INI1-road against HIV—More than 35 million individuals worldwide are living with HIV, and drug resistance to various available treatments is prevalent because of the virus’ extremely high mutation rate. The National Institute of General Medical Services has awarded Ganjam Kalpana, Ph.D., nearly $1.3 million over four years to study potential drug targets for HIV and develop inhibitors for these targets. More specifically, she and her laboratory team are focused on inhibiting the early stages of HIV virus assembly, which is the process by which the viral components are assembled together inside the cell to form infectious virus particles. They have found that disrupting the interaction between the HIV protein Integrase and the host protein Integrase Interactor I (INI1) can vastly reduce the ability of HIV to assemble its viral machinery, thereby preventing HIV replication inside human cells. They plan to build on these findings to shed new light on the mechanisms involved in early virus particle formation. Furthermore, they will use computational modeling and high throughput screening to design and test compounds in an effort to develop a new class of antiretroviral drugs that upset the interaction between INI1 and HIV, halting virus particle formation. Currently there are no FDA-approved drugs that target this part of the HIV life cycle. Dr. Kalpana is professor of genetics and of microbiology & immunology, and is the Mark Trauner Faculty Scholar in Neuro-oncology.
Posted on: Wednesday, October 07, 2015