University of Utah and Emory University/Veterans Affair Medical Center (VA) conducted a research which concluded that retrovirus associated to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and prostate cancer has been found to be present in four drugs that are used to combat HIV.

The research has raised a hope that if it is found that retrovirus XMRV i. e., Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus causes prostate cancer or CFS; the HIV drugs can prove helpful in curing the same.

Dr. Ila R Singh said that the concluded results were a ray of hope for the patients suffering from prostate cancer and CFS.

The researchers will have to look for a better and magnified understanding of the links between HIV and CFS and prostate cancer for developing drugs that can cure them.

In this research, in cultured human breast cancer and prostate cancer cells, 45 drugs treating HIV were tested for their effectiveness against XMRV.

Raltegravir, L-00870812, Zidovudine and Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate were the drugs tested.

Co-investigator Raymond F Schinazi said that the research revealed that drugs inhibited XMRV at lower levels when used together, which in turn indicate that the virus might restrain the virus from replicating and spreading.