$26.5 million to discover a new treatment for HIV

In the past 40 years, HIV has changed from a deadly and mysterious virus to a virus that can be controlled with daily medication

Now, with a US$26.

Dr.

The HOPE Collaboration Laboratory is one of 10 teams funded for 5 years under the Martin Delaney Collaboratories program, which is the flagship project of the National Institutes of Health for AIDS treatment research

Hope that the cooperative laboratory is looking for a cure for AIDS

Target latent HIV in a new way

HIV is notorious for its ability to lurk in immune cells; although latent viruses do not cause obvious symptoms or full-blown AIDS, they can cause long-term health complications for people living with HIV and are standard resistant to reversal Virus therapy cannot target them

Most attempts to treat HIV have focused on purposefully reactivating the latent virus so that it can be eliminated in the presence of antiretroviral therapy-a method called "shock and kill

Researchers participating in the HOPE cooperative laboratory call their new alternative strategy "block-lock-excise", which targets the latent HIV virus in a new way without reactivating it

Their "block and lock" strategy is inspired by ancient viruses that have been integrated into the human genome during millions of years of evolution

Researchers found that these ancient inactive viruses lack several genetic elements contained in HIV

Scientists are testing a drug that can permanently suppress HIV without requiring daily antiretroviral treatment

"We have shown that blocking Tat with certain drugs and small molecules can lock HIV in the dormant phase, and this blocking will continue for a period of time, even if antiretroviral therapy is interrupted

The use of drugs to block the elements necessary for the virus to reactivate can transform HIV from a short-lived latent state to a stable silent state

Valente said: "The idea is not only to lock HIV so that it cannot be replicated, but essentially to throw away the key and lock it forever without causing any harm to the host or other people

Ott said: "If the cells infected with the latent HIV can be completely silenced, we can make the patient abandon the entire antiretroviral treatment regimen, and the virus will no longer appear

Genome editing opens new doors

The "excision" part of the HOPE collaborative laboratory method takes advantage of the latest advances in genome editing

The cooperative laboratory plans to test the effectiveness of some gene editing methods to change the DNA of the latent HIV virus so that the virus can be destroyed
.
They said that this step can follow the "block and lock" treatment method to silence the virus, or it can be another method based on the effectiveness and cost of each method
.

"We have not yet reached a cure for AIDS, because the virus found a cell hidden in a reservoir in the body," said Lishomwa Ndhlovu, M.
D.
, Ph.
D.
, the lead researcher of the Hope Collaboration Laboratory and Professor of Immunology, Wilcon of the Medical Division.
The problem of infectious diseases at Nair College of Medicine
.
"The HOPE grant will allow us to test whether a method of'blocking and resection' can achieve long-term silencing of HIV in all relevant tissue shelters so that it cannot be released from the cells
.
In addition, it will permanently eliminate the silenced virus.
Any remnants, we hope this will prevent the rebound of HIV when antiviral drugs are stopped and lead to a cure
.
"

A collaborative approach

The cooperative laboratory includes members from 12 institutions around the world, and will also cooperate with three pharmaceutical companies to gain an in-depth understanding of the development of potential treatment methods for the drugs studied in the laboratory
.
In addition, the clinical team will help provide data and samples of HIV-infected people from Africa and Brazil
.

The HOPE cooperative laboratory team composed of researchers from Gladstone
.
Back row, from left to right: Nadia Roan, Julie Frouard, Warner Greene, Yusuke Matsui, and Danielle Lyons
.
Center row, from left to right: Lin Weiqiang, Ekram Helmi, Kong Weili, Mauricio Montano and Tessa Divita
.
Front row, from left to right: Bharath Sreekumar, Kailin Yin, Melanie Ott, Jason Neidleman, Li zi rushing
.

In collaboration with the community partner San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the HOPE team will also include people living with HIV on their research agenda
.
The discussion group will connect researchers and the community to help ensure that people living with HIV welcome and understand any HIV treatment
.

“This is definitely the key to a multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary approach,” said Dr.
Danielle Lyons of Gladstone, the project manager of the HOPE Cooperative Laboratory
.
"Bringing together these diverse groups of people with expertise in different disciplines will really promote the discovery of a cure for AIDS
.
"

They said that the main researchers of the HOPE cooperative laboratory have been studying AIDS latent virus, retrovirus and Tat inhibitor alone for many years, so they are ready to start working as a team
.

In the first two years of the 5-year funding, they plan to complete the feasibility study and further study some potential drugs
.
The collaborative nature of this funding means that once these preliminary studies are completed, the team can reassess and change their methods if necessary
.

Ott said: "We cannot be satisfied with the status quo of life-long treatment for HIV-infected people
.
" "We need to continue to push to find a cure.
This is exactly what we hope the cooperative laboratory will do
.
"