, improvement in CD4+/CD8+ double-positive human T cells, and HIV particle count inside human T cells in the transplant, among others. The best nanoviricide drug candidate was greater than 25X (2,500%) superior to the HAART drug cocktail based on the amount of drug that produced comparable or superior effect. If these results are indicative of clinical response in humans, the Company believes that HIVCide™, its lead drug candidate against HIV, may constitute a “functional cure” for HIV/AIDS, either by itself, or in combination with existing therapies.
“We are very interested to find out how our prior results compare to the standardized studies in Dr. Stoddart’s lab,” said Anil R. Diwan, PhD, President of the Company.
