Component of Green Tea halts spread of HIV

Researchers at Hamburg University have discovered that highly concentrated amounts of a chemical found in green tea can strip the HIV virus-carrying proteins in semen. When combined in a vaginal cream, this could prove an effective way to halt the sexual transmission of AIDS and better protect women who might otherwise risk unprotected sex.

On May 18, the acclaimed science research journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published on-line the article of Ilona Hauber, Heinrich Hohenberg, Barbara Holstermann, Werner Hunstein, and Joachim Hauber with the results of their laboratory experiments. The team, from the Heinrich Plette Institute for Experimental Virology and Immunology at the University of Hamburg, believes that their findings can help many women, particularly in Africa, better protect themselves from contracting the HIV virus and AIDS.

To date the experiments reveal that a concentrated substance from green tea, targets the protein in semen that carries the virus and, thus far, does not seem to damage the semen cells. Further research is needed to confirm this. Currently, using a condom was the best protection but would prevent a woman from conceiving a child. This new method, if proven safe, would allow women this chance at pregnancy while protecting her from infection. Virologist Ilona Hauber emphasized the importance of this, “especially in Africa, the women want to have children.”

Such creams have been developed to attack the virus, but up to now have failed. With this new development, women may actively protect themselves against the HIV virus, whether or not their partner uses a condom or not.

The researcher warned, “it is no use drinking an enormous amount of green tea and then believing you are protected from contracting HIV! The active ingredient EGCG must come in contact with semen and in high concentrations, and that is presumably best achieved when used as an active ingredient in vaginal creams.”

Hauber and her team hope that perhaps better creams can be developed which could be made available on the African market as a cost-effective prophylaxis.
Article source : http://www.germanyandafrica.diplo.de/