Direct Control of Human Gene Expression by HIV Proteins

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AIDS is one of the most destructive epidemics in human history. HIV, the cause of AIDS, has killed over 25 million people, including 3 million people in 2005 alone. Although anti-viral drugs can slow the disease, there is still no cure or vaccine. HIV, like all viruses, needs to use the cell‘s normal machinery to replicate itself. In response, the cell has developed mechanisms that prevent virus replication and trigger an immune response. Recently, it has become clear that HIV takes control of its host cell to create an environment conducive to virus replication and transmission. HIV turns on human genes that help infection and turns off genes that aid the immune response. This may be the Achilles heal of HIV. Preventing HIV from using human genes would block virus replication and, because human genes rarely mutate, this will not lead to HIV resistance. Richard Jenner seeks to use advanced technologies that scan the human genome to discover all the human genes that HIV controls and to learn how HIV controls them. This work, to be carried out at University College London, will identify genes needed by HIV to replicate and provide targets for drugs that will prevent HIV infection.