Department of Hepatitis, HIV and Bloodborne Viruses

History

Pasteur Institute of Iran was established in 1920. In Iran, the first case infected with HIV-1 was recorded in 1988. Due to the national requirement to dedicated monitoring and reviewing of viral hepatitis and AIDS, Department of Hepatitis and AIDS was founded in 1989. During the first decade, the geographical distribution maps of prevalence of hepatitis B and C and HIV-1 were determined by the Department in collaboration with other research centers .Other activities were focused particularly vaccine research and drug resistance. Since 2016, based on notification of new mission, Department name was changed. Research activities of the Department are mainly focused on viruses causing hepatitis, HIV and also blood borne viruses
Currently, the Department consists of four laboratories as following;

1- Epidemiology and diagnosis laboratory.
- Seroprevalence and molecular epidemiology studies of viral hepatitis and HIV.
- Genotyping assays for viral hepatitis and HIV.
- National Reference Laboratory Collaborating Center (Hepatitis & AIDS); Accredited for detection of Hepatitis and HIV infection by serological methods.

2- Laboratory of Vaccine Research
Basic and applied research studies on preventive and therapeutic vaccines.

3- Laboratory of Drug Research
- Study design of new antiviral drugs.
- Pharmacognosy of anti-HIV compounds.
- Diagnosis and interpreting of HIV-drug resistance.

4- Laboratory of virus-host interaction
Studies of:
- The interaction of viral proteins with host cell proteins
- The interaction of the virus with host cell receptors
- The interaction of viral proteins with host signaling pathways

Running Projects:
- Direct-acting Antivirals (DAA) Resistance-associated Variants in Treatment-naïve HCV/HIV Co-infected and HCV Infected Patients.
- Frequency of occult hepatitis B virus infection among HBV-vaccinated individuals according to national vaccination protocol
- Investigation of the seroepidemiology, prevalence and viral load of human parvovirus B19 virus in blood donors in Tehran
- Prevalence evaluation of hepatitis A virus (HAV) antibody among Iranian prisoners
- National project of HAV vaccine production (ATF council)
- Evaluation of HIV-1 Vpr role in reactivation of latent HIV-1 provirus
- Immunogenicity evaluation of the recombinant MPER-V3 VLP for effective induction of anti-HIV-1 humoral immune response in BALB/c Mouse Model.
- Preparation of mesenchymal stem cells and dendritic cells expressing HIV-1 Nef using mechanical and chemical methods, and evaluation of its immunity in BALB/c mice model.
- Development of stable cell lines to constitutively express HIV-1 tat, nef and vpr genes.
- Study of the interaction between autophagy and viral infected cells.
- Study of the effect of selective drug pressure on HIV-1 integrase gene mutations in AIDS patients.
- Evaluation of reovirus effects on cancer cells derived from hepatocellular carcinoma’s biopsy.