Hope is growing that a simple vaginal gel could help to stem the global spread of HIV. A squirt of antibody, which prevents the virus burying into human cells, seems to curb sexual transmission of HIV between monkeys. “We’re encouraged,” says lead researcher John Moore of Cornell University.
The study backs a burgeoning belief that this or other microbicides, applied in a cream to the vagina or rectum, could save lives.
Researchers are investigating around 60 potential microbicides. But they are wary of pitfalls because one candidate, a spermicide called nonoxynol-9, was found to actually increase the HIV infection rate.
Nature