tors started looking at seven cancer drugs to see if they might also have an effect on HIV. They note that developing a drug from scratch can cost $600 million and take more than 12 years.
"We were trying to purposely short-circuit that long, tedious process," said Mansky, by "drug repositioning," or finding a fresh use for an existing drug.
The same idea has breathed new life into a number of medications, the researchers pointed out. Zyban, the smoking cessation drug, started out as an antidepressant; and Viagra evolved from a heart-disease medication.
The researchers found that at least two of the cancer drugs could reduce HIV's ability to infect new cells, but that the combination of the two was more effective than either one alone.
They've begun a study in mice, he said, and so far the results are similar.
One big question, he said, is the long-term effect on HIV patients, who might have to take the drugs for years. "It's not clear what the side effects would be," he said. That's one reason doctors would be cautious about trying the drugs without more research.
The study, recently published online, appears in the September issue of the Journal of Virology.
Maura Lerner • 612-673-7384
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