The NHLBI has an intramural research program that is active in AIDS research. Basic investigations on the structure and replication of the AIDS virus and on cellular mechanisms involved in pulmonary complication of HIV-1 infection have been undertaken with the goal of applying new knowledge to prevention and to develop therapeutic measures against AIDS.

Many investigators from the NHLBI intramural program are working on AIDS-related research. One investigator has used gene therapy to develop cells capable of producing a substance, CD4+, that prevents HIV-1 infection. Another investigator has studied the effects of aerosolized interferon and glutathione in improving the immune function of cells in the lung. Still another investigator has studied the anemia associated with HIV-1 infection and has found that it may be due to concomitant infection with parvovirus; patients in this study have a favorable response to immune globulin. A number of investigators in the intramural program are now involved in basic research that may lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms of viral infection and immune function.

Neal Young
Hematology Branch

One intramural investigator found that Interleukin-1-ß Converting Enzyme, an enzyme which plays an important role in programmed cell death in mammalian cells, was preferentially expressed in CD4 cells from HIV-infected patients. Its presence may account for the increased rate of programmed cell death seen in CD4+ cells of HIV-infected patients, resulting in their depletion.

Charles Huang
Laboratory of Biochemistry