Therapeutic vaccine for HIV/TB co-infection.

[Guest guest]

Global Health Institute joins with India to control deadly HIV/TB co-

infection

Researchers at Emory University's Global Health Institute and the

Emory Vaccine Center are collaborating with one of India's premier

research centers in a push to enhance the immune systems of people

infected with both HIV and tuberculosis.

Located in New Delhi, the institute, known as the International

Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), will

provide state-of-the-art lab space for newly recruited Emory

scientists and their ICGEB collaborators to form the Center for

Global Vaccines.

" Our initial studies will focus on the basic aspects of the HIV/TB co-

infection. There is an interesting interplay between HIV and TB, "

says Rafi Ahmed, PhD, director of the Emory Vaccine Center and a

Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. " In fact, the World Health

Organization has just classified HIV/TB as a unique disease. "

It is estimated that one-third of the world's 40 million people with

HIV/AIDS are also infected with TB and that 90 percent of those with

HIV die within months of contracting TB if they are not properly

treated. However, finding effective treatments is growing more

difficult as various strains of TB are becoming more widespread and

more virulent, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and India.

" In terms of sheer numbers, India now has the largest number of HIV-

infected people in the world, and 5.7 million of them have the HIV/TB

co-infection, " says Dr. Ahmed. " The majority of people infected with

HIV also have TB, which is endemic in India. Most people get primary

TB as children, and the majority of them will live a healthy life and

die of old age, not of TB. But when they get infected with HIV and

they already have TB their immune system becomes compromised, and the

TB reactivates, " he says.

Although a vaccine exists to prevent TB, it can be used in only

limited circumstances. Thus, Emory and ICGEB will be focusing on

developing a therapeutic vaccine that can be used more widely; that

is, one that can be given to those people already infected with

HIV/TB. " We want to tackle very big problems, and this is a very big

problem, " says Ahmed. " This is very big science. "

Contact: Holly Korschun for further details.

e-mail: hkorsch@...

Tel: 404-727-3990

Emory University

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/eu-ghi030507.php