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Tuesday June 20 7:22 PM ET

Scientists Hope New Compound Is Better AIDS Drug

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers said on Tuesday they may have created a new compound to fight the virus that
causes AIDS.

The compound may survive in cells longer than existing drugs now used in cocktails to fight HIV, they reported in the Journal
of the American Chemical Society.

Vasu Nair of the University of Iowa and colleagues said they had created the compound using molecular engineering
techniques. They stressed that they have not yet tested it on humans or even animals, but said it looks very powerful in the test
tube.

If developed into a drug, it would join an experimental but promising new class of drugs called integrase inhibitors.

HIV drugs work at different steps in the process the virus goes through to infect cells.
Integrase inhibitors would stop the virus from integrating its DNA into the immune system cells
it attacks.

So far, the virus has shown an ability to develop resistance to all known drugs on the market,
so researchers are working to find drugs that will hold out longer.

``The integrase step is the most critical step in my point of view, because this is where the (viral) invasion is complete,'' Nair
said in a statement. ``From a scientific point of view, this is the step in which the real damage is done.''

AIDS has infected 50 million people worldwide, and has killed 16 million of them. Doctors agree a vaccine is the only real
answer but drugs can keep infected people alive and healthy.

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