Treatment of AIDS: Myth or Reality?

PanARMENIAN.Net - Between Life and Death

On 25 December 2005, under mysterious circumstances died Nikolai Kolesnikov, one of the first volunteer testers of the new drug Armenicum. According to media reports, his corpse was found near one of the hospitals in Kaliningrad, where it lay for almost a day. According to his wife, “He was not a patient of that hospital and never walked in that area.” No obvious signs of violence were found on the body. Forensic medical examination confirmed the presence of a small amount of alcohol in blood - 1.6 ppm, which corresponds to a mild degree of alcoholic intoxication. Cause of the death was hypothermia. However, it is interesting to note that at the time of Kolesnikov’s death air temperature was +3°C. The claim for instituting legal proceedings was dismissed…

Still back in 2001, a note about Kolesnikov’s alleged death from AIDS flashed in the media, but these rumors were denied by Nikolai himself. No one then could imagine that all would end so tragically for a man who had almost conquered the disease and lived an active effective life. Until his last day Kolesnikov worked as a loading workman and a common laborer at a construction site. And two months before his death a totally healthy daughter was born to him.

Perhaps many still remember how in 1999 Kolesnikov, dying from AIDS, was brought to Yerevan, to the Clinical Center “Armenicum” to try a new drug against AIDS. It was the last hope for Nikolai.

Only a few weeks later the man who was literally unable to stand on his own feet looked and felt absolutely healthy. The world had known no such precedent, when such a great result is achieved in such a short time and in so critical a situation. Moreover, after treatment the patient’s health not only improved, but there was also no longer need in the medicine itself! Viral load (amount of viruses in the blood) of the patient had gone down many times, and the viruses present had become inactive. Denying the effectiveness of Armenicum was impossible. However, there were found some obstinate opponents to Armenian scientists, who seemed reluctant to notice that the man, almost on his last legs, was brought back to life. In addition, there was not simply achieved a temporary improvement in health status but a lasting therapeutic effect was attained, which lasted out till Nikolai’s strange death in 2005.

“We have had a lot of patients like Kolesnikov. After treatment in our clinic, they all returned to normal, active life and are no longer our patients,” says “Armenicum” project manager Levon Gevorgyan. “In most patients the virus becomes inactive, i.e. although it remains in the blood, it can no longer reproduce. Consequently, no cellular breakdown occurs. But there are also those, such as Kolesnikov’s wife who received treatment in our clinic too, in whose organism HIV is not found at all after the treatment course.”

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

Established in 1999, the clinical center “Armenicum” has been persistently fighting against AIDS for more than 10 years. Hundreds of patients have passed through this center. Results are more than encouraging. More than 97% of the patients diagnosed with HIV and AIDS have been saved from death and returned to their normal course of life.

What is Armenicum and how does it affect the AIDS virus?

To answer this question let us analyze the situation.

The AIDS virus selectively affects only certain groups of cells, which play a crucial role for normal functioning of the human immune system – the lymphocytes and particularly the so-called T-helpers. These cells help other cells of the immune system to generate the immune response.

Penetrating into the human body, the causative agent of AIDS - Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) – attaches itself to surface receptors of cell-lymphocytes, promotes entry into the cell, nests in the genetic apparatus of the cell, and causes production of virus particles for as long as the cell dies. New viruses capture new cells, etc. As a result, viruses increase in number, thus decreasing the quantity of lymphocytes. From 3 months to several years may pass until the number of lymphocytes is reduced to a critical extent that can cause immune deficiency. During this period the person is HIV-positive and can spread infection. This is the latent phase of the disease when the virus hides in the cells, waiting for an appropriate opportunity to capture new “territories”. As an activating factor, “launching” the beginning of the disease itself, can serve any other infection caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses and other, not yet fully investigated prerequisites.

The difficulty of treating AIDS is that the body cell and the virus coexist inseparably. The main strategic task is to restore the work of the lost immune system. It is quite a hard task, taking into consideration the fact that stimulation of the immune system is accompanied by rapid reproduction of the protective blood cells, including those infected with HIV. This, in its turn, contributes to the increase of functionally defective cells in the body.

On the verge

What’s the solution? Today there exist quite a great number of drugs that fight AIDS. There are drugs that block the receptors of viral coat, thus preventing the virus from attaching itself to the cell. Others inhibit intracellular maturation of the virus; still another group of drugs oppress the activity of viral enzymes, etc. Still, the problem is that it is difficult to achieve a stable treatment effect. Besides, the patient has to take these drugs throughout his life. Here there should also be noted the possible “addiction” of the virus to these drugs and the inevitable manifestation of many serious side effects due to the incompatibility of pharmacological agents of different groups. For the treatment of HIV and AIDS combined chemotherapy is prescribed, where the number of drugs to be taken at a time can reach as much as 10! Moreover, such treatment may cost tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Unity of Opposites

Is it possible to realize in one medicinal product such properties that could combine a variety of pharmacological effects, provide antiviral, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, immune-modulatory effects, would have practically no side effects, would be well endured by patients without causing “addiction” of the virus, would improve the quality of life without additional drug taking and, yet, would be financially affordable?

Recent achievements of the Armenian medicine proved the possibility of inventing a product that would meet the above-mentioned criteria. In 1999 the antiviral “Armenicum” was invented and declared. Currently, it can be noted with confidence that after a long period of making, “Armenicum” proved its efficiency in treating AIDS and HIV.

Road to Life

The main active substance in Armenicum is iodine and its derivatives. This is a dark-blue liquid with strong potential.

“Armenicum is unique in that it is not just a chemical product, but also a liquid crystal,” says T. Davtyan, PhD and Director of the Laboratory of Immunology and Virology of the Research Center “Armenicum”. “And because the molecules in our bodies represent a liquid crystalline structure too, they are biologically compatible with the drug. These are very flexible structures and depending on certain conditions can take many forms. Thus, the liquid crystal nature of the complex provides a combination of antiviral, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, immune-modulatory and neuro-protective actions in a single drug.”

Iodine in the drug is “packed” in the molecules of natural and synthetic polymers, thus losing not only its toxic properties (lethal concentration of iodine is 1 - 1,5g), but also enhancing its own quality. In 0.5 min. Armenicum completely destructs more than 10 to the 8th power bacteria, which is ten times more than the bactericidal action of penicillin. In 5 min. it inactivates about 10 to the 5th power AIDS and other viruses. Armenicum has one more surprising feature too. It is the selective antibacterial activity against pathogenic bacteria and fungi, while the so-called “friendly” bacteria of normal microflora of a man are not affected at all. The reason is yet unknown. “Unlike other drugs, Armenicum destroys cell-free HIV viral particles in the blood,” says Dr. Davtyan, “This medicine combines several points of influence on HIV infection.”

Duration of the treatment with Armenicum is 12 weeks and consists of 4 cycles (for citizens of Armenia the costs of treatment are incurred by the government). Within a couple of weeks the general state of patients is improved: viral load decreases, many related diseases undergo involution. In such a way stable therapeutic effect is achieved, which, as was the case with Kolesnikov, may last for years without the need of additional treatment.

For several years, in cooperation with Canadian National Institute of Health (research funded by the Canadian side) there were conducted clinical trails with the aim to study the level of virus neutralizing antibodies in the patients who receive Armenicum for treating Hepatitis C and HIV co-infection (as well as the patients suffering from Hepatitis C and AIDS at the same time).

Here too the medicine proved to be highly effective. The studies confirmed that Armenicum suspends destructive processes in the liver and partially restores it. The results of this study are published in the international scientific journal Nature Magazine (www.nature.com).

At the same time, this is a promising drug which, taking into account the full range of its effects, may also conquer such other diseases as systemic lupus erythematosus, tuberculosis, herpes infections, skin diseases and many others. Already today, in the medical center “Erebuni” in Yerevan, these diseases are under treatment and have resulted in a considerable imrovement of the patients’ life quality.

Geography of Armenicum

Armenicum has undergone registration in 16 countries. It is registered in India, Ukraine, Russia, and almost all the African countries.