SPIRAL Project: HIV Cure for Everyone – Focusing on Women South of the Sahara

Almost all HIV research to date has been done on subtype B of the virus, the variant most common in Europe, North America and Australia

A solution to the HIV epidemic for the people most affected by it: women south of the Sahara. That is the goal of collaborating Dutch and African scientists. The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the AidsFond recently allocated more than 6 million euros to finance their plans for the SPIRAL project.

Almost all HIV research to date has been done on subtype B of the virus, the variant most common in Europe, North America and Australia. While that part of the world is not hit hardest by the HIV epidemic in many respects. These are the countries south of the Sahara in Africa, where mainly women are infected with subtypes other than type B.

The SPIRAL project therefore focuses on a cure for everyone with HIV, including women and men with subtypes other than type B. The project is led by biomedical scientists Monique Nijhuis (UMC Utrecht) and Tokameh Mahmoudi (Erasmus MC), social scientist Sarah Stutterheim (Maastricht University) and internist-infectiologist Godelieve de Bree (Amsterdam UMC), in collaboration with fellow scientists in the Netherlands, Uganda, South Africa and Zambia. ‘In the past, African scientists were often only involved in research at a late stage. We work closely together at every level and from the start,” says research leader Monique Nijhuis.

An important step towards a cure is mapping the so-called HIV reservoir. These are immune cells in the body in which the virus remains present in a dormant state. Even with HIV inhibitors, this reservoir remains present, meaning that people living with HIV are condemned to expensive, lifelong therapy and continuous monitoring. Curing HIV can only be done by removing the reservoir. But not much is yet known about the size and activity of the reservoir of subtypes other than type B. Little is also known about the differences in reservoir between men and women. Gaining that knowledge is therefore one of the most important goals of the new research project.

In addition, the project focuses on social and economic challenges associated with the development and application of an HIV cure for all.

The project called SPIRAL runs for 6 years and is funded by the Knowledge and Information Covenant (KIC) program ‘HIV cure for everyone’a partnership between Aidsfonds and NWO.

Bron: UMC Utrecht

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2023-10-17 08:00:23
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