Modern day antiretroviral drugs lover HIV levels past detectable levels. But a HIV positive person has to stay on the drugs because the virus hides in immune cells, thus undetectable, but still present. If a patient stops taking drugs the virus comes out of hiding and multiplies rapidly, often with deadly consequences.

The small island of Samoa is home to the H.nutans tree. Samoans call it the mamala tree. It contains a natural product molecule called Prostratin that is capable to pull the virus out of hiding and into the path of the antiretroviral drugs. Once the drug can reach the virus it will destroy it, potentially creating the long thought after cure for HIV/AIDS. As promising as this sounds research activities were few. First barrier is the limited numbers of trees on the island of Samoa limiting the amount of Prostratin that could be extracted. Second, the natural products mechanism suggests inflammatory and other harmful side effects. Source: www.lightyears.net

Stanford University Chemist Paul A. Wender and collaborators invented a five step synthesis of Prostratin from a commercially available chemical called Phorbol. This invention beats both limits previously mentioned: Prostratin can now be synthesized without touching a single mamala tree. Secondly, once we Chemists know how to synthesize a compound we can invent ways to make little changes with the goal to minimize “bad” undesired side effects and increase the drug potency. Source: C&EN, May19,2008

It was Bill Gates himself who once said that Scientists are the people who are holding the answers to today’s world problems. As a Scientist, Founder and President of AIDSfreeAFRICA I have to agree proudly.