Grant: Operating Grant - PA: HIV/AIDS Research Initiative - Biomedical/Clinical Stream

Since the beginning of the pandemic, HIV/AIDS has affected over 60 million individuals worldwide and currently infects over 33 million people. In Canada and around the world, men who have sex with men (MSM) are one of the highest risk groups for HIV acquisition, and the development of preventative technologies (such as microbicide gels) for this group remain a priority for combating the spread of HIV/AIDS. Unprotected anal sex between men continues to dominate patterns of HIV transmission but our lack of understanding of the immunity of this compartment is a major barrier in the development of preventative therapeutics. New biomedical tools may be developed by studying HIV-exposed uninfected individuals (HESN), who are exposed to the virus but remain infection-free for many years. We have been studying a group of HESN MSM who represent a model of protection and understanding their immune systems may help us design novel therapeutics. We have determined that HESN MSM have a unique immune response that is defined by an increased amount of antimicrobial protein factors in both their rectal and oral mucosa, which we believe are protecting from infection from HIV. These protein factors have shown the ability to inhibit HIV and since they reside at the portal of entry for HIV and we believe they are playing a role in protecting against infection. This proposal will examine the role of these factors in HIV protection and help us to develop them into a novel therapeutic. The hope is that this information could be used to design a novel microbicide formulation against HIV which could be used by groups at high risk of HIV infection, such as men who have sex with men.