ARA Scientific Domain Page
Focus, strategy and innovation are the hallmarks of meaningful HIV science. Only with these tools can AIDS Research Alliance shape and champion significant, yet cost-efficient HIV research.
ARA’s main areas of focus include:
- Antiretroviral drugs Classes of Drugs
- Opportunistic infections – for example, pneumocystis carinii peumonia.
- Alternative therapies with a holistic approach to HIV management – such as vitamins and pomegranate juice.
- HIV-related metabolic disorders that arise from drug toxicities – like lipodystrophy.
- Prevention strategies – for example, vaccines and microbicides
- New technologies and tools – such as “quick-response” oral HIV tests
- Strategies to eradicate HIV from people living with HIV/AIDS – such as prostratin.
Getting Started
When ARA started out, there was only ONE HIV drug available – AZT. Precise dosage information was unknown; so were the drug’s toxicities. Immediately, we focused on testing and developing new antiretroviral therapies. We also started seeking to improve treatments for the most common opportunistic infections that were deadly to people with severely weakened immune systems.
By doing this, AIDS Research Alliance conducted critical studies needed to prove the safety and efficacy of nearly half of all existing anti-HIV treatments. Current Clinical Trials This is how we have helped people with HIV claim three million more years of life.
Moving Forward
More recently, AIDS Research Alliance takes the knowledge gleaned from these early trials to advance our own pioneering research. In particular, we remain focused why HIV infection continues in spite of today’s HAART therapy. Specifically, ARA seeks to understand how to flush HIV from the “hiding places” or reservoirs in which infected CD4 cells lay dormant, escaping the reach of even the most powerful anti-HIV treatments. AIDS Research Alliance calls this new emerging field of scientific inquiry, “reservoir ablation.” Prostratin.
