This research, led by UNC School of Medicine scientists Laura Kincer, Sarah Joseph, PhD, and Ron Swanstrom, PhD, with international collaborators, shows that in addition to HIV’s ability to lay dormant in the blood/lymphoid system, the virus may also lay dormant in the central nervous system, delineating another challenge in creating a cure.

David Margolis, MD, Director of the UNC HIV Cure Center

The National Institutes of Health will award $53 million annually to 10 research organizations over the next five years to continue working toward curative therapies for HIV. The Collaboratory of AIDS Researchers for Eradication (CARE), led at the UNC HIV Cure Center by David Margolis, MD, is one of two programs to have received funds for all three five-year grant cycles since 2011.

UNC School of Medicine research led by Nilu Goonetilleke, PhD, reveal how HIV-1-specific immune cells can recognize viral particles that have the capacity to rebound following interruptions to antiretroviral therapy. The findings have implications for new treatment strategies.

Claire Farel, MD, MPH, Medical Director of the UNC Infectious Disease Clinic, and Co-Director of the UNC Center for AIDS Research Clinical Core, gave a plenary talk at the 2020 National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care and Treatment.

From left: Lisa Hightow-Weidman, Kate Muessig, and Lina Rosengren-Hovee

The new video series from Medscape includes compelling stories of people living with HIV and interviews with UNC School of Medicine's Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH, Kate Muessig, PhD, and Lina Rosengren-Hovee, MD, MPH, MS, of the UNC Behavior and Technology Lab in the division of infectious diseases.

From left: David Margolis, MD, J. Victor Garcia, PhD, and Richard Dunham, PhD (credit: Jon Gardiner, UNC-Chapel Hill)

Overcoming HIV latency – induction of HIV in CD4+ T cells that lay dormant throughout the body – is a major step toward creating a cure for HIV. For the first time, scientists at UNC-Chapel Hill, Emory University, and Qura Therapeutics – a partnership between UNC and ViiV Healthcare – have shown that a new approach can expose latent HIV to attack in two different animal model systems with little or no toxicity.

SEM cross-section images of implants after drug release for 30 days.

UNC researchers have created an injectable multi-drug delivery system that is removable, biodegradable and effective for up to a year in some cases. First author Rahima Benhabbour, PhD, MSc, says the ability to administer multiple drugs with this implant is an important advancement in this research.

The late Kevin R. Robertson, PhD, professor of neurology and director of neuropsychology, was co-lead author of the study.

A new study finds that nearly half of cells sampled from the cerebrospinal fluid of HIV patients had viral DNA, even though the patients had been on antiretroviral treatment for several years. The late Kevin R. Robertson, PhD, was co-lead author, and Joseph J. Eron, MD, is a co-author.

The “Carolinas United to End HIV (CUE-HIV)” partnership aims to decrease the number of HIV infections by 90 percent in ten years.

Led by J. Victor Garcia, PhD, UNC researchers report in the Journal of Clinical Investigation that T cells in the brain may be an important HIV reservoir that should be targeted by HIV cure approaches.

Tag: HIV/AIDS

Scientists Document Two Separate Reservoirs of Latent HIV in Patients

UNC HIV Cure Center Awarded $26.2 million over the next 5 Years

How immune cells can recognize, control HIV when therapy is interrupted

Farel presents at 2020 National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care and Treatment

Three BATLab Members Featured in ‘Confronting the HIV Epidemic’

Researchers Reverse HIV Latency, Important Scientific Step Toward Cure

Long-Acting Injectable Multi-Drug Implant Shows Promise for HIV Prevention and Treatment

HIV-infected cells persist in cerebrospinal fluid, linked to poorer neurocognitive performance

NC, SC Join Forces to Combat HIV Epidemic

T cells alone are sufficient to establish and maintain HIV infection in the brain