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GMU's Wu seeks research funding to fight HIV
Virologist Dr. Yuntao Wu of George Mason University may be able to stop HIV, he just needs the funding.
The cocktail of toxic drugs prescribed for HIV patients halts viral replication, keeping the virus at bay. But it only takes weeks for a viral rebound after therapy is discontinued.
The goal is to get people off the drugs and kill the virus.
HIV resurfaces because of a reservoir of fortified human cells, allowing the virus to remain in an infectious state, immune to anti-retroviral drugs.
Wu's “Trojan horse” concept cleans out infected HIV microphages, or white blood cells, replacing the HIV with anthrax.
Because WU's artificial particle looks like HIV, it has to rely on HIV protein, selectively killing off neighboring infected cells.
So far, in a test tube, the study has yielded positive results. The next phase of research will have to involve animal testing, with costs running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“The test works very well, not 100-percent effective yet, but it can kill a large number of infected cells," Wu said. "The problem is that (human) bodies are very complicated, but test tubes are easy."
There is “a lot of pressure, especially in our field. Funding is very tight,” Wu said, because “90 percent of HIV/AIDS research projects applying for grants can't get funding.”
Wu said his research stands alone in the world. Having developed the concept since 2001, he said initial lab work to final FDA approval to mass distribution takes a minimum of 10 years.
And during that time, money is always a problem.
“Nobody writes your grants. You have to do it on your own. If I don't get one grant, I have to keep applying until I get the funding,” Wu said.
But it looks like there will be one source of funding that could mean two years of funded research for Wu.
The first-ever New York City to Washington, D.C., fund-raising bike ride is scheduled Sept. 12-15. The goal is for each rider to raise $2,200 so that Wu and his team will have $200,000.
“The difference between this bike ride and other charities is that you know your donation isn't going into a black hole, paying administrative costs for a non-profit. You know exactly where your money is going ... to cure AIDS with research that hasn't been done before,” said Tim Weinheimer, a spokesman for the 330-mile AIDS ride.
The bike ride is planned to be an annual event, which will hopefully mean Wu will be able to spend more time in the lab than writing grants.
“That would be nice,” Wu sighed.
To learn more about Wu and his research, go to www.gmu.edu. For more on the bike ride, go to www.nycdc.org.
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