Xi-he Zhang

Xi-he Zhang
Michigan State University, USA

Biography

He received his Ph.D degree from the Chinese academy of science and his thesis work focused on the function of splice variants of HLA (Human leukocyte antigen) in HIV progression. His paper has been received by journalof Immunology and is currently in revision. His research during Ph.D. period uncovered that HLA splicing variants are functional in immune system. Now, his research focuses on a new uncovered molecule on elimination of HIV. Basically, His previous and currently studies mainly focused on: (1) Analysis of the character of tree shrew MHC gene and molecules; (2) Clarify the function of a new splicing variant of HLA I in immune systerm and the relationship with HIV elimination. (3)The mechanism of HIV env counteract Serinc5 inhibition. (4) Eliminate SIV/SHIV reservoir by Crispr/Cas9.

Research Interest

HIV remains a very important pathogen worldwide, where it affects millions of people, and there is no cure currently available; only retroviral drugs which prevent the patient progression to AIDS In the past 40 years, numerous scientists have focused on HIV and significantly increased the body of knowledge concerning the virus. Despite this, there’s no cure currently in sight for latent HIV infection. I am interest to continue research into HIV restriction factors. Although patient life expectancy has been greatly increased through the introduction of antiretroviral medications, but millions people in developing countries are still suffering and dying because of HIV. Restriction factors are proteins that block virus infection by restricting its replication progress. These factors are part of the innate immune defense, and mostly block virus infection early in the replication cycle, which could be important in preventing the establishment of a latent reservoir of virus. Many of these factors have been found to target retroviruses, but also have activity on other viruses. For example, TRIM5α is a host protein that binds to retrovirus capsid proteins and prevents uncoating and release of retrovirus RNA to make cDNA and enter the nucleus; APOBEC3 changes cytosine nucleotides in RNA into thymines; Tetherin, prevents enveloped viruses from budding out of a cell. All of these restriction factors are capable of restricting HIV infection, and can yield relevant clues necessary for the development of therapies and/or vaccines. It’s interesting to define new restriction factor’s mechanism of inhibiting the progression to AIDS or as prophylactics to prevent infection after exposure to virus. Also, compounds with the same structure or functional domain as these restriction factors could be synthesized and antiviral activity could be screened. Also HBV/HCV as a chronic infection virus always can be detected in HIV positive patients. The co-infection of HBV/HCV and HIV is an interesting subject, too. Basically my research interest is Acute and Chronic infection of HIV and therapeutical solutions to it; Co-infection of HBV/HCV with HIV; Restriction Factors; pathology on virus infection; Crispr/Cas9.