Dr. Kenneth Palmer, a University of Louisville faculty member with the Owensboro Cancer Research Program, has published a new study indicating that a plant related to tobacco could be used as a preventive measure for HIV.
The Owensboro Cancer Research Program is a partnership between the Owensboro Medical Health System and U of L’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center. HIV research is a focus of the program because HIV patients have a higher risk of getting cancer.
Palmer was the senior author of the study, which was published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. It indicates that a protein found in a plant called “nicotiana benthamiana” could be a low-cost measure to prevent the virus, which can lead to AIDS.
The published study was a collaborative effort between Palmer and other scientists, including Dr. Barry O’Keefe of the National Cancer Institute. Two Kentucky-based biotech companies, Intrucept Biomedicine LLC and Kentucky Bioprocessing, also participated in the study, along with researchers at Duke University and the University of London, according to a news release.
Palmer, also an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology and senior scientist at the Brown Cancer Center, said during a news conference today that researchers have developed a process that allows 500,000 potential human doses to be extracted from plants grown in a 5,000-square-foot greenhouse.
The protein could be manufactured into a gel or a film, Palmer said, and could be comparable in cost to male condoms. Such a product would be especially useful in developing countries for women who are not able to “negotiate” condom use with sexual partners, Palmer said.
“There is a big need for an effective, female-controlled intervention,” he said, adding that the potential demand equates to “billions of doses.”
The plants from which the protein is extracted could be grown in Kentucky, Palmer said, and could represent opportunity for the agriculture industry.
“I think that it could be a new way of farming, and I hope it is,” he said.
The next step, Palmer said, is to formulate the protein so that it can be used in early-stage clinical trials in humans. Researchers hope to begin a phase one trial sometime next year, Palmer said, and the treatment could reach the market as soon as 2015.
Palmer estimated that “tens of millions” of dollars would be needed to carry the project through phase three clinical testing.
Project leaders believe that international health organizations, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will have an interest in helping to fund the research, said Dr. Donald Miller, director of the Brown Cancer Center.
Miller called the newly published study a “very important piece of work.”
“We think this is a validation of our belief that this is going to be a very viable, cost-effective way to produce new drugs,” Miller said. |
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