Pilot Award Recipient: Namita Kumari, PhD

Restriction Factor Mediated Control of HIV-1 in Sickle Cell Disease
June 4, 2019

The current antiretroviral drugs can manage HIV/AIDS but they do not eradicate the virus, making life long use of ART mandatory. Moreover if for some reason ART is discontinued, the virus comes back, and at times causing drastic effects. Hemin and iron chelator that are in use for other diseases, and approved by FDA, seems to have potential to control HIV-1 by novel mechanism. They may be used to clear virus during viral rebound which occurs if ART is discontinued and patients having drug resistant viral population. Hemin and iron chelator may be used as novel inhibitors of HIV-1 during viral resistance and rebound.