Production of a combination of microbicides that prevent HIV transmission in a plant platform (MolPhaVIH)
| University | Universitat de Lleida |
|---|---|
| Centre/department/research group | Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agraria (ETSEA) Department of Plant Production and Forest Science. AGRARIAN BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP |
| Research title | Production of a combination of microbicides that prevent HIV transmission in a plant platform (MolPhaVIH) |
| Scientific field | Applied biotechnology |
| Related Social Development Goal (SDG) | Goal 2. Zero hunger: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Goal 3. Good health and well-being. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages |
| Goal to which it contributes | 2.1 By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round
3.3 By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases. |
| More information | AGRARIAN BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP María Teresa Capell Capell |
The Agrarian Biotechnology group has proposed the use of plants as platforms for the cost-effective production of recombinant microbicides. Plants are one of the most promising production systems because of their low cultivation costs and biological safety.
Microbicides are a new kind of product able to halt the transmission of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the agent that causes AIDS. These are very cheap formulations of anti-HIV agents that could be applied externally to the vagina or rectum, thus avoiding infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STD). A series of potential candidate microbicides shall be evaluated, although a combination of several of these would offer substantial advantages over the use of one single component. These advantages would include: an increase in potency against the virus; a broader spectrum of activities against the most widespread HIV strains/groups and also protection against secondary infections and other STD.
On this basis, the main aim of the project is to simultaneously express the 2G12 and 4E10 human neutralising antibodies, and Griffithsin anti-HIV and cyanovirin-N in cereal seeds. It shall then evaluate the possibilities for efficient production of various recombinant pharmaceutical compounds in rice and corn grain and investigate the factors that might limit the expression of said recombinant proteins in a plant production platform.
The project is a research challenge that shall serve as a prelude for making cost-effective microbicidal formulations against HIV available to the infected population in developing countries.
This research has been funded by MINECO as part of the 2012 Call of the Spanish R+D+i Plan for 2008-2011.
