Students Join the Global Fight Against AIDS

Almost 37 million people around the world are living with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, according to UNAIDS. The pandemic gained attention in the mid-1980s, and today an international community of researchers continues efforts to wipe out transmission of the virus, and expand treatment options for those who have it.

That community of researchers extends to Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY), where Science Professor Jose A. Fernandez Romero is leading a team of three BMCC students — Nadjet Cornejal, Gearoff Cruz Rodriguez and Claudia Melo, as well as Betty Kim, who is fulfilling prerequisites for medical school —in HIV-related research at the Population Council lab in Rockefeller University, on the east side of Manhattan.

Data the students are gathering will help inform development of an HIV prevention tablet that could be an option for those who want “an on-demand, inexpensive, discreet, portable product to prevent HIV acquisition,” Romero says.

There are other antiretroviral medications out there that prevent HIV acquisition, he says, but their efficiency is limited by a number of factors.

For example, Romero explains, “Condoms work well to prevent HIV transmission, but many people don’t use them for various reasons. PrEP, a pre-exposure prophylaxis treatment, is highly effective, but requires using the pills daily, indefinitely or around times of high risk, which some people don’t want to do.”

The anti-viral potential of plants

The HIV-prevention treatment the BMCC students are helping to develop is organic, or plant based, which distinguishes it from other options.

“Scientists at NCI — the Molecular Targets Laboratory of the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute — discovered that red algae growing in the ocean off the coast of New Zealand produces a very special protein,” Romero says. “The protein was named ‘griffithsin.’ The gene responsible for the production of griffithsin was identified, cloned and introduced into a tobacco plant, to cause the tobacco plant to produce large quantities of this protein that has anti-viral properties.”

Professor Romero and his students are studying a gene that produces the griffithson protein in red algae. That gene, once cloned and introduced to a tobacco plant, results in a protein with anti-viral properties.

Wearing lab coats, gloves and goggles — and under Romero’s close supervision — the students work with griffithsin protein and HeLa cells grown on microplate dishes.

The HeLa cells, provided through the National Institutes of Health AIDS Reagent Program, are part of the legacy of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman whose cancer cells were harvested without her knowledge and have become one of the most important cell lines in medical research today.

For this research, “The cells are used to evaluate the potential antiviral synergy of griffithsin with broadly neutralizing anti-HIV antibodies,” says Romero.

Becoming part of a larger community of researchers

The BMCC students who work with Romero not only participate in important lab work, they present their findings at gatherings of scientists in the United States and abroad.

Following Romero’s example — he has presented widely, including a presentation of findings from the Population Council project at the HIV Research for Prevention, or HIVR4P 2018 Conference in Madrid, in October 2018 — they are representing their work at national and international gatherings of scientists.

Nadjet Cornejal presented a poster, “Human Vaginal Fluid Components Do Not Interfere with Griffithsin Anti-HIV Properties,” at the 27^thAnnual CSTEP (Collegiate Sciences and Technology Entry Program) in April 2019 in Bolton Landing, New York. Along with Professor Romero and science major Claudia Melo, she attended the New England Science Symposium at Harvard Medical School in Boston in April 2019, and both Melo and fellow student Cornejal were accepted to present at the Adherence Conference of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care in Miami in June 2019.

“Claudia and Nadjet will be in good company as they present their work as part of their internship at Population Council,” said Romero. “This is a great opportunity for a scientist in the making.”

Research: A world without bounds

“It would be great if this research could be completed in one day, but in order to complete the research and bring it to clinical trials, it could take years upon years,” says science major Gearoff Cruz Rodriguez. “It makes you think about how long it took other researchers, before us, to create the medicines and prevention technologies we have today. I feel grateful for the medicines and prevention technologies we have today because who knows what the world would be like without them.”

“My goal is to one day volunteer for Médecins Sans Frontières,” says undergraduate Betty Kim. “The research we are currently doing, working with HIV, has allowed me to learn about inequalities that have prevented developing countries from getting access to HIV and AIDS treatments. The experience in a research lab has given me a glimpse into the exhausting amount of work and time it takes to study and understand a pathogenic disease, and then from there to be able to figure out how to treat it.”

In the lab, Kim says, “Doing research has inspired me to write about my experiences and to be critical, creative and curious with my day-to-day interactions. Research has expanded my mind and my dedication to keep pushing into a world that really has no bounds.”

Cornejal says that working with Professor Romero in the lab “helped me realize that I want to keep working in the field of virology and it endorsed my love for science.”

“Imagine the importance of there being an on-demand, inexpensive, portable product to prevent HIV acquisition — and you had a small part in making that happen,” says Melo. “A product like the one we are studying will allow women worldwide to be in control of their bodies using an affordable and convenient on-demand formulation.”

Professor Romero, Melo says, “works hard in the lab to make sure every step in our experiments is done correctly. He teaches us to critically analyze the results of our experiments whether it proved or disproved our initial hypothesis. Through his mentorship I have become a hardworking and responsible scientist and more importantly, very resilient.”

Romero, who started his career teaching virology and genetic engineering at Havana University in 1997, went on to research indigenous plants that produce molecules that inhibit viral infections.

“The HIV pandemic was ramping up around the world at that time and that affected the trajectory of my research career,” he says. “Today, the research continues. Patterns of the AIDS pandemic have evolved, and our work is encouraging, but far from over.”

 

This article is part of the 2019 Marks of Excellence, an annual publication from the Office of Public Affairs that highlights the outstanding accomplishments of students, faculty and staff. This issue features research projects at BMCC. Please note, the stories will be posted throughout Fall 2019 as both a BMCC News version with video, and a flip-book version.