The Role of Repulsive Van der Waals Interactions in the Treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infections with Antiretroviral Drugs

摘要

Van der Waals interactions mechanism was used to determine and explain the interaction processes in HIV-drug coated blood interactions. The methodology involved the serial dilution of the five different antiretroviral drugs (two HAART/FDC and three single drugs) and the subsequent incubation with the blood samples collected from ten HIV infected persons for the absorbance measurement using a digital Ultraviolet Visible MetaSpecAE1405031Pro Spectrophotometer. The digital CD4 count machine (Cytoflowmeter) was used to obtain the CD4 counts of the blood samples. The variables required for the computations with the Lifshiftz formula were derived from the absorbance data. The MATLAB software tools were employed in the mathematical analysis of the very large body of data generated from the experiments. The Hamaker constants A_(11), A_(22), A_(33) and the combined Hamaker coefficients A_(132) of the various drugs interacting with the blood were obtained using the values of the dielectric constant together with the Lifshiftz equation. The absolute combined Hamaker coefficient, A_(132abs) (a mean of all the values of the various Hamaker coefficients) for each antiretroviral drug on both infected blood samples were also calculated. The absolute values for the combined Hamaker coefficient, A132abs obtained for each of the five antiretroviral drugs interacting with infected blood samples are given thus: D1 = -0.03998×10~(-21) Joule, D2 = -0.05305×10~(-21)Joule, D3 = -0.05845×10~(-21)Joule, D4 = -0.02481×10~(-21)Joule, and D5 = -0.05844×10~(-21)Joule. The negative senses of the absolute combined Hamaker coefficient imply net negative van der Waals forces indicating a possible repulsion or blocking of the invading virus by the administered drug which coats the lymphocytes. This, however, confirms a functional cure for HIV infection which had been clinically established by the biological researchers. A thermodynamic criterion for HIV-drug interaction prediction was suggested and found to be a valuable tool in HIV study. The use of the findings of this work by pharmaceutical industries is recommended.