Page 9 - Abacoa Community News - March '23

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The Scripps Research Institute drugs.” When HIV infects an immune cell, it can remain Three Symposium Poster Presenters Take
dormant for years. If untreated, viral loads eventually Home Awards
increase and weaken the immune system to the point Conferences hold poster sessions to foster science
where it cannot ward off infection and disease. This final, communications and presentation skills among scientific
terminal stage is AIDS. trainees. At “RNA: From Biology to Drug Discovery,” trainees
Potential Target For HIV Advances Block- Antiretroviral therapy, or ART, can keep HIV loads had the opportunity to showcase their work to some of the field’s
And-Lock Strategy To Stop AIDS low so the patient does not progress to AIDS. But this leading scientists. Three trainees took home awards.
Researchers at The requires a daily drug regimen that lasts a lifetime. HIV,
Herbert W ertheim however, still lingers in cells and causes low-level
University of Florida inflammation. This can potentially put patients who have
(UF) Scripps Institute for HIV at greater risk for diseases of the cardiovascular
Biomedical Innovation system, kidney, bones or liver as well as for diabetes,
& Technology have cognitive disorders and some types of cancer, even when
discovered a protein that they do not progress to AIDS. ART is not a cure for
appears to play a key role HIV but allows it to be controlled as a chronic disease.
in helping HIV replicate However, if therapy is interrupted, viral loads will again
in human immune cells, climb to dangerous levels. Some HIV researchers have
providing more clues about An HIV-infected T cell focused on a “shock and kill” strategy to eradicate the
how cellular machinery Photo by NIAID virus and move beyond ART. This involves using drugs
allows the virus to create to awaken dormant HIV-infected cells, where they had Dr. Herbert Wertheim presents poster awards to Jessica
new copies of itself. The insight is more than scientific been invisible to the immune system. Once activated, the Bush, Ryan Hildebrandt, Ph.D., and Ebba Blomqvist.
curiosity – the protein, immune system can then attack and destroy cells carrying
called p32, might provide the virus. Ryan Hildebrandt, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher
a potential target for drugs That goal, however, remains elusive, Valente said, with associate professor Eric T. Wang, Ph.D., at the
that keep HIV dormant because it has proved difficult to reawaken and destroy University of Florida in Gainesville, took home a poster
and harmless. The goal every copy of the virus in the body without severe award for his studies of how RNA moves within cells
is to achieve what would side effects. All it takes is one infected cell for HIV by riding other molecules, kinesins, enabling localized
essentially be a cure for to propagate anew. Valente has instead pioneered a protein construction in cells.
HIV and thus AIDS. “p32 “functional cure” strategy called “block and lock,” an Ebba Blomqvist, an FAU graduate and research
is one piece of the puzzle,” approach that blocks reactivation of HIV in dormant technician with professor Katrin Karbstein, Ph.D., of
said Susana Valente, cells without eradicating them, then locks them in that The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute, described discovery
Ph.D., a professor at The quiescent state. This is where another important protein, of how an assembly factor helps make ribosomes, the
Wertheim UF Scripps Tat, comes into play. Tat is a regulatory protein that can cellular organelles that build proteins.
Institute and chair of its boost the cellular assembly line that replicates the virus Jessica Bush, a doctoral student working in the Disney
department of immunology Susana Valente, Ph.D so it can, in turn, spread and infect additional cells. lab, won a poster award for her work designing a small,
and microbiology. She is Eliminate Tat, Valente said, and you might lock HIV into drug-like molecule to degrade an RNA that causes ALS
the senior author of a paper on p32 published Dec. 30 in a perpetual state of dormancy. Without Tat, you have a and frontotemporal dementia.
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a very weak virus,” she said. p32 also interacts with Tat, Institute benefactor Dr. Herbert Wertheim presented
peer-reviewed scientific journal. helping to stabilize it, which might make p32 as good a their certificates, praising them for hard work and
“This adds another layer of complexity to understanding target as Tat, Valente said. p32 might serve as a hub where dedication to expanding knowledge, as they work for the
HIV,” she added. “We need to identify all of these other proteins associated with HIV replication can dock. betterment of humanity.
unknown factors that help HIV replicate itself, and “It basically stabilizes the whole complex,” she said.
ultimately some of them can be targeted in the future by The Scripps Research Institute on page 10

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