Efficacy of Silk Fibroin for mucosal delivery of Griffithsin in rhesus macaques and protection against HIV and SHIV infection

Global efforts to end the AIDS epidemic have been successful in reducing HIV-related deaths but have not been successful in preventing new HIV infections. At risk populations continue to be disproportionally affected by HIV due to challenges in access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), social discrimination, and a widening resource gap across the globe. There is an urgent need for new, effective HIV preventatives that are acceptable to young adults and can be produced inexpensively for distribution among affected populations. We formulated a potent HIV inhibitor Griffithsin (Grft) in a silk fibroin (SF) drug delivery platform and tested the application in a non-human primate model in vivo.