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Saliva's low salinity may stop HIV under the right circumstances,
and researchers may harness the effect in protective gel by G ip P la s te r
ne day after the release of data
showing that oral sex “con
tributes significantly” to the
spread of HIV, a coincidentally
timed study conducted by
researchers in Texas explains why oral sex is
risky and offers hope for a new gel that could
make rectal and vaginal sex safer.
Results of a Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention investigation, presented at a Feb. 1
conference in San Francisco, showed that eight
of 102 HIV-positive gay and bisexual men stud
ied had not participated in any activities other
than oral sex through which they could have
acquired HIV.
Those numbers mean that oral sex alone was
determined to be the cause of virus transmission
in almost 8 percent of study participants. The
actual number of men
infected by oral sex could
be higher, however, since
some men studied had par
ticipated in more than one
risky activity and the exact
cause of infection could not
be determined.
But exactly how is HIV
transmitted through oral
sex? And how big is the
risk?
According to a study
conducted by the Universi
ty of Texas Medical Branch
at Galveston, the receptive
partner is at the greatest
risk, because body fluid
from the other partner
enters his mouth. That Professor Samuel
fluid is usually in such large
quantity that it overcomes the body’s own
defense system, saliva.
A year ago, researchers at UTMB, led by
microbiology and medicine professor Samuel
Baron, showed that saliva explodes and kills
blood cells, including those that harbor HIV.
Saliva has this effect on the cells because, unlike
other body fluids, it is not salty.
“Saliva is low salt,” Baron says. “If you taste
it, it’s sweet. But if you tear from your eye into
your mouth, it tastes salty.”
When blood cells come in contact with the
lower-salt saliva, they suck in water through
osmosis and hurst, according to the team’s
research, which was first reported in February
1999 in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The
phenomenon is part of what makes casual con
tact, including kissing, with HIV-positive people
safe.
Now, the same researchers claim to have
solved a related question: If saliva is so protec
tive, how can HIV be spread through oral sex?
Semen, as well as breast milk from HIV
positive mothers, simply overpowers the protec
tive effects of saliva because, relatively speaking,
there is so little low-salt saliva compared to the
amount of high-salt semen or breast milk,
according to the research published in the Feb
ruary 2000 issue of the Journal of Infectious Dis
eases.
The UTMB researchers reached this conclu
sion using test-tube experiments in which they
added infected white blood cells to both moth
er’s milk and semen from uninfected donors.
Then, scientists immersed the infected sub
stances in a solution that was 90 percent saliva
and 10 percent milk or semen. They incremen-
tally reduced the percentage of saliva and boost
ed the percentage of the saltier substances to see
what happened to the infected cells.
“When saliva was reduced to only one-third
of the mixture, with the remaining two-thirds
being the saltier substances, then saliva was no
longer protective against HIV,” Baron says.
In situations when semen enters the mouth,
it is usually in very large quantities compared to
the amount of saliva present.
“Under normal circumstances there is just
about one-fifth of a teaspoon of saliva in the
mouth. Deposited semen typically would equal
more than four times that volume, and mother’s
milk much, much more,” he says.
The study could cause “a paradigm shift for
some people” in understanding how the AIDS
virus causes infection, Baron maintains.
“We think there are a
couple of erroneous con
ceptions about the trans
mission of HIV,” he says.
First, most physicians
believe that HIV is trans
mitted by free pieces of the
virus floating in substances
like semen and milk. But
very few free pieces are pre
sent, Baron says, probably
because the HIV carrier
makes enough antibodies
to bind the virus and make
it unable to infect other
cells.
Semen and milk are, in
fact, high in HIV because
they contain white blood
cells
that shelter the virus,
Baron
he says. Antibodies cannot
get inside these cells to attack the HIV. Saliva,
however, caused these cells and the virus inside
them to die.
That phenomenon suggests that if a sub
stance like saliva were present in a rectum or
vagina, the cells carrying HIV could explode
and die, preventing infection.
Baron and his colleagues are now working to
develop a gel that could mimic the protective
effects of saliva in the vagina and rectum, two
environments that are normally saltier than the
mouth.
“If the mouth is so powerful so that under
normal circumstances it can kill, can we adapt
this to the very vulnerable vagina and rectum?”
Baron ponders.
His team’s findings on that topic could be
released as early as April.
Baron says a product already being sold as a
lubricant may have all the necessary properties
to mimic saliva and help prevent the spread of
HIV, but he cannot name the product is until
the research is published.
Such a gel is needed because the spermicide
nonoxinol-9, currently used by some to try to
prevent the spread of HIV, has not proven pro
tective in humans, Baron says, adding that
nonoxinol-9 is'effective in tissue cultures and
lab animals, but it irritates human tissues. That
irritation may actually make the tissue more sus
ceptible to HIV, creating a portal through which
the virus can enter the body.
unites for dozens of gay and lesbian
newspapers and magazines. He also maintains a list
of gay publications at wwui.gayscribe.com. He lives
m Fort Worth, Texas, with his partner, David.
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