Funding News - Applications Encouraged to Develop Non-Human Lentiviral Models of the Neurological Complications of AIDS

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) encourage grant applications to develop non-human lentiviral models of the neurological complications of AIDS.*

Recent advances in the development of the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) model system highlight the power of animal model systems for study of the mechanisms underlying the pathology associated with lentiviral infection in the nervous system. These models will be key for developing therapeutic approaches for the treatment of patients suffering from neuroAIDS and for understanding the basic biology of infection with HIV/AIDS.

Areas of research interest include, but are not limited to: studies to define the pathogenic mechanisms of lentiviruses in the central nervous system of animals temporally during the progression of disease; in vivo studies of host and viral factors affecting the penetration of lentiviruses and infected cells across the neuroprotective blood-brain barrier; using established model systems such as SIV and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) to study the effects of inhibitors of cell traffic into the nervous system on the development of neurological complications of lentiviral infection; using established model systems such as SIV and FIV to study the effects of neuroprotective agents on the progression of lentiviral neurologic disease; use of non-human animal models to define and characterize novel markers associated with disease progression and response to therapeutic interventions; use of lentiviral models for concurrent study of neurologic complications in animals repetitively exposed to substances of abuse, such as methamphetamine, opiates, cocaine, and marijuana, or withdrawn from such substances; and in vivo studies of glial-neuronal interactions in models of lentiviral infection and their complication by drugs of abuse.

For more information, potential applicants should contact Dr. Michael Nunn, Program Director, Neural Environment Cluster, NINDS, Neuroscience Center, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 2115, Bethesda, MD 20892; telephone: 301-496-1431; fax: 301-402-2060; e-mail: mn52e@nih.gov.

*For a more detailed description of this program announcement, please visit the NIH web site at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAS-05-078.html.