New “Molecular Condom” Study

In many regions of Africa and Asia, there are some age groups amongst women that have a 60% HIV infection rate. The high infection rate usually stems from the fact that in these regions, culturally, women do not feel empowered enough to push the issue with their sexual partners to wear a condom. Scientists from the University of Utah may have found a way around this in the development of a new “molecular condom” that aims to protect thse impoverished women. The way the molecular condom works is before a sexual encounter, a woman inserts a gel into her vagina. When that gel comes into the presence of semen, it holds the AIDS virus hostage, so to speak, and does not allow the virus to infect the cells within the vagina.

Patrick Kiser, one of the scientists in this project and a University of Utah associate professor of bioengineering, states, “The first step in the complicated process of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection in a woman is the virus diffusing from semen to vaginal tissue. We want to stop that first step. We have created the first vaginal gel designed to prevent movement of the AIDS virus. This is unique. There’s nothing like it.” He goes on to state, “We did it to develop technologies that can enable women to protect themselves against HIV without approval of their partner. This is important – particularly in resource-poor areas of the world like sub-Sahara Africa and south Asia…In these places, women often are not empowered to force their partners to wear a condom.”

Julie Jay, an author in the study and a doctoral candidate in pharmaceutics at the University of Utah adds, “Due to cultural and socioeconomic factors, women often are unable to negotiate the use of protection with their partner.” The gel could be inserted into the vagina hours before a sexual encounter. It would serve to “detect the presence of semen and provide a protective barrier between the vaginal tissue and HIV,” states Jay. “We wanted to build a gel that would stop HIV from interacting with vaginal tissue.” If the study continues to go well, Kiser believes that the gel could begin a human testing trial within three to five years. If that proves successful, the gel would become marketable a few years after that. Kiser and Jay would also like to see if the gel could possibly be saturated with an antiviral drug. This would not only stop the HIV virus, but also prevent HIV replication.

Three years ago, Kiser and fellow researchers had a similar study; in this study, the “molecular condom” was in liquid form. Once the liquid reached the same temperature as the body, it would turn more gel-like. Once this gel felt the presence of semen, it would transition back into a liquid and simultaneously release an antiviral drug. Unfortunately, the high temperatures in Africa did not allow the gel to transition back
into a liquid. The new “molecular condom” works in a similar way, but instead of ever being a liquid, it starts off as a gel and then turns more solid once it reacts with semen.