FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Sept. 13, 2024 -- The Campbell Foundation is pleased to announce that it is providing an $80,000 grant to Fatah Kashanchi, Ph.D., of George Mason University in Virginia who is researching how to identify HIV reservoir cells using HIV glycoRNA as a marker.

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Professor Kashanchi and his co-investigator Ryan Flynn, MD, believe that HIV glycoRNA – sugar-coated molecules that attach to the surface of human cells -- can be used to target hidden HIV cells.

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Kashanchi explains that HIV-1 infected cells from patients show continuous low level RNA production in the presence or absence of anti-retroviral drugs. These RNAs are mostly non-coding and short in nature. Short RNAs have been found to regulate other genes in the human genome.

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“We have recently found that the short RNAs are incorporated into the infected cell organelles and are glycosylated (sugar coated). This exciting new finding shows for the first time that viral RNAs (glycosylated in this case) are present in the infected cells which now makes it easier to target cells for future gene editing and cure,” says Kashanchi.

The Campbell Foundation funds nascent research with potential, says Executive Director Ken Rapkin.

 

“This research offers a novel way to identify HIV-infected cells. Finding these cells is the holy grail of HIV research and our peer review board believes this research has potential, which is why they voted to fund it,” says Rapkin.

 

About The Campbell Foundation

 

The Campbell Foundation was established in 1995 by the late Richard Campbell Zahn as a private, independent, nonprofit foundation dedicated to supporting clinical, laboratory-based research into the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. It focuses its funding on supporting alternative, nontraditional avenues of research. As The Campbell Foundation prepares to celebrate its 29th year, it has given away more than $12 million dollars, with more than $1.5 million going to direct services.