The inhibition of HIV-1 activity by crude mucus and purified mucin (mucous glycoproteins) from saliva, breast milk and the cervical tract of normal subjects, HIV positive individuals and patients with HIV-AIDS

• Main Author: Habte, Habtom Haileselassie
• Other Authors: Mall, Anwar Suleman
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2014
• Subjects: Surgery
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10629

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-161). === Human saliva, breast milk and cervical secretions contain several non-immunological components including mucins (mucous glycoproteins), which protect the gastrointesinal and female reproductive tracts and breast fed infants from bacterial, viral and fungal infections. In addition to their well known function in lubrication, tissue coating and digestion, mucus and mcins have been used as pathological markers in diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, and carcinomas of the breast, lung and colon. Crude saliva is a also known to inhibit the activity of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). According to the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) worldwide an estimated 38.6 million people were living with HIV in 2005 with 401 million newly infected and 2.8 million deaths. It has been reported that an estimated 24.5 million of the HIV infected people of whom 60% females live in sub-Saharan Africa with the Southern African region having the highest prevalence in Africa. Furthermore the incidence of opportunistic diseases such as TB is also reported to increase with HIV prevalence. Thus far, despite the discovery of highly active antiretroviral therapies which contain both protease and reverse transcriptase inhibitors, HIV remains as a global threat especially to the third world countries. Therefore there is a need for the development of safe compounds to reduce viral loads in infected people and to prevent the transmission of the virus from one individual to another. The search for a suitable vaccine is ongoing.