IDENTIFICATION OF ANTI-HIV THERAPEUTICS AND TOPICAL MICROBICIDES

Southern Research Institute, Birmingham AL

Investigators

Abstract

The development and introduction of new therapeutics and topical microbicides against HIV remains a high public health priority. To assist in filling these public health gaps, the NIAID supports preclinical development of promising therapeutic and topical microbicide candidates that emerge from academia, the private sector, or other sources. This contract provides product development services utilizing biochemical and cell-based assays in both standard and high throughput screening (HTS) formats. The services provided under this contract will assist a wide variety of investigators in obtaining critical data needed to acquire additional funding, gain prospective partnerships (either for further development or to support Phase I trials), and fulfill regulatory agency requirements for investigational new drug (IND) applications. Interventional agents are tested in confirmatory and specialized assays in standard format (i.e., using up to 96-well plates) with the objective of identifying and characterizing agents that block HIV infection, inhibit HIV gene expression and replication, and/or cure infected cells of HIV infection. The primary activities include conducting confirmatory testing on potential therapeutics in human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) and continuous cell lines, performing primary screening using compounds to identify potential anti-HIV topical microbicides, conducting confirmatory testing on potential topical microbicides in human PBMCs, and/or determining toxic effects and/or activity of microbicide candidates.