Research Summaries

 

 

 

James E. K. Hildreth
Professor
Director CAHDR

HIV/AIDS is foremost a disease of biology strongly enabled by behavior. The Meharry Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research is based on a 6-year NIH grant to establish a comprehensive HIV research center. The guiding structure of the Center is to pursue biological avenues to this problem, while recognizing that the solution will depend on understanding the behaviors that have contributed to HIV infection and providing the awareness and education to the community to break the cycle. Dr. Hildreth took directorship of the Center in 2005, and brought a strong background of biological and translational insights to the Center both personally and through the outstanding faculty he has recruited to Meharry.
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Waldemar Popik
Associate Professor

One of the forms of the innate immunity against HIV is mediated by cytidine deaminases APOBEC3G and APOBEC3F. Although the enzymatic editing of the HIV reverse transcripts is believed to be the primary antiretroviral function of these cellular deaminases, additional nonenzymatic antiviral activities have been suggested for APOBEC3G.
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Bindong Liu
Assistant Professor

There are three major focuses of research in our laboratory. The first one is to understand the interaction between HIV-1 and host defense systems against HIV-1 replication. One system of defense involves a family of 10 proteins called APOBECs. APOBECs have cytidine deaminase activity, and three of the ten, APOBEC3G, 3F and 3DE, have strong anti-HIV activities. Despite this natural anti-HIV component of the immune system, infection and progression to AIDS are not stopped. We are interested in understanding the mechanism by which HIV-1 overcomes APOBEC. Read More

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Donald Alcendor
Assistant Professor

Before HAART in 1996, at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the incidence of Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) increased 20,000 fold among homosexual males in the United States and KS is now the predominant HIV/AIDS related malignancy in Southern Africa. Antiretroviral therapy has reduced the incidence of KS in western countries however 99% of the estimated 40 to 60 million people infected with HIV have no access to these drugs and KS remains to be a problem worldwide. My research interest involves understanding mechanisms involved in KSHV disregulation of endothelial cell adhesion molecules which has implications for immune pathogenesis and tumorigenesis.  Read More

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Xinhong Dong
Assistant Professor

The HIV-1 Gag protein directs the highly orchestrated process of particle assembly and budding. During assembly, the uncleaved Gag polyprotein interacts with the viral RNA and the envelope glycoprotein complex (Env) to coordinate the production of infectious virions. The cellular trafficking machinery is recruited by HIV-1 Gag and participates in essential steps of particle assembly and budding. We identified a novel interaction between Gag and the adaptor protein complex AP-3. This interaction directs Gag trafficking to multivesicular bodies (MVB). Disruption of Gag-AP-3 interaction prevents Gag from reaching to MVBs and inhibits particle formation. Read More