Health Talk

Pamela Skinner, Ph.D., associate professor in the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, and longtime collaborator Liz Connick, M.D., professor at the University of Colorado Denver, have been awarded a five-year research grant totaling more than $3.7 million from the National Institutes of Health.

Their research could ultimately contribute to the development of a protective vaccine or treatment for HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), the virus that causes AIDS.

Skinner is excited to have received the grant.

“In a nutshell, we found that HIV and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected cells are concentrated in lymphoid tissues within B cell follicles, whereas HIV/SIV-specific CD8 T cells—whose job it is to track down and kill virus-infected cells—are concentrated outside of B cell follicles and are unable to clear the reservoir of virus-producing cells inside of B cell follicles,” said Skinner.

In other words, U of M and UC Denver researchers found that HIV causing-agents build up in a place where the body’s virus-killers can’t get them.

They have now been awarded money to investigate mechanisms that mediate HIV  colonizing in those hard-to-reach places. They’ll also look at making the cells that kill virus-infected cells more accessible to the inside of the B cell follicles in question.

The research will provide a wealth of new information on the cells that foster HIV-1 replication in B cell follicles. Factors that may promote or impair lentivirus replication will also be explored.

The project, titled “Mechanisms Underlying Persistent Lentivirus Replication in Follicular T Cells,” started December 1 and will continue for five years.