In The News
Accordia's Dr. Greene is Interviewed by PBS for his Breakthrough HIV/AIDS Discovery
Accordia Executive Chair is Among Scientists Discovering How Key Immune Cells Die During HIV Infection and Identifying Potential Drug to Block AIDS
Watch the PBS News Special: Search for a Cure
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—February 7, 2014—A PBS Special report: In search of a cure, scientists look for where HIV hides, highlights Accordia's Executive Chair, Dr. Warner C. Greene for his recent discovery. Special correspondent Spencer Michels reports on the battle against AIDS transition to a different phase: the hunt for a real and complete cure.
Research led by scientists at the Gladstone Institutes that has identified the precise chain of molecular events in the human body that drives the death of most of the immune system’s CD4 T cells as an HIV infection leads to AIDS. Further, they have identified an existing anti-inflammatory drug that in laboratory tests blocks the death of these cells—and now are planning a Phase 2 clinical trial to determine if this drug or a similar drug can prevent HIV-infected people from developing AIDS and related conditions.
Two separate journal articles, published simultaneously on December 19, 2013 in Science and Nature, detail the research from the laboratory of Warner C. Greene, MD, PhD, who directs virology and immunology research at Gladstone, an independent biomedical-research nonprofit. Greene is the Executive Chair of Accordia Global Health Foundation. His lab’s Science paper reveals how, during an HIV infection, a protein known as IFI16 senses fragments of HIV DNA in abortively infected immune cells. This triggers the activation of the human enzyme caspase-1 and leads to pyroptosis, a fiery and highly inflammatory form of cell death. As revealed in the Nature paper, this repetitive cycle of abortive infection, cell death, inflammation and recruitment of additional CD4 T cells to the infection “hot zone” ultimately destroys the immune system and causes AIDS. The Nature paper further describes laboratory tests in which an existing anti-inflammatory inhibits caspase-1, thereby preventing pyroptosis and breaking the cycle of cell death and inflammation.
Read the journal articles:
- Science
- Nature
Learn more about the research from Dr. Greene's Lab:
- Accordia News
- Gladstone Press Release
- Unraveling the Basics of HIV/AIDS Biology
