Question
Is sodium valproate used to treat HIV?
4 April 2007. Related: All topics, Cure, Supplements and herbs.
I recently came across an article which says that sodium valproate may help to treat HIV. Is this true?
Answer
I haven’t seen articles relating to sodium valproate as a treatment for HIV but I have seen research on valproic acid which is a closely related drug. Both sodium valproate and valproate acid are anticonvulsant drugs that are used to treat epilepsy.
18 months ago a major medical journal (the Lancet) gave very high profile to a very small study using valproic acid as part of a strategy that may lead to a cure.
Although HIV drugs dramatically reduce the amount of virus in your body, they don’t eradicate or clear the virus completely because the drugs only work in cells that are active or ‘awake’. Many CD4 cells, including cells infected with HIV, are resting or sleeping – and they can sleep for 50 years – or wake up at any time.
Valproic acid was used to stimulate the resting HIV-infected cells to wake up, so that treatment could work against this virus too. If all the sleeping cells could be activated, then this would be a step in understanding how to find a way to eradicate HIV (rather than have to use life-long treatment).
Although the results were interesting, the effect was only limited and are a long way from anything like a cure.
This is only a research area. There would not be any benefit from taking this drug to try and help your own HIV treatment.
We included a review of this research in HIV Treatment Bulletin: ‘Depletion of latent HIV-1 reservoir with valproic acid: interesting data but not a cure’
If you’d like to send details of the article you read, or a link to it online I can also reply to that specifically.
NOTE from i-Base: a French study published in the journal AIDS in June 2008 showed that valproic acid had little impact on viral reservoir.
Taking care of yourself – eating well, cutting out stress, taking exercise, sleeping well etc – may all help your immune system.
However only HIV treatment – usually with a combination of 3 drugs – can stop the progression of HIV and let your immune system get stronger again over the long-term.
what can help slow down HIV or help?
I read this with interest as being epileptic and HIV-positive I was for some years on sodium valporate, and during this period my CD4 count was in the 800’s constantly and my viral load was very low.
Since changing medication a year ago my CD4 count has dropped and my viral load has increased x3. I must also say that I’m not on any antiretrovirals and never have been.
I discussed my epilim (sodium valporate) with my consultant and the use of T-20 as a treatment, but then i became resistant to epilim to control my epilepsy so had to change.