Potential Therapy of HIV/AIDS and Ebola Outbreak with Pregnancy Hormone,
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin
HIV is a retrovirus that destroys hosts’ immune system. AIDS is a late stage HIV infection.
About 35 million people are living worldwide with HIV/AIDS, mostly in sub-Saharan
Africa. Although there is no known cure, advances are constantly being made on how to better
prevent and/or treat HIV/AIDS patients.
Current anti-viral therapies are quite expensive, have side effects and do not work for everyone.
Thus, there is a substantial unmet need for cost effective treatments, particularly in developing countries.
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin is a hallmark hormone of pregnancy.
Its levels rapidly increase during the first trimester, reaching a peak by about the 9th week followed
by a rapid decline to about one-tenth of the peak levels. Contrary to the previously held belief,
hCG has many more roles other than rescuing corpus luteum during early pregnancy.
These actions in toto are considered to favor pregnancy initiation, maintenance and then facilitating
labor progression at the end of pregnancy. hCG along with its structural and functional homolog, Luteinizing Hormone (LH), can regulate many non gonadal tissues in both genders.
Some obstetricians empirically believed that hCG has antiviral properties, but there
is no definitive scientific evidence. The notion that hCG may have an anti-HIV effects come
from the findings that babies born to HIV positive mothers are typically infected during vaginal delivery,
when baby’s mucosal surfaces are covered with virus laden maternal blood and body fluids.
HIV/AIDS Res Treat Open J. 2014; 1(1): e5-e6. doi: 10.17140/HARTOJ-1-e002
