February 24, 2026

Pedersen lab awarded NIH/NINDS R01 grant to study how to harness innate immunity to control HIV

The Pedersen lab has been awarded a new MPI NIH/NINDS R01 grant (5R01NS148274), titled: “Harnessing Innate Immunity to Control the Neuroinflammatory HIV Reservoir”, led by the Scintillon Research Institute, San Diego (co-PI: Irene Munk Pedersen, PhD.), and our colleagues at the University of California, Riverside (co-PI: Marcus Kaul, Ph.D.).

Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infects immune cells and affects all organs, including the brain, establishing viral reservoirs. If not appropriately treated, HIV infection leads to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and associated neuro-cognitive impairment (NCI). However, even with combined retroviral therapy (cART), development of NCI occurs in about 50% of people with HIV and lifelong HIV-1 reservoirs persist. This project aims to harness the protective potential of interferon-β (IFNβ), against the formation of viral reservoirs and viral rebound and associated neurotoxicity using human tissue models of the brain.Our study aims at a better understanding of pathological mechanisms underlying HIV persistence and HIV-associated NCI to enable future therapeutic strategies. IFNβ is FDA-approved for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS), an inflammatory neurodegenerative autoimmune disease and this project will assess how IFNβ may be employed as a synergistic treatment with cART, which may offer a dual approach: cART for reducing viral replication and IFNβ for mitigating neuronal damage.