Innovative work at Stellenbosch University could help turn the tide of HIV infection, as scientists here work with others across the world to pin down a cheap and effective product that promises women control of their sexual health.

Already 18 Months in the planning, work on the Empro project, or the European Microbicides Project, aims to turn out a product that will effectively “follow” the virus as it enters the body, blocking it before it starts doing damage.

Eight Stellenbosch University scientists, led by head of the university’s Pharmacology Department Professor Pieter van der Bijl, are the only South Africans involved in this huge project which takes in 35 principal investigators and 28 institutions.

It’s not a new concept, Van der Bijl said, and the passage of drugs across the various biological membranes has been studied for the past nine years.

Now, however, thanks to more than €11 million in funding from the EU, they will move on to examine new ways to introduce drugs to the body, particularly via the mucosa, or lining of the vagina and rectum.

“Having the drugs to treat a condition is one thing, getting them into the body is the next (challenge),” Van der Bijl said.

The start of the local part of the study comes 18 months after local specialists were invited to the St George’s Hospital Medical School in London for talks on the issue.

The formation of a consortium of experts worldwide followed, a proposal for EU funding was prepared last year and in January the entire group met face to face for the first time.

Van der Bijl said everyone was aware of the HIV problem, and of the fact that a vaccine is probably “a long way off”.

Treatment with HIV drugs has its own concerns too, including the problem of resistance to the drugs developing in patients.

“Our question is whether it’s not better to prevent transmission in the first place – and we know condoms haven’t been successful.

“So what if we developed novel products which kill the virus, and which women – particularly those in third world countries – could use,” he said.

They anticipate a compound that could be inserted into the vagina, probably as a cream, which would be active for 24 hours. It could also be used rectally for people having anal sex.

The study is vast, with specialists in different countries tasked with different questions, but the Stellenbosch scientists are looking specifically at the passage of HIV across vaginal and rectal membranes. Then they’re looking at new compounds and how they too will pass through the same membranes, as well as what affect they will have on the virus.

The vagina and the rectum are lined with mucosa. It is believed the virus enters the body between the cells of that mucosa, which is made up of about 20 epithelial layers, forming a barrier which rests on connective tissue.

Some of the compounds are complete, and others are being formulated by other scientists in the consortium. “We’ve got one compound already that we’re testing here, and in the future we hope to get a pipeline of promising compounds. Any compound that proves successful would have to be subjected to clinical trials so we’re still in the early stages,” Van der Bijl said.

With South Africa’s large numbers of people infected with HIV, he believes the country would be in a strong position to attract such clinical trials, ultimately offering local people with HIV and Aids other treatment options much sooner than expected.

“A product like this would be advantageous to everybody. It would be much cheaper, hopefully address the resistance factor, compliance would be much easier, and women would be handed active control of their own sexual health,” Van der Bijl said.

The consortium currently has a few compounds they believe hold promise, and which could progress to the stage of clinical trials.

“These products are desperately needed, especially for women in countries and communities where they are seen simply as objects, with very little chance of otherwise protecting themselves from contracting HIV,” Van der Bijl said.