UF’s Susana Valente and collaborators found that spironolactone, an FDA approved diuretic used for heart and blood pressure conditions, may boost the effectiveness of standard HIV antiretroviral therapy. The combined medications made the amount of virus in the bloodstream drop more quickly than standard HIV treatment alone and reduced signs of inflammation. Spironolactone has a long clinical safety record.

Valente’s goal is to help people with HIV achieve durable viral suppression with a safe, affordable add?on therapy to “quiet” the virus—what she calls a “block?and?lock” strategy. “By adding a transcriptional inhibitor like spironolactone to antiretroviral therapy, we saw faster plasma viral decay and marked reductions in HIV RNA and inflammatory gene expression in tissues, suggesting a practical path to both hasten suppression and mitigate inflammation.”

• Susana Valente
• Michael Cameron