Topics and Expertise: AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome)

New research support awarded to the UCSF School of Pharmacy by the National Institutes of Health during the 2011 fiscal year included a half-dozen on-going projects by BTS faculty:

A team of scientists from UCSF and colleagues have identified a new potential drug target for the herpes virus that causes Kaposi’s sarcoma. Their research reopens the possibility of using a class of drugs called protease inhibitors, against diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer's Disease.

From the time the antiretroviral therapy AZT was introduced in the 1980s to treat AIDS, the drug demanded close patient monitoring to be effective. AZT had many side effects and strict requirements for how and when to take it. Misuse of the drug could lead to viral resistance.