Gates Foundation gives EVMS $28.5 million for HIV research

By Nancy Young
The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK

An Eastern Virginia Medical School program that is trying to develop a topical gel that can prevent sexual transmission of the virus that causes AIDS has received a $28.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, school officials announced Friday.

The program, called CONRAD, conducts research throughout the world related to reproductive health, including the prevention of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

"We're poised to deliver something that is significant in the area of HIV prevention," said Dr. Gustavo Doncel, director of preclinical research for Arlington-based CONRAD and a professor of obstetrics and

gynecology at EVMS.

One of the top priorities of the Gates Foundation is finding ways to solve the global AIDS epidemic. According to the foundation's Web site, nearly 40 million people in the world are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and by 2010, 25 million children could be orphaned as a result of AIDS. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are the hardest hit.

Doncel said that while the overall incidence of the disease in the United States is fairly low, another 4 million to 5 million new HIV infections per year are expected worldwide.

"It's impossible not to feel the reverberation," Doncel said. "We have a moral imperative. We need to help them."

The development of a topical gel, called a microbicide, is important because women are especially vulnerable to HIV infection through sexual activity, said Henry Gabelnick, executive director of CONRAD.

"It's clear that women are the majority of the new cases of HIV-positive people," Gabelnick said. "If their partners won't use condoms, this gives women a product that they can use to protect themselves."

The Gates grant, which will be distributed over five years, will go toward a new generation of microbicides that use compounds called anti-retrovirals that interfere with the process that allows HIV to replicate, Doncel said. Anti-retrovirals have been effective when taken orally in treating HIV infection and AIDS, but this research will test their effectiveness in a topical vaginal gel that could prevent the sexual transmission of HIV.

Currently there are no microbicides on the market, although some have made it into the later stages of clinical trials. Developing one that works against HIV has been difficult, Doncel said.

"The virus is much sneakier and cheekier than what we thought it would be," said Doncel, one of 10 researchers working on the microbicides in Norfolk. CONRAD has about 40 researchers working directly for it, and provides grant money for other researchers throughout the world, he said.

Nancy Young, (757) 446-2947, nancy.young@pilotonline.com