Thursday, February 5, 2009

Green Tea: A Cure for HIV?

Researchers' findings from Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Children's Hospital show that a chemical that occurs naturally in green tea appears to prevent the HIV-1 virus from infecting cells in the immune system and could prove a valuable part of treatment for the disease. 

In previous studies, Dr. Christina Nance, assistant professor of pediatrics at BCM, and Dr. William T. Shearer, professor of pediatrics at BCM, had demonstrated that epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG, found in green tea, blocks the ability of HIV-1 to attach to a cellular entry molecule called gp120, thereby inhibiting the virus' ability to infect cells.

The full reported is published in the current issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.


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