Grant: Catalyst Grant: HIV/AIDS and Co-morbidities - Biomedical/Clinical

AIDs patients sometimes have terrible chronic pain that is very difficult to treat. Even strong pain killers such as morphine are of limited use. This catalyst grant will facilitate collaboration between a neurologist/virologist and neurophysiologist/pain researcher thereby creating the unique combination of skills necessary for adjusting this major co-morbidity of HIV infection. HIV pain is thought to result from constant irritation of sensory nerve cells by both viral proteins and by the antiviral drugs that are used to treat the HIV infection. Unlike people, monkeys and cats, rats and mice do not get an HIV-AIDS related syndrome. But we have found a way to model HIV infection in a mouse. We will use 'vpr/RAG-/-mice' to understand the development of HIV related pain. We have taken RAG-/- mice which are immune-suppressed and crossed them with mice that have been genetically engineered to make the HIV viral protein Vpr1. This protein is not normally found in the body and normally only appears following HIV infections. These vpr/RAG-/- mice exhibit many of the symptoms of AIDs, including signs of chronic pain, without actually having been infected with the HIV virus. Such animals can be safely used to analyze the mechanisms associated with the development of HIV-AIDs related pain. We will use 'whole cell patch clamp recording techniques' to monitor the electrical properties of sensory nerves and examine how these are altered in vpr/RAG-/- mice. Data to be obtained during the one year grant period will be criticalfor the continuation of the project which eventually seeks to identify the exact molecular targets of the actions of Vpr, thus establishing new drug targets for the treatment of AIDs related pain.