Yogurt bugs make HIV antiviral drugs

Posted on 26 January 2006

Scientists have found a way to alter bacteria found in yogurt to produce a protein proven to block HIV infection in monkeys. The results offer hope for a microbicide that can prevent the spread of HIV, which now affects about 40 million people.

“We’ve found that you can engineer these bugs to secrete drugs—in this case, a viricide that disables HIV,” reports Bharat Ramratnam, assistant professor of medicine at Brown Medical School and attending physician at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital. “The hope is to use the bacteria to prevent sexual transmission of HIV.”