HIV

James Heath of the California Institute of Technology in the U.S. will work to develop protein catalyzed capture agents, which are synthetically-created peptides that may act as drop-in replacements for antibodies in diagnostic assays. These agents, designed to be stable up to 40°C for extended periods, aim to be as sensitive as antibodies, but due to their chemical structure, more easily transported, stored, and used in various diagnostic platforms in developing world settings.

K. Ganesan and Pradip Sen of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research - Institute of Microbial Technology in India will work to selectively kill cells latently infected with HIV by engineering reagents that would initiate killing only upon specific binding to proviral DNA. If successful, further development could result in a possible cure for latent HIV, which is thought to block the ability of anti-retroviral drugs to fully eradicate the disease. This grant was selected through India's IKP Knowledge Park and their IKP-GCE program.

Cebile Manzini-Henwood of SWAGAA will partner with Together for Girls and Population Council to adapt the 'The Girl Roster' tool, which has been used effectively in diverse settings to identify the most vulnerable girls within a community, and to test and implement several innovative approaches to working with girls in Swaziland. For nearly a decade, SWAGAA has worked with Crossroads International to implement Girls' Empowerment Clubs in schools to help improve gender equality by strengthening girls' social assets and self-efficacy related to sexual behavior, violence and HIV.

Robert Gorkin of the University of Wollongong in Australia is developing tough hydrogels as an alternative material to latex for making male condoms with enhanced tactile (touch) sensitivity to improve sexual experience. Tough hydrogels are highly elastic and mechanically tough materials. Unlike latex, they can increase sensitivity to touch, incorporate lubrication, and be coupled to other components, such as stimulants and antiviral drugs.

Lakshminarayanan Ragupathy of HLL Lifecare Ltd. in India will improve the safety and appeal of male condoms by incorporating graphene into existing natural rubber latex condoms. Graphene is a single-layer, crystalline form of carbon that is highly elastic and very strong. And, unlike latex, it also conducts heat. Mixing graphene with existing condom material should lead to stronger, thinner, heat-conducting condoms that are less noticeable for users, and allow for the incorporation of drugs and compounds that can protect against sexually transmitted diseases or enhance sexual experience.

Ron Frezieres of the California Family Health Council in the U.S. along with Max Abadi of Unique International in Colombia and I.MAXX Inc. in the U.S. are developing a stronger and thinner male condom made of polyethylene to promote condom use. Polyethylene is a non-toxic and hypoallergenic material that wraps and clings rather than squeezes, thereby enhancing sensation and enabling easier application.

R. Paul Johnson of Emory University in the U.S. is using single-cell transcriptional profiling to identify unique biomarkers expressed in CD4+ T cells latently infected with HIV or the simian equivalent SIV. Latent infection of long-lived cells enables the viruses to survive current drug treatments, and makes the disease very difficult to cure. In Phase I, while working at Harvard Medical School in the U.S., they developed a robust high-throughput technique to identify viral genes expressed in single cells and tested it on SIV-infected macaques.

Sara Richter of the University of Padua in Italy will develop a therapeutic to completely clear HIV from the body by targeting a proviral DNA structural motif found in both actively and latently infected host cells. In Phase I they analyzed a highly conserved DNA structural motif of four guanine nucleotides (G-4) found in the integrated HIV-1 proviral DNA and found that it regulates proviral transcription and is likely involved in latent infection.

Shi-hua Xiang of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in the U.S. proposed engineering Lactobacillus, bacteria which normally reside in the human genital and gastrointestinal tract, to carry anti-HIV agents such as neutralizing antibodies, peptides, or other inhibitors. He and his colleagues hypothesized that introducing the engineered bacteria into the gastrointestinal tract would allow the bacteria to colonize and provide long-lasting protection against the virus.

Vojo Deretic of the University of New Mexico in the U.S. proposed that autophagy, a process by which cells destroy cellular components and intracellular pathogens, can be induced through drug therapy to not only destroy the HIV virus in infected cells, but also to block its transmission from dendritic cells to T cells. This project's Phase I research demonstrated that autophagy can destroy HIV, block dendritic to T cell transfer of HIV, and promote antigen presentation by dendritic cells.