Research Projects

HIV, the virus responsible for 0.6 million deaths and 1.7 million new infections, is a major challenge in curing the disease. India has the third-largest number of HIV patients globally, with 2.1 million living with HIV and 71% on antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, ART's inadequacy in preventing virus rebound after therapy cessation and its harmful effects on organ functions have hindered efforts to cure HIV. Various strategies have been explored to target HIV latency, including blood transplantation with CCR5-mutated stem cells, CRISPR-based cleavage HIV genome, and "Shock-and-Kill" to reactivate latent HIV. However, these strategies face off-target effects, high risks, and challenges in clinic scaling. Therefore, alternative strategies to control HIV latency are needed. Recent findings from a laboratory have revealed the unexpected role of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas produced by HIV-infected macrophages and T-cells in ensuring deep HIV latency. The team plans to understand the molecular mechanism of H2S's role in viral latency and rebound using multidisciplinary approaches. They aim to generate experimental evidence for deeply silencing HIV reservoirs using H2S gas and examine its potential for HIV remission/cure.