March 5, 2001, lauric.org - The first clinical trial giving monolaurin in capsules at two levels (7.2 g (HML) and 2.4 g (LML)) or whole coconut oil (50 ml (CNO)) as a source of lauric acid (the precursor of monolaurin) to 15 HIV-infected patients took place in the San Lazaro Hospital, Manila, the Philippines under the charge of Dr. Eric Tayag, MD. The results of the trial were reported by Dr. Conrado S. Dayrit, MD, FACC, FPCC, FPCP on July 25, 2000 in Chennai, India at the 37^th Cocotech Meeting. The patients, 10 females and 5 males, who were regularly being followed for their HIV status at the San Lazaro Hospital and had never received any anti-HIV treatment were divided into 3 treatment groups (HML, LML, CNO) of 5 patients each. The patients were seen daily with laboratory values determined at the beginning and the end of 3 months and 6 months. At onset of the trial, the viral load of the patients as measured by PCR, ranged from 1.96x10³ to 1,190.0x10³ copies. The CD4 and CD8 counts were measured by flow cytometry and at baseline they ranged from a low to a high, respectively, of 248 to 1065 and 570 to 1671. One male had a viral count too low to measure (< 0.4x10³), which did not change, and he was not included in the final statistics. The final statistics included results for 4 males and 10 females and showed that 7 (2M, 5F) of 14 patients had a reduced load at 3 months and 8 (3M, 5F) of 14 patients had a reduced load at 6 months. The reduced viral load was significant in only 3 (2M,1F) patients using the log baseline minus log 6 months 0.5 criterion; 2 of the 3 were in the CNO group and one was in the LML group. The CD4 and CD8 levels increased in 5 patients but did not correlate exactly with a decrease in viral load. As a result of the encouraging responses in this small preliminary proof-of-concept trial, additional HIV-infected patients are being enrolled for a second larger and longer trial.