Research Activity

Background Information on Areas of Activity,

Research and Interest in the last 5 years:

1.Research on sexually transmitted infections (STI's), intestinal parasites  and HIV  : This research has been conducted in Ethiopia .Important insights have been gained  re. the  impact of treatment  of sexually transmitted infections  on HIV  load in genital secretions and the impact of dewarming on HIV load in the plasma . It is of note that  this high quality research  in Ethiopia has  led to 4 papers in  high impact journals. The Ethiopian cohorts have been effectively  organized through a collaboration between  EHNRI(Ethiopian Health &Nutrition Research Institute) in Addis Abeba and the Hadassah AIDS Center(HAC).The HAC initiated this research and led to its successful  completion.

2.Research on cross clade CTL response in patients infected  by HIV subtype C and on   CTL escape mutations of HIV subtype C  : This immunologic-virologic-HLA research has been conducted in collaboration with Duke university.  CTL escape mutations were detected on the  background of the unique HLA profile of  Ethiopian patients infected by HIV subtype C . Unique escape mutations were detected in these HIV+ patients  .This research also led to the full length sequencing of HIV subtype C and to the recognition  that a  great degree of cross clade (=cross subtype) immune response exist  in  Ethiopian patients exposed to their own HIV clade as well as to other HIV clades. This findings have immense importance in the development of  new CTL based HIV vaccine  geared towards sub-Saharan Africa.  It  thus may not be necessary to always use the HIV clade C itself as the immunogen. Rather, other HIV clades (e.g:Clade B) may serve   for that purpose as  well.

3.       Epidemiological research on HIV drug resistance in Israel : the development of  primary drug resistance  due to exposure to ARV's (antiretrovirals) was studied in  Israel. It was discovered that up to 20% of new HIV infections in Israel already carry an HIV which has at least one primary drug resistance mutation. The importance of this finding is obvious and may undermine the continued success of ARV treatments in Israel. In another research we compared  the  dynamics  of development of HIV drug resistance in patients receiving ARV's and infected  by HIV subtypes C and non C in Israel.  We discovered that the dynamics of development of specific point mutations was similar among the different HIV subtypes.

4.      Social research:  A surveys on social factors influencing the choice of clients at  the Hadassah AIDS Center HIV testing station: Anonymous testing or confidential. We discovered that more clients seeking anonymous HIV testing are reporting unsafe sexual practices.  This research was the subject of a recent thesis work .

5.    OBGYN  clinical AIDS research :The  obstetric  outcome of HIV+ pregnant women in the Jerusalem area was monitored prospectively. We discovered that non adherence with ARV regimens is associated with a significant degree of perinatal HIV transmission.

6.     Nutrition and HIV: A new study about to begin on the effect of Nutracea, a rice based food supplement on the immune recovery of HIV+ Israeli patients.