According to researchers, the fight against AIDS has received another setback, with a microbicide for protecting women against infection failing in the largest trial of its kind.

The microbicide i. e. gels whose molecules clump around the virus before it even reaches the vaginal wall have failed miserably. The attention is now on gels and rings able to release steady doses of anti-retroviral drugs that either kill or stop the virus from reproducing.

The trial known by its nickname MDP 301 (Microbicides Development Programme) and overseen by the British Medical Research Council took four years, involving 9,385-women in four African countries i. e. South Africa, Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania.

The gel did not have any effect on 4.1% of the infected, as 4% of those using a placebo.

Dr. Sheena McCormack, the trial’s chief investigator said the gel’s failure was extremely disappointing, describing the microbicide, PRO 20000 as a polymer of naphthalene sulphonate i. e. ‘a large sugary molecule with a charge on it’, which clings to receptors on the shell of the virus.

Seeming to work almost perfectly on cells in the lab and on monkeys, it had raised hopes of producing better results in human trials.

Researchers have found it difficult to make a safe, acceptable, effective microbicide, far more difficult than predicted 20-years ago.

While, prostitutes are able to get men to use condoms sometimes, it is a far more difficult task for wives and lovers to succeed in, which is why they require something that is not unpleasant, messy or sticky, but is also able to block a tiny virus without blocking sperm, if they want to get pregnant without getting infected.

Dozens of potential microbicide gels and rings containing anti-retroviral drugs like tenofovir, dapivirine and maraviroc are beginning to be tested, including a formulation using Gilead Sciences Inc.’s drug Viread, or tenofovir.