
Purging Latent Hiv Reservoirs Through a Combination Hiv TherapeuticAward last edited on: 1/11/2018
Sponsored Program
SBIRAwarding Agency
NIH : NIAIDTotal Award Amount
$1,088,559Award Phase
2Solicitation Topic Code
-----Principal Investigator
Trevor Percival CastorCompany Information
Aphios Corporation (AKA: Amyxa Pharmaceuticals~Bio-Eng~Eng Inc)
Location: Single
Congr. District: 05
County: Middlesex
Congr. District: 05
County: Middlesex
Phase I
Contract Number: ----------Start Date: ---- Completed: ----
Phase I year
2016Phase I Amount
$463,205Public Health Relevance Statement:
PROJECT NARRATIVE Currently, over 22 million people have died from AIDS and there are over 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. In the United States, an estimated 1 million people are currently living with HIV and approximately 40,000 infections occur each year. There is no vaccine against HIV, and AIDS, if untreated, will lead to the death of over 95% of infected individuals 10 years post-infection. HIV infects several cell types during the course of infection and progression to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The persistence of latent HIV-infected cellular reservoirs represents the major hurdle to virus eradication with anti-retroviral therapy (ART), since latently infected cells remain a permanent source of viral reactivation. It has been hypothesized that intensification of ART could reduce the residual viremia but recent studies strongly suggest that this is not the likely scenario. Moreover, ART is problematic because of long-term toxicity, drug resistance, and the inability to target and eliminate persistent viral reservoirs. Therefore, other pharmacological approaches targeting the HIV-1 reservoir have been suggested by several investigators as a promising strategy to develop new drugs able to activate latent HIV-1 without inducing global T cell-activation. We propose to develop a unique combination therapy consisting of a PKC modulator and an HDAC inhibitor to reactivate these latent HIV reservoirs so that HIV-1 can be eliminated by ART and eradicated from the patients body. Our approach has the potential for advancing HIV therapy towards sterilizing cure, which currently is out of reach.
Project Terms:
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Agonist; animal efficacy; Animal Model; Anti-Retroviral Agents; Antibody Binding Sites; aqueous; Biodistribution; Blood Circulation; bryostatin; burden of illness; CD4 Positive T Lymphocytes; Cell Culture Techniques; Cell Death; cell type; Cells; Cessation of life; Chronic Disease; Clinical Research; Clinical Trials; Combined Modality Therapy; Communicable Diseases; Cyclic GMP; cytotoxicity; Data; design; Developed Countries; Disease; Drug Combinations; Drug resistance; Economic Burden; Encapsulated; Engineering; Evaluation; experience; Generations; Genetic Transcription; Goals; Head; Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor; HIV; HIV Infections; HIV therapy; HIV-1; Hospitals; Human; humanized mouse; Immune system; Immunologist; Immunotherapy; in vivo; in vivo Model; Inbred BALB C Mice; Individual; Infection; Institutes; Latent Virus; Lead; Legal patent; Licensing; Life; Liposomes; Liquid substance; Lytic; Macaca; Maryland; Medical; medical schools; Medicine; meetings; Membrane Lipids; Modeling; mouse model; multidisciplinary; nanobodies; Neoadjuvant Therapy; neutralizing antibody; novel therapeutics; Outcome; Patients; PDCD1LG1 gene; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Pharmacologic Substance; Phase; Phase I Clinical Trials; preclinical study; Principal Investigator; Process; product development; professor; programs; Protein Kinase C; Protocols documentation; purge; Research; research and development; Research Personnel; residence; Residual state; simian human immunodeficiency virus; Source; Spain; systemic toxicity; T-Cell Activation; Therapeutic; Time; Toxic effect; Track and Field; treatment effect; United States; Universities; Vaccines; Viral; Viral Load result; Viral reservoir; Viremia; virology; Virus; Vorinostat
Phase II
Contract Number: ----------Start Date: ---- Completed: ----
Phase II year
2017Phase II Amount
$625,354Public Health Relevance Statement:
PROJECT NARRATIVE Currently, over 22 million people have died from AIDS and there are over 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. In the United States, an estimated 1 million people are currently living with HIV and approximately 40,000 infections occur each year. There is no vaccine against HIV, and AIDS, if untreated, will lead to the death of over 95% of infected individuals 10 years post-infection. HIV infects several cell types during the course of infection and progression to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The persistence of latent HIV-infected cellular reservoirs represents the major hurdle to virus eradication with anti-retroviral therapy (ART), since latently infected cells remain a permanent source of viral reactivation. It has been hypothesized that intensification of ART could reduce the residual viremia but recent studies strongly suggest that this is not the likely scenario. Moreover, ART is problematic because of long-term toxicity, drug resistance, and the inability to target and eliminate persistent viral reservoirs. Therefore, other pharmacological approaches targeting the HIV-1 reservoir have been suggested by several investigators as a promising strategy to develop new drugs able to activate latent HIV-1 without inducing global T cell-activation. We propose to develop a unique combination therapy consisting of a PKC modulator and an HDAC inhibitor to reactivate these latent HIV reservoirs so that HIV-1 can be eliminated by ART and eradicated from the patients body. Our approach has the potential for advancing HIV therapy towards sterilizing cure, which currently is out of reach.
Project Terms:
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Agonist; animal efficacy; Animal Model; Anti-Retroviral Agents; Antibody Binding Sites; aqueous; Biodistribution; Biological; Blood Circulation; bryostatin; burden of illness; CD4 Positive T Lymphocytes; Cell Culture Techniques; Cell Death; cell type; Cells; Cessation of life; Chemicals; Chronic Disease; Clinical Research; Clinical Trials; Combined Modality Therapy; Communicable Diseases; Cyclic GMP; cytotoxicity; Data; design; Developed Countries; Developing Countries; Disease; Drug Combinations; Drug resistance; Economic Burden; Encapsulated; Engineering; Evaluation; experience; Generations; Genetic Transcription; Goals; HDAC4 gene; Head; Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor; HIV; HIV Infections; HIV therapy; HIV-1; Hospitals; Human; humanized mouse; immune clearance; immune function; Immune system; Immunologics; Immunologist; Immunotherapy; in vivo; Inbred BALB C Mice; Individual; Infection; Institutes; Latent Virus; Lead; Legal patent; Licensing; Life; Liposomes; Liquid substance; Lytic; Macaca; Maryland; Medical; medical schools; Medicine; meetings; Membrane Lipids; Modeling; mouse model; multidisciplinary; nanobodies; Neoadjuvant Therapy; neutralizing antibody; novel therapeutics; Outcome; Patients; PDCD1LG1 gene; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Pharmacologic Substance; Pharmacology; Phase; Phase I Clinical Trials; preclinical study; Principal Investigator; PRKCA gene; Process; product development; professor; Program Development; programs; Protein Kinase C; Protocols documentation; purge; reactivation from latency; Research; research and development; Research Personnel; residence; Residual state; Savings; simian human immunodeficiency virus; Source; Spain; systemic toxicity; T-Cell Activation; Therapeutic; Thinness; Time; Toxic effect; Track and Field; treatment effect; United States; Universities; Vaccines; Viral; Viral Load result; Viral reservoir; Viremia; virology; Virus; Virus Latency; Vorinostat