UNMC researcher brings pilot project to West Africa
A University of Nebraska Medical Center researcher Georgette Kanmogne, Ph.D., recently received $386,422 from the National Institutes of Mental Health to launch a pilot project on the neurological impact of HIV in West Africans living in Cameroon.
Unlike the many AIDS-related research projects Dr. Kanmogne has worked on, this one hits closer to home and closer to her heart.
With the grant funding Dr. Kanmogne will establish collaborations with researchers in her home country of Cameroon and the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center in San Diego, to determine whether there is a correlation between the various HIV subtypes and a patient’s susceptibility to neurological complications and disease progression.
“I have so many friends and family members who have been affected by this disease,” Dr Kanmogne, assistant professor in the department of pharmacoloy and experimental neurosciences and principal investigator of the study said. “This is very personal.”
In a twist of fate, Dr. Kanmogne’s home country is one of few where all three strains of HIV and 11 subtypes of the HIV virus are found. Her year-long study will help determine whether particular genetic variants of the virus are more likely to cause HIV dementia, and to affect morbidity and mortality.
The HIV virus can enter the brain and cause various clinical and pathological abnormalities, ranging from mild cognitive and motor impairments to overt dementia. The epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is in sub-Saharan Africa, home to 25 million of the 40 million people currently living with HIV/AIDS. In this region, the HIV epidemic is characterized by a very high genetic variability, which often generates different viral combinations in infected individuals.
“It is important to determine the impact of such genetic variation on the epidemiology of neuroAIDS and disease progression,” Dr. Kanmogne said.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity for Dr. Kanmogne and significantly beyond the monetary component of the project,” said Howard Gendelman, M.D., chair of the department of pPharmacology and experimental neuroscience where the grant will be administered.
“Research in the area of HIV/AIDS is moving rapidly to a global level. The epidemiology, natural history, genetic diversity, treatment, and progression of the disease is one that knows no cultural, ethic, religious, or racial barriers. If we are to succeed in eradicating HIV worldwide we must understand its natural host and the viral structure and diversity in many different settings,” Dr. Gendelman said.
“Georgette’s project, while focusing on behavioral and cognitive abnormalities that link to viral infection, squarely moves these issues forward in a significant manner. Her research also enhances the opportunities for our own research efforts as many of our investigators become more global in their own works,” he said.
For this project, Dr Kanmogne has assembled an international group of researchers affiliated with three institutions – UNMC, the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center, University of California in San Diego and the University of Yaoundé 1 in Cameroon, West Africa.
“My hope is that once the project is established we are then able to get more funding, perform in-depth neuroAIDS studies and establish long-term collaborations,” Dr. Kanmogne said