# Direct live-cell visualization and quantification of interactions between infectious HIV particles in primary target cells.

> **NIH NIH K22** · RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · $108,000

## Abstract

To successfully infect a target host-cell HIV has to perform the early-steps of infection to integrate into the
host chromatin. After integration, HIV completes the late-steps of infection where new particles assemble.
These virions contain viral host proteins and the RNA viral genome. Recently, the early steps of HIV infection
have been under intense scrutiny. Multiple approaches utilized by a number of laboratories have begun to
advance our understanding of the kinetics, dynamics, and intracellular location of the different steps of the
early events including viral interaction with cellular co-factors, or cellular innate/intrinsic immune factors.
Although insightful, each of these systems have strengths and weaknesses leading to conflicting data due to
different cellular models, techniques, and analysis of populations of viruses that do not infect a cell. A question
under debate is whether the HIV capsid shields the reverse transcribed genome from innate sensors before
nuclear translocation, e.g. cGAS. To date, it is not clear how the innate sensing machinery targets viral
particles and whether these particles are degraded, accumulate in specific cellular compartments, or infect a
cell. Throughout my research career, I have optimized methods that study the early-steps of HIV-1, primary
isolates from HIV-2, and various circulating SIVs. My long-term career plan is to elucidate the various viral
mechanisms and their interactions with the cell by utilizing techniques that I previously developed. These
methods monitor the behavior of individual viral particles and directly connect particle behavior to successful
cellular infection. The main goal of this proposal is the clarification of key aspects of the early-steps of
HIV infection and to definitively connect viral behavior to productive cell infection of primary cells. This
research project aims to clarify if the actors in innate sensing have a direct impact on infectious
particles, or lead to an abortive infection during the activation of innate sensing pathways. The study of
these cellular and viral mechanisms will shed new light into cellular mechanisms that could be utilized to have
a positive outcome and application on the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10120615
- **Project number:** 5K22AI140963-02
- **Recipient organization:** RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Joao Filipe Inacio Mamede
- **Activity code:** K22 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $108,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-03-06 → 2022-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10120615

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10120615, Direct live-cell visualization and quantification of interactions between infectious HIV particles in primary target cells. (5K22AI140963-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10120615. Licensed CC0.

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