Information from this trial could help researchers develop more antiretroviral-based microbicide drugs in the future.
They envisaged a microbicide-containing lining for the vaginal tract that is a squishy solid rather than a liquid.
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And, depending on which particular type of microbicide was being used, they need not have a contraceptive effect.
The problem is that to get a solid microbicide to all the right places, it is easiest if it starts off runny.
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Promising results have also been achieved with a vaginally applied microbicide, which protected 39% of women in a trial in South Africa.
The unsuccessful microbicide trials used either long, complicated molecules intended to act as a physical barrier to the viruses or detergents to disrupt them.
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But an even less intrusive and to a man invisible form of protection would be a vaginal microbicide that kills the virus before it can cross the vaginal wall.
This BMC Infectious Diseases paper cited by Wolf showed that mice instilled with various vaginal gels containing microbicide experienced greater herpes simplex-2 infections when challenged three days later.
This is the first completed study on an antiretroviral microbicide.
"It's the first time we've ever seen any microbicide give a positive result that you could say was statistically significant, " said Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
As a result, the microbicide re-liquefies.
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