Nadia Roan investigates the transmission of the HIV/AIDS virus across the human genital tract. Using a variety of cell-based assays, she is uncovering how various mucosal components present in the female reproductive tract can facilitate or hinder infection by HIV. Her lab is also probing the features of T cells, HIV’s normal targets, that make these cells susceptible to productive versus latent HIV infection, and studying how HIV is able to “hide” in reservoir cells in individuals taking antiretroviral therapy. Her work has implications for stemming heterosexual HIV transmission, which accounts for most new HIV infections worldwide, and for developing cures against HIV/AIDS.
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Roan’s lab has demonstrated that cells lining the mucosal surface of the rectum and female genital tract secrete antiviral factors, whereas cells deeper in the mucosa potentiate HIV’s ability to infect T cells. These observations suggest that abrasions to the mucosal surface during intercourse allow HIV’s spread by facilitating its access to an environment favoring infection. The lab is now characterizing the molecular mechanisms by which genital cells prevent or potentiate HIV’s infectivity in the mucosa, which may lead to new protective strategies against HIV transmission.
Roan’s lab has also successfully applied CyTOF with a panel of 38 phenotypic markers to characterize the types of T cells targeted by HIV. Their work is uncovering the types of cells most and least susceptible to infection, identifying molecules whose expression is modified upon HIV infection, and finding markers of cells that preferentially undergo productive versus latent infection, which has important implications for the eventual eradication of latent virus in infected individuals.