Resveratrol A Possible Tool For Treating HIV.

Two recent studies point to resveratrol as a possible therapeutic tool for HIV.  In a recent 2010 study in the Journal of Cellular Biology, researchers observed that an HIV protein, called Tat, that is critical for activating various HIV proteins and helps the replication of the virus, can be inactivated by the SIRT1 protein. However, it was observed that when the HIV virus infected cells, it initially will shut down any SIRT1 activity. One of the major findings that the researchers made through this study was that resveratrol could reactivate SIRT1 activity in the affected cells. This was a breakthrough as it appears that the researchers found that resveratrol reversed the cellular changes made by HIV, which was not thought possible.

With these findings the researchers found that resveratrol and other molecules that target SIRT1, would need to be studied further as possible therapeutic tools against cellular changes that make it easy for HIV to spread to other cells.  While SIRT1 activation is important and appears to limit HIV replication, another study focuses on a different aspect of HIV, the side effects of current drugs that are used for it’s treatment.

The second article published in the journal AIDS, focuses on the harmful side-effects of the antiretroviral therapy. In this second study, resveratrol was used to see if it could help protect cells. Currently the HIV infection is treated with an antiretroviral therapy composed of protease inhibitors. However, the therapy has adverse side-effects that include among other things, the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) which can cause oxidative damage. An overproduction of ROS can lead to memory issues in animals and current studies demonstrate that the accumulation of ROS can decrease an organism’s fitness as oxidative damage is a contributor to senescence, mitochondria deficiency with implications on overall aging.

In this study, the researchers treated regular human cells with resveratrol and some of the commonly used therapeutic drugs utilized to treat HIV infected patients. The results were positive. All parameters tested by the researchers indicated that the resveratrol, reduced the side-effects caused by the protease inhibitors.

The above findings open the door for further studies on using resveratrol as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of AIDS. A further study to help clarify this would need to be done to see if the researchers would address whether resveratrol has any effect on the normal function of these antiretroviral drugs in fighting HIV.

Resveratrol has garnered the attention of the scientists, in different aspects of health research. These continuous ongoing positive studies are making it a point for people who want to lead a healthy fulfilling life, to seriously consider it a staple of daily life. Although resveratrol is available in dark grapes, people who do not have easy access large quantities of dark red grapes should consider high purity micronized resveratrol supplements. Many find resveratrol supplements convenient, and most want to take something that is as close as possible to that which is used in various studies.

Since most studies dissolve resveratrol in ethanol to increase it’s absorption before being used in animal or cellular studies, we suggest considering micronized resveratrol as the small particles are close to the size used in many of the studies.  Supplements produced to exact specifications, really help ensure that you can always get the benefits of resveratrol, without considering carrying around large amounts of grapes that can spoil or the alcohol found in most red wines.

Tags: hiv infection, hiv replication, hiv virus, Resveratrol