Grant: Doctoral Research Award - Priority Announcement - HIV/AIDS and/or STBBI

More than half of the 37 million people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) worldwide are women. Of these women, approximately 1.4 million become pregnant each year. The vast majority (80%) now receive HIV treatment during pregnancy, reducing mother to child transmission of HIV from 25% to less than 2%. Unfortunately, the long-term safety for the infants exposed to these medications during gestation has not been determined. Recent studies suggest concerning links between women taking certain HIV medications during pregnancy and increased brain and spinal cord defects in their children. These types of defects occur early in gestation, suggesting that exposure to their mother's HIV medications may be harmful during early fetal development. Many medications used to treat HIV are known to damage mitochondria, which are part of every cell of our body and very important to produce energy and hormones. If damage to the mitochondria happens early in development, it can be passed to all cells in the child's body. I will compare the effects of different HIV treatments on the health of human stem cells that I will culture in a dish. These cells are adapted for research but behave like an early human embryo that can turn into all the different types of cells in the body. Using this similarity, I will also determine if the HIV medications change the development process of the cells and if they prevent the cells from becoming early brain and spinal cord cells. It is very important to determine the most pregnancy-safe HIV treatment, not only to prevent transmission of HIV, but also to ensure that infants are not exposed to harmful substances during pregnancy. This is especially true since we have nearly 30 different medications to choose from yet have little information on which would be safest during embryonic development. My study may help inform and guide future human trials to figure out what is the safest treatment for HIV-positive women of reproductive age.