|
Associated
Investigator: |
Dra.
Cecília Cabrera |
| PhD
Students: |
Isabel
Puigdomènech
Marta Massanella
Marta Curriu |
| Researchers:
|
Silvia
Marfil Verchili
Elisabet García |
Like
all viruses, HIV needs living
cells to replicate. However, viral
infection is an attack to which
the cell respond by a variety
of mechanisms, including the cellular
suicide to avoid viral replication.
Understanding
how HIV interacts with target
cells and how target cell respond
to this attack is crucial to determine
key points in the HIV life cycle
that may serve as targets for
therapy, including pharmacological
(antiretrovirals) and immunological
approaches (vaccines).
The
interaction of HIV with its target
cells has been reported to be
highly cytopathic. One of the
main determinants of cytopathicity
is the contact between HIV infected
cells with target CD4 T cells.
These contacts, forming a pseudosynaptic
structure called virological synapse,
have been analyzed for several
years in the laboratory and have
been used as an excellent experimental
model to study cell death induced
by HIV. The study of cell death
pathways is therefore one of the
main objectives of our group.
However,
our interest for cellular contacts,
has been reinforced by the observation
that cellular contacts appear
to be also de main mechanisms
of HIV spread in vivo, by a mechanisms
defined as cell-to-cell HIV transmission.
The study of the complex mechanisms
that control cell-to cell HIV
transmission and their consequences
on viral evolution or neutralization
(apart from cell death) are also
among the main lines of study
of our group.
The
scientific objectives of the Cell
Virology and Immunology group
are:
•
The study of virological synapses,
focused on:
– Morphology
and function
– Mechanisms
of viral tranmsmission and trogocytosis
– The neutralization
of virological synapses
•
The study of the functions of
gp41:
– Mechanisms
of cell death associated to virological
synspases
– The effect
of gp41 on NK cell function
– Genotypic
and phenotypic variants of gp41
• The role of antiretrovirals
(specially protease inhibitors)
as modulators of cell death.
– Cellular mechanisms
of antiapoptotic activity
– Consequences
in vivo, toxicity.
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