Vijayakumar Velu
Emory University, GA·Microbiology & Immunology
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) controls HIV but does not cure it. The virus hides in long-lived cells, and the drugs must be taken for life because stopping them lets the virus rebound.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
HIV cure
viral remission
antiretroviral therapy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2030
What they work on
- Test how soluble IL-15/IL-15Rα-Fc, an immune-boosting cytokine complex, and galunisertib, a TGF-β pathway blocker, alone or combined, change T cell and natural killer cell subsets during chronic SIV infection in antiretroviral-treated rhesus macaques.
- Determine whether these treatments reduce viral reservoirs during antiretroviral therapy and improve control of viral rebound after analytical treatment interruption.
- Assess whether the treatments promote follicular homing of SIV-specific CD8 T cells and NK cells into B cell follicles and germinal centers, where reservoirs persist in T follicular helper cells.
- Combine the optimal cytokine regimen with therapeutic vaccination to increase the magnitude and breadth of SIV-specific CD8 T cell responses, and evaluate safety and added therapeutic benefit.
More about the research
Two obstacles stand in the way of a cure: these persistent viral reservoirs, and an immune system that stays weakened even on treatment. A key problem is location. Killer CD8 T cells, which normally destroy infected cells, are largely kept out of the lymph node regions where much of the reservoir sits, in follicular helper T cells inside B cell follicles and germinal centers. This project tests a combination therapy meant to fix both the strength and the positioning of the anti-viral immune response, aiming for lasting viral control after treatment stops.
Why it matters
HIV remains a leading cause of illness and death worldwide, and current therapy must be taken for life. By testing whether boosting IL-15 signaling, blocking TGF-β and adding a therapeutic vaccine can keep the virus suppressed after treatment stops in a monkey model, this work could help define a path toward long-term HIV remission without daily antiretroviral drugs.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Matthew R. Reynolds
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how long virus takes to rebound after stopping antiretroviral therapy in rhesus macaques given defined reservoirs of 5x10^4, 1x10^4, 1x10^3 or 1x10^2 laboratory-generated, latently SIV-infected autologous cells.
Dennis Hartigan-O'Connor
University of California-Davis, CA·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether partial-agonist IL-10 cytokines combined with mRNA vaccination can make HIV-specific T-cell responses unusually durable in macaques, including CXCR5+ follicular T cells that enter lymph-node sites where antibody-producing B cells mature.
James Whitney
Boston College, MA·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how early the persistent viral reservoir is established after SIV infection and how initiating antiretroviral therapy early limits seeding and expansion of cellular reservoirs.
The school
Emory University: 70 labs on PI Pages, $1.2B a year on research, 286 research doctorates a year.
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