AIDS Facts

Heterosexual transmission of HIV has reached 85% globally. In the US, male-to-male sexual contacts account for new diagnoses, along with intravenous drug abuse. Many infected individuals are not aware that they already have HIV and so are not diagnosed immediately. The proportion of infected victims has continued to rise in the recent years.

 

According to UNAIDS report of 2008, The United States of America accounted for an estimated 1.2 million of the 2.0 million people living with HIV in North America, and in Western and Central Europe in 2007. Overall in those regions, 81 000 people were newly infected with HIV in 2007. Comparatively few people—31 000 in a range of 16 000–67 000—died of AIDS last year. This number includes all people who have ever been diagnosed with an AIDS-defining condition and are believed to be alive, including many people who have recovered their health by taking antiretroviral therapy.

Frequently Asked Questions

 

1. Why Cytolin®?
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects lots of other species but only causes a disease in humans. AIDS, like some other diseases, is not caused by the virus itself but by the way the human immune system reacts to the virus: It self-destructs. Cytolin® compensates for this. Hepatitis is another such disease where it is not the virus but the reaction of the immune system that destroys the liver. In hepatitis the gold standard for treatment is interferon-alpha, a drug that protects the liver from the killer cells of the immune system. The reason to include the same approach in treating HIV/AIDS is that a virus becomes resistant to the drugs used to kill it. The flu virus, for instance, is becoming resistance to Tamiflu® . Cytolin® prevents the CD8 cells from binding to and killing off the healthy CD4 T-Cells in HIV infected patients. Over time, the patient's CD4 cells are able to recuperate, and the patient's CD4 (T-Cell) count will increase. The patient's CD4 cells are a critical component of the immune system's defense against the HIV virus and the opportunistic infections.

 

2. What is Cytolin®?
Cytolin® is a monoclonal antibody that competitively blocks the part of the immune system that causes it to self-destruct in response to HIV infection. What this means is that HIV positive patients who have decreases in their CD4T-Cells can be treated with Cytolin® to increase those CD4 T-Cells and boost the immune system.

 

3. What does Cytolin® 'NOT' do?
Cytolin® is not a drug that attacks the virus directly. It is, therefore, different from all other drugs being used or developed to treat HIV/AIDS.

 

4. What are the side effects of Cytolin®, if any?
The most potentially serious side effect observed was an allergic reaction. This occurred rarely in 188 patients treated over 18 months. No patient was harmed as a result. Other side effects that have been observed: Protein Sickness. A temporary pain in the lower back is observed when proteins are injected. This is not medically serious and requires no treatment. Serum Sickness, Mild flu-like symptoms.

 

5. What is on the market now for HIV drugs?
Current drugs are antiretrovirals, drugs that attack HIV directly instead of fixing the immune system.

 

6. What do these other drugs do?

 

a. Treatments

(a) These drugs reduce the level of virus in the blood, making HIV/AIDS a chronic and serious but manageable disease.

 

b. Side effects of other drugs.
(b) Side effects include peripheral neuropathy (nerve pain in the extremities), damage to some organs, and other adverse reactions.

 

7. Is Cytolin® tested on HIV patients?
Five HIV-seropositive adults received one infusion of 7 mg Cytolin® in an early pilot study. 8. What were the results followed by the testing of Cytolin®? After five weeks (at study end) there was a resolution of cutaneous anergy across five to six antigens (p less than 0.5) measured with a standardized device that included a glycerin control. This apparent improvement in cell-mediated immune function was clinically correlated with a resolution of ARC-type complaints, such as molluscum contagiosum. It was also correlated with a reduced mean vial burden that reached a 1-log reduction after 4 weeks, and was maintained for at least another week at study end.