Los Angeles-based AIDS Research Alliance (ARA) has been granted exclusive rights to novel technology that will allow researchers to synthesize prostratin, a natural compound believed to target HIV hiding in inactive CD4 cells in the body, according to a February 8 press release.

The technology, developed by researchers at Stanford University, will allow ARA to further develop prostratin without having to collect it from natural resources-an expensive and cumbersome process. 

Prostratin was initially isolated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1992 as the active constituent of extracts of the tropical plant Homalanthus nutans—whose common names include native poplar and bleeding heart. Naturally found in the Samoan rainforest, the bark of the plant is used in Western Samoa to treat viral diseases such as hepatitis.

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