The grant, through the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, marks the largest ever received thus far by project principal investigator Sharon Hillier, Ph.D., professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences and molecular genetics and biochemistry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
"I believe fervently in trying to find a way to help women protect themselves against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV," said Dr. Hillier, who is also a senior investigator at MWRI. "Currently, women have no way to protect themselves except condoms, and women do not control condom use."
Dr. Hillier and her colleagues will pursue several scientific projects that involve UC781, a tight-binding molecule discovered by co-principal investigator Michael Parniak, Ph.D., professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. An organic molecule about the size of an antibiotic, UC781 is a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor that renders the HIV virus incapable of infecting cells. These projects are:
"Biosyn is looking at three or four different compounds," Dr. Hillier said of the Philadelphia-area pharmaceutical manufacturer that specializes in the development of drugs for infectious disease and reproductive health. "There is such a tremendous public health need for this kind of preventive strategy against HIV."
Since the federal government published the first report of five men having unexplained immune dysfunction in 1981, HIV and AIDS have devastated health and economic power across the globe. Worldwide, 20 million people have died and 42 million currently are estimated to be infected. Successful development of a safe, effective way to prevent transmission of the HIV virus with a microbicide barrier could positively impact millions of people. So far, the only products evaluated in large trials for HIV prevention in this way have been formulations of the spermicide nonoxynol-9. These were ultimately deemed not to be protective against HIV.
In 1986, women made up 7 percent of new AIDS cases. Recent studies from the United Nations program on AIDS and the World Health Organization have found that about half the people now infected with AIDS worldwide are women. And more than 25 percent of new infections are among women. There are biological and cultural factors that put women at higher risk for acquiring HIV. Male-to-female virus transmission is more efficient than female-to-male. In sub-Saharan Africa, a region already in crisis due to AIDS, 58 percent of infected adults are women.
"Every 10 years, someone reports that there will be a vaccine against AIDS within the next 10 years," said Dr. Hillier. "We hope to have an effective microbicide that can protect women against HIV in the next seven to eight years.
"Both vaccine and microbicide HIV-prevention strategies are needed," she continued. "Microbicide development has raised the bar for women's health products."
Other investigators involved in this effort are Marijane Krohn, Ph.D., associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and an assistant investigator at MWRI; Bernard Moncla, Ph.D., research associate professor in the division of microbiology and biochemistry at Pitt's School of Dental Medicine; and Dorothy Patton, Ph.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington in Seattle.
ADDITIONAL CONTACT:
Kathryn Duda
PHONE: 412-647-3555
FAX: 412-624-3184
E-MAIL:
DudaK@upmc.edu