A new drug based on a natural compound produced by the human body halts one of the earliest stages of HIV infection, reports a new study in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The drug may be able to slow down emerging resistance of the virus to antiretroviral drugs, a growing problem worldwide.

Called VIR-576, the drug interacts with HIV’s ability to insert the “sticky” end of its outer membrane—the fusion peptide—into the host cell at the start of infection. This ability to block fusion peptides makes VIR-576 very different from other HIV drugs.

A new drug based on a natural compound produced by the human body halts one of the earliest stages of HIV infection, reports a new study in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The drug may be able to slow down emerging resistance of the virus to antiretroviral drugs, a growing problem worldwide.

Called VIR-576, the drug interacts with HIV’s ability to insert the “sticky” end of its outer membrane—the fusion peptide—into the host cell at the start of infection. This ability to block fusion peptides makes VIR-576 very different from other HIV drugs.