NIAID Seeks Research Ideas for Vaccine Discovery and HIV Prevention Funding Initiatives
Preventing HIV transmission and designing effective vaccines has proven to be an enormous challenge. To address this challenge, NIAID recently issued two requests for information (RFIs) asking the public to provide ideas for funding initiatives to encourage new development in HIV prevention and vaccine discovery research.
The RFI's seek ideas and comments related to:
- Basic research for designing an effective HIV vaccine
- Methods of attracting new investigators and ideas to the HIV vaccine field
- Studies that could lead to potential reductions in HIV acquisition
- Sufficiently explored prevention approaches that should not be considered in the new initiative
NIAID will be accepting input on both RFIs until May 20, 2008.
More information is available:
Suppression of Host Protein in CD4 Cells Prevents HIV Infection
A research team funded by the NIH has found that suppressing the interleukin-2-inducible T cell kinase (ITK) in CD4 cells can prevent HIV from entering the cells and replicating. Researchers used both chemical and genetic methods to suppress ITK. Neither method of suppression impaired or killed CD4 cells, and mice with suppressed ITK were able to fight off other viral infections, although the response was delayed.
ITK suppression could circumvent the current problem of HIV drug resistance because it targets the host cell, which rarely mutates unlike HIV.
More information is available:
