Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Tremendous advancements have been achieved in the past 30 years in the field of HIV/AIDS and patients infected with this virus can now expect to have near-normal life expectancies. However, in order to avoid disease progression, patients will have to be on intensive, life-long therapy. Moreover, the therapy itself is not without its challenges as it is associated with negative side effects and remains a costly approach. The need for life-long therapy and the inability to completely cure HIV infection is caused by the ability of HIV to hide within the cells it infects, thereby forming an HIV reservoir. As long as HIV can hide or hibernate in such reservoirs it is protected from current treatments and the immune system. This hibernating virus can reactivate and propagate at any time following other infections or stopping treatment. In this study, we propose to use innovative agents that could find and eliminate the hibernating virus. Our strategy relies on defects present in HIV-harboring cells that are similar to defects observed in cancer cells. Since specific agents have been developed to kill cancer cells carrying these defects, we transposed this knowledge to eliminate HIV-infected cells. Our proposed therapy could therefore allow for the cure of HIV-infected patients.