AIDS: 30 Years of progress and promise assisted by La Jolla researchers
Pieces of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, seen here in 2009 at UCSD, will be on display again this week. Photo: Victor W. Chen/UCSD
Thirty years ago, the first cases of what would later become known as AIDS were reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since then, HIV/AIDS has become a pandemic, infecting more than 60 million people worldwide. During that time, extraordinary progress has also been made in treating and preventing HIV, and annual new infections have fallen.
Even as people continue to become infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). which weakens the immune system leading to life-threatening Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), work in La Jolla’s Torrey Pines Mesa labs is advancing the limits of basic research, establishing centers of excellence, and spearheading innovative public health and community outreach all in an effort to better understand and combat this global public health menace.
In the U.S, approximately 56,000 new infections occur each year, and more than 1.1 million people are living with HIV.
High-impact research
In 2008, Sumit Chanda, Ph.D., of the Sanford-Burnham Institute; John Young, Ph.D, of the Salk Institute, and colleagues published a paper about HIV infection that continues to greatly impact research efforts worldwide. The challenge: Figure out how the virus, with only nine genes that code for 15 proteins, could be so effective with such a small genetic payload.
They knew the virus hijacked human proteins to succeed, but they wanted to pinpoint exactly which proteins were affected. The team identified 295 host proteins involved in HIV infection providing both a significant advance in understanding viral-host interactions and suggesting new approaches for developing antiviral treatments (now underway) that target these proteins. More information at bit.ly/uHCQ8K.
Neurological damage in HIV
Many people living with HIV and AIDS must also contend with weakened minds. Despite recent successes suppressing the infection, roughly half of all AIDS patients experience HIV-associated neurological disorders (HAND), which range from mild cognitive impairment and memory loss to stroke or dementia. But to stop HAND, its cause must be understood.
According to surprising findings by Marcus Kaul, Ph.D., assistant professor in Sanford-Burnham’s Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center, it’s not necessarily the virus that damages neurons. Kaul and Kathryn Medders, Ph.D., a recent UCSD grad and the study’s primary author, noted that microglia, a type of immune cell, can flood the brain with lethal levels of a toxic factor in response to an HIV protein that resides on the virus surface. Thus immune cells — not the virus — were shown directly responsible for damaging neurons. More information at bit.ly/sUZMXT.
HIV and meth
In San Diego, more than one-third of people newly infected with HIV had recently used methamphetamine. The combined effects of meth and HIV in causing neurologic damage are poorly understood. This is of major concern because while antiviral treatments for HIV have reduced mortality rates, neurological complications are prevalent (as noted above).
Supported by a $17 million grant, Igor Grant, M.D., professor of psychiatry at the UCSD School of Medicine, and colleagues have established the Translational Methamphetamine AIDS Research Center (TMARC) at UCSD. This is the first center in the country to study the convergent effects of meth and HIV on the brain. TMARC website: tmarc.hivresearch.ucsd.edu.
Preventing infection
Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology, led by Hilde Cheroutre, Ph.D., have identified a previously unknown mechanism that generates protective immune memory cells to fight recurring infections at the body’s mucosal linings; the main entry points for many viruses (including HIV). Specifically, researchers discovered that the body has a distinct process for establishing strong immunity at the mucosal borders.
Also identified was a molecule for showing that mucosal protective immune cells are in place; a finding that could change future vaccine design with special implications for developing an AIDS vaccine. Heretofore, it was thought that to induce immunity to HIV, one had to activate the immune system with an antigen (similar to HIV) and generate pre-existing anti-HIV memory cells. Learn more at bit.ly/oDXuID.
Risk environment
Public health studies often fail to assess the influence of the “risk environment” and the movement of people — and, therefore, infections, according to Kimberly Brouwer, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine in the Division of Global Public Health at UCSD. In other words, location is as much a risk factor as behavior, and mobility often increases infection exposure.
In collaboration with Mexican officials, Brouwer studies HIV/AIDS and injection drug use in cities along the Mexico/U.S. border, in an effort to inform public health interventions. As principal investigator of a five-year grant to explore social and environmental factors affecting disease transmission and risk behaviors in Tijuana, her group is building a geographic information system (GIS) model to measure disease clustering and recommend better distribution of health services. More information at bit.ly/vCTwn3.
Honoring World AIDS Day
Pieces of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be displayed at UCSD from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday in the Price Center East. There will also be a candlelight vigil at 7 a.m. and original music written by Scott Paulson, UCSD’s carillonneur, will be played at 12:10 p.m. while participants in a ‘die-in’ drop to the ground for the length of the performance. Details at tinyurl.com/cxm7uy8.
Lynne Friedmann is a science writer based in Solana Beach.
World AIDS Day Report 2011
A new report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), released in late November, states that 2011 was a “game changing year” for AIDS response with “unprecedented progress in science, political leadership, and results.”
The report documents that new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths have fallen to the lowest levels since the peak of the epidemic. New HIV infections were reduced by 21 percent since 1997, and deaths from AIDS-related illnesses decreased by 21 percent since 2005.
“Just a few years ago, talking about ending the AIDS epidemic in the near term seemed impossible, but science, political support, and community responses are starting to deliver clear and tangible results,” stated Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS executive director, Under Secretary-General of the United Nations in the introduction to the UNAIDS World AIDS Day Report 2011 at bit.ly/sUkCku released to coincide with World AIDS Day (Dec. 1).
Worldwide, 34 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2010 with 1.8 million AIDS deaths reported that year. This is lower than the 2.2 million AIDS deaths in 2005.
“Even in a very difficult financial crisis, countries are delivering results in the AIDS response.” said Sidibé, in an interview with Reuter’s. “We have seen a massive scale up in access to HIV treatment which has had a dramatic effect on the lives of people everywhere.”
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Posted by Staff
on Nov 30 2011. Filed under Featured Story, La Jolla, News.
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