Posted on August 6, 2001 at 8:56 a.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) recently received two grants totaling $144,000 from the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR) to fund new HIV/AIDS studies. Etty Benveniste, Ph.D., professor and chair of the department of cell biology; Olaf Kutsch, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow in the department of cell biology; and Cynthia Derdeyn, Ph.D., a research instructor in the department of microbiology, will lead the UAB investigations.

Benveniste and Kutsch received a grant to study of the underlying mechanisms involved in reactivating latent HIV infection. “Latent virus hides in immune cells called macrophages,” says Benveniste. “Controlled reactivation of the virus in these cells may expose it, allowing the immune system or HIV drugs to identify and destroy it.”

Derdeyn’s research focuses on a new class of anti-HIV drugs called fusion inhibitors that work by preventing the virus from entering cells. “Our previous studies have shown that small differences in the structure of external HIV proteins can affect their sensitivity to fusion inhibitors,” says Derdeyn. “This study will look at the role of certain HIV proteins and cell receptors in determining the sensitivity of patient-derived viruses to anti-HIV fusion inhibitors.”

All together, AmFAR awarded more than $3 million in grants and fellowships. In addition to 17 basic research grants, like those given to UAB researchers, it awarded two grants to fund the establishment of screening libraries of chemical compounds for substances that could block the function of certain key HIV genes. It also awarded five grants for research of microbicides, substances that block the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted microbes, and nine fellowships.