HIV: How modern science is fighting back

Science has a crucial part to play in tackling the AIDS pandemic. ERC funded scientists are engineering better vaccines, studying HIV evolution of drug resistance and discovering how our immune system could combat the virus. They are also working on social impacts, including protecting children from abuse and supporting child caregivers in an AIDS-related context. These projects are just a few examples, but they demonstrate the wide range and vital importance of the research being done – from parenting programmes to molecular biology.

HIV as the ultimate evolver

Despite extensive research and new effective drugs, HIV remains difficult to control and impossible to cure. The virus evolves so quickly to resist drugs and immune defences that it is known as 'the ultimate evolver' - an example of evolution-in-action that would normally take millennia. During the infection of a single patient, parts of the HIV genome can diverge from the founder strain several times the evolutionary distance of a human and a chimpanzee.

Dr Neher's project observes the HI virus to better understand evolutionary processes at the molecular level. By sequencing HIV from series of patient blood samples, his team can analyse the mutations and recombinations which occur as the virus encounters new drugs, or is targeted by the immune system. From their data they aim to develop an in-depth model of HIV evolution, which could point to new treatment strategies to counter the development of drug resistance.

Principal Investigator: Richard Neher
Host Institution: Max Planck Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften, Germany
ERC Project: Intra-patient evolution of HIV (HIVEVO)
ERC Call: Starting grant 2010
ERC Funding: €1.2 million for five years
Researcher's webpage ∙ Host Institution webpage ∙ Project webpage
©Shutterstock/Lightspring

Our immune response

There are two main strains of HIV. The well-known type is HIV-1, identified as a causative agent of AIDS in 1983. HIV-2 is similar, but relatively uncommon. Most patients infected with HIV-2 do not develop AIDS because their immune system appears to effectively control the virus. This is the purpose of our immune system: to regulate and eradicate harmful infections. So why does it succeed at controlling HIV-2 but fail with HIV-1?

Prof. Manel and his team study the immune response to both strains and they believe the answer lies in dendritic cells – immune cells which detect the presence of a virus and activate the immune system to fight it. HIV-1 is not detected by dendritic cells, but HIV-2 is, and the researchers hope to find out why and how. Their results will greatly increase the present understanding of both strains, with potential applications in manipulating immune defences to recognise and fight HIV-1.

Principal Investigator: Nicolas Manel
Host Institution: Institut Curie Paris, France
ERC Project: Innate sensing of HIV and immune responses (HIVINNATE)
ERC Call: Starting grant 2012
ERC Funding: €1.7 million for five years
Researcher's webpage ∙ Host Institution webpage ∙ Project webpage
©Illustration: Nicolas Manet&Renaud Chabrier

Protecting children in AIDS-related contexts

12 million children in sub-Saharan Africa have been orphaned by AIDS and a further 70 million live with AIDS-affected caregivers. Previous research has revealed heightened levels of physical, sexual and emotional abuse suffered by children in these contexts, often due to economic insecurity, loss of caregivers and stigma.

Dr Cluver's project will develop and test a programme to prevent child abuse in townships and rural areas of the Eastern Cape province, South Africa, where HIV infection rates are up to 30%. Using an evidence-based approach, the programme will focus mainly on parenting programmes, with the priority of strengthening the child-caregiver relationship through group discussions, home assignments, role-play practice and home-based visits. Dr Cluver works in partnership with governments and NGOs, but also recognises the importance of local perspectives - even setting up a 'child advisory group' of 18 AIDS-affected children to give input based on personal experience.

The effectiveness and outcomes of the intervention will be tested in pre-post studies (studies measuring participants' progress) and a randomised controlled trial, in order to inform policy-makers, programme leaders and community groups in the future.

Principal Investigator: Lucie Cluver
Host Institution: University of Oxford, UK
ERC Project: Preventing Abuse of Children in the Context of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa (PACCASA)
ERC Call: Starting grant 2012
ERC Funding: €1.5 million for five years
Researcher's webpage ∙ Host Institution webpage ∙ Interview
©Lucie Cluver

Towards a Vaccine

According to recent statistics, HIV is spreading by around 6 300 people per day - over 260 per hour. A vaccine is the obvious solution, but despite extensive research, none yet exists.

In order to fight a viral infection, the vaccine must tell 'B-cells' in the body to start producing 'neutralising antibodies' – proteins which attach to, and suppress, the virus. For a positive outcome the B-cells must recognise the vaccine immediately and respond, but currently the 'Env' vaccines (specifically designed for HIV) are very unstable and difficult for the B-cells to recognise.

Dr Sanders and his team are working on engineering Env vaccines that provide a more stable target, in order to induce antibodies faster and in larger numbers. If successful, their project could pave the way towards the first effective HIV vaccine.

Principal Investigator: Rogier Willem Sanders
Host Institution: University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
ERC Project: Stabilizing the exposure of neutralization epitopes on HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein trimer vaccines (SHEV)
ERC Call: Starting grant 2011
ERC Funding: €1.5 million for five years
Host Institution webpage