Hello HOPEians,
Please find below the action items from the RF2 meeting on June 7, 2023. If you have any questions about the meeting or action items please reach out to Dr. Nadia Roan and Dr. Lish Ndhlovu.
Actions:
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Valente Lab – Send XPB protein or plasmid to Paulo Augusto to use as a control
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Michael Corley- Send Valente lab samples to test the Western blot. Send lysis buffer recipe to test so that DNA, RNA, and protein can be extracted from the same sample)
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Andrew McAuley – Work with the Brazil team to optimize the XPB Western blot
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Ndhlovu Lab – create an inventory of received patient samples and create a list of how many cells will go into each test for a systematic analysis
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Susana will give a talk about spironolactone to the ACTG
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Matthew Parsons – Send nonhuman primate studies/ PK experiment plan to the group soon
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Valente Lab – Give DNA to Lish to look at the methylation state.
Updates:
During the RF2 meeting, we went around the table and heard updates from each site. Andrew McAuley shared updates from the last Spironolactone working group. They are working on the XPB western blot and described the best way to preserve the PBMC.
Vivian Avelino-Silva shared some progress on their studies at USP. They will start collecting samples on Monday. They currently have 40 PLWH that are on spironolactone and will track age, gender, and time with diagnosis. They found 9 patients who currently have detectable viral loads, and 4 patients to start spironolactone so they can get before & after data. Luciferase is incorporated and will be offered as an optional procedure. They started the pilot study with healthy volunteers, measuring XPB to send to the Valente Lab.
Matt Parsons shared updates with MHRP. They are on schedule with their studies, but they are having trouble with sodium chloride solution from the local water in Thailand. They need to optimize before proceeding. They will have preliminary data from their primate study in the Fall.
Betty Mwesigwa with MUWRP in Uganda shared updates on the current political changes regarding Uganda’s new anti-gay legislation with the death penalty in some cases. They will continue their research but are reorganizing their procedures, recruitment, and language their staff use, in order to protect the participants. They plan to hold a meeting with their lawyer to get clear guidelines, as well as a meeting with national stakeholders to discuss the best way to move forward. In the meantime, they hope to enroll two new participants but need more guidance on which samples to prioritize.
Andrew Atkins and Scott Bowler from the Ndhlovu Lab shared data and sample processing flow from the NHS clinical studies, including 63 unique patient PIDs. They need to extract protein from all cells and send them to the Valente lab to test reservoir assay and XPB data while simultaneously extracting DNA and RNA for additional analyses. The PBMC samples have arrived, inventoried, and stored. The other plasma samples arrived and shipment is pending for the remaining.
Sara Gianella Weibel from UCSD shared they have limited amounts of tissue and have initial plans to work with Michael Corley.
Announcements
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Check out the Community Jam Board to help address some of our community’s concerns
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The next HOPE Collaboratory-wide meeting is July 24th, 9am PT/12pm ET.
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The next RF2 meeting is August 2nd
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Upcoming Speakers:
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June 15 Dr. Mimi Ghosh
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June 26 Drs. Steven Deeks & Michael Peluso
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Please Acknowledge HOPE & the NIH in any publications or presentations and notify the Program Manager. Here are some examples of what you can include.
“Research reported in this publication was supported by the NIAID of the National Institutes of Health under award number UM1AI164559, with co-funding support from NIDA, NIMH, NHLBI, the NIDDK, and the NINDS. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.”
“This research was supported by NIAID award number UM1AI164559, co-funded by NHLBI, NIDA, NIMH, NINDS, and NIDDK.”