A world renowned scientist and 2008 Nobel Laureate for Physiology or Medicine outlined his latest research in controlling HIV/AIDS infection during a stop at Claflin University Monday morning.

Dr. Luc Montagnier, president of the World Foundation for Medical Research and Prevention, gave a lecture titled “HIV/AIDS: Future Prospects for Controlling Infection” to a large group of students and faculty gathered in the Daniel C. Moss Jr. Auditorium.

Montagnier, who is co-founder of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention and co-director of the Program for International Viral Collaboration, received the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Francoise Barre- Sinoussi for the discovery of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

“There is still a lot to learn about DNA if you want to test and prevent most of our diseases,” said Montagnier, who said the use of antiretroviral therapies for HIV-positive individuals has its limitations.

“Most people try to avert this unless they are very sick,” he said, adding that stigma and discrimination associated with the disease make many reluctant to seek treatment at all, particularly among those who are asymptomatic.

He instead put an emphasis on the establishment of a short-term treatment, or therapeutic vaccine, that could achieve the ultimate prevention of HIV over a six- to nine-month period as is possible in tuberculosis treatment. He said the treatment would involve self control of the HIV infection by an individual’s own immune system.

“This not unusual,” he said, and will create a reduced ability to transmit the HIV virus. He said restoring immunity against HIV or boosting an individual’s immune system in a specific way, however, will not be easy. His current research includes looking into the use of antioxidants in helping to treat HIV and “identifying and targeting the viral reservoir” contributing to the development of HIV.

Montagnier suggested the identification of the “viral reservoir” is where an individual’s DNA comes into play. “There are many studies to be done,” he said, but the current one being conducted to extrapolate HIV DNA involves studying the resonance emission of low-frequency electromagnetic waves through high-water dilutions of DNA.

Montagnier said the idea of a cure is relative, particularly since an individual’s viral particles cannot all be removed anyway. He said they can, however, be lowered enough to be controlled by an individual’s own immune system.

Dr. Verlie Tisdale, dean of natural sciences and mathematics at Claflin University, asked if the cost of HIV/AIDS care can potentially go down with the development of a short-term treatment. Montagnier said that issue, however, was “not simple” because it pointed to the fact that developing a treatment involved not just medical forces, but political ones that would better define the cost of a treatment.

Dr. Omar Bagasra, Claflin biology professor and director of the campus-based South Carolina Center for Biotechnology, said Montagnier’s visit to the university was a significant one. He said the university is collaborating on Montagnier’s work with HIV DNA.

“I think that he’s given us a great scientific and moral boost with what he’s doing,” said Bagasra, who has been putting his own focus on the potential of an HIV vaccine. Since vaccines to produce antibodies against HIV have not proven successful, he has studied the development of a vaccine based on the development of a specific gene sequence that would mimic the HIV-blocking micro RNA found in chimpanzees, who do not get AIDS.

“Every vaccine has failed. We continue to do vaccine work. Dr. Montagnier is very interested in collaborating with us. We’ll continue with that facet,” Bagasra said.

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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