School of Dentistry Researchers Use Cancer Drugs to Destroy HIV in Lab Tests

School of Dentistry researchers at the University of Minnesota have identified two drugs that, when combined, may serve as an effective treatment for HIV.

The two drugs, decitabine and gemcitabine – both FDA approved and currently used in pre-cancer and cancer therapy – were found to eliminate HIV infection in the mouse model by causing the virus to mutate itself to death – an outcome researchers dubbed “lethal mutagenesis.”

This is a landmark finding in HIV research because it is the first time this novel approach has been used to attack the deadly virus without causing toxic side effects. Because decitabine and gemcitabine are already FDA approved, researchers believe that if their research is effective in large animal models, it will be much easier to expedite the development of the drugs for human use.

The study is a collaboration between molecular virologists Louis Mansky and Christine Clouser, of the School of Dentistry’s Institute for Molecular Virology, as well as medicinal chemist Steven Patterson from the Center for Drug Design. The findings were recently published online in the Journal of Virology.

“The findings provide hope that such an approach will someday help the 33 million people worldwide who currently live with HIV,” Mansky said. Read more.

University Researchers Discover Novel Cure for Pain of Sickle Cell Disease

The interprofessional University of Minnesota research team led by Kalpna Gupta, Ph.D. (Medicine), in collaboration with School of Dentistry neuroscientists Don Simone, Ph.D. and Sergey Khasabov, M.D., Ph.D., (Diagnostic/Biological Sciences), Robert Hebbel, M.D. (Medicine) and Marna Ericson, Ph.D. (Dermatology), has discovered that cannabinoids offer a novel approach to ease the chronic and acute pain caused by sickle cell disease (SCD). Their paper, “Pain related behaviors and neurochemical alterations in mice expressing sickle hemoglobin: modulation by cannabinoids” was featured on the cover of the July 22, 2010 issue of Blood. Read more.

Photo by Tony Armstrong.

Judith Buchanan Honored

Congratulations to Judith Buchanan who is one of four individuals to be inducted into the 2010 Academic Health Center Academy of Excellence in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The honor is the highest recognition of excellence in the AHC educational mission. She receives the award in recognition of her contributions to teaching and student learning through innovation, creativity and her research in education, and for international reputation for expertise in oral health education.

The Excellence in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning award ceremony (honoring Judith Buchanan) is scheduled for Tuesday, September 28th, from 4:30-6:30 p.m., 2nd floor Moos Tower corridor by the Academies for Excellence Wall of Honor.

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