| abstract |
Methods are provided for treating or preventing infections by obligate intracellular prokaryotes, including mycoplasma, rickettsia and chlamydia, retroviruses, and DNA viruses, including herpesviruses, papillomaviruses, adenoviruses and hepatitis B virus. Emphasis is placed on providing methods for the treatment of HIV disease. In addition to providing methods for treating HIV infection itself, methods are provided for treating an HIV patient having a co-infection by another retrovirus, an obligate intracellular prokaryote, or a DNA virus. The methods involve the administration of 3:1 complexes of 3-hydroxy-4-pyrones with gallium, e.g., gallium maltolate. Therapies incorporating gallium maltolate in combination with agents used against obligate intracellular prokaryote, retrovirus and DNA virus pathogens are also provided, as are multicombination therapies designed to treat co-infection by an obligate intracellular prokaryote, retrovirus or DNA virus in an individual infected by HIV. These multi-combination therapies rely on the ability of gallium maltolate to complement antiviral medication regimes against both HIV and other pathogens such as herpesvirus infections, including Kaposi sarcoma, CMV retinitis and blindness, and lymphomas, in patients immunocompromised by HIV infection. |