College Honors Program

HIV/AIDS: Science and Society. The Needs of AIDS Service Organizations and the Potential of APOBEC3G

Date of Creation

5-17-2023

Document Type

Campus Access Only

First Advisor

Tsitsi Masvawure

Second Advisor

Ann Sheehy

Abstract

The science of HIV and the work of AIDS Service Organizations are inseparable aspects of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic. This thesis aims to connect the history and living memory of AIDS Project Worcester, an AIDS Service Organization serving Central Massachusetts, with an investigation of APOBEC3G (A3G). This defense protein suppresses HIV propagation in human cells by introducing mutations to the viral DNA.

Interviews with the staff and board of local ASO AIDS Project Worcester (APW) have indicated that cost remains a principal concern. Improving affordability can reprioritize limited resources towards housing, nutrition, employment, and other holistic services that help clients move beyond survival and toward fulfilling lives. New treatments can be guided to address the cost issue and the looming crisis of treatment resistance while improving patient autonomy, accessibility, and dignity.

APOBEC3G has the potential to address some of these concerns. Changing critical component amino acids in A3G can alter its function and efficacy against HIV. One variant of A3G, VT88, targeted HIV in regions of the viral DNA that have not evolved ways to resist A3G. Understanding how this variant gained its modified function can clarify the HIV-A3G relationship and generate treatments that work with the immune system’s innate countermeasures, less likely to lead to treatment resistance.

Comments

Additional guidance provided by: Michelle Mondoux

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