Today, "la Caixa" Foundation announced its support for 25 research projects, among which is ETI-CureHIV (Enhancing tissue-specific immune microenvironments for the cure of HIV), coordinated by Dr. María José Buzón, head of the HIV Translational Research line in the Infectios Disease research group at VHIR. Dr. Meritxell Genescà, from the same group, also participates in this research line as a principal researcher. The project aims to identify the local immunological mechanisms that contribute to the persistence of viral reservoirs in order to find new strategies that manage to restrict and even eliminate the presence of HIV in the body. The project has received nearly euros700,000 in funding and will have the participation of Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute.In this Call for Grants for Health Research, a total of 600 projects were received, led by researchers from universities and non-profit research centers in Spain and Portugal, among which -through a rigorous selection process according to the impact of peer reviews and the evaluation of a committee of international experts- 25 projects have been chosen within the following research areas: cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, infectious diseases, oncology and neurosciences, as well as enabling technologies in the previous areas. Attack HIV reservoirs to eliminate infectionHIV is still an incurable infectious disease. Despite the success of antiretroviral therapies in keeping the virus under control, it manages to remain, from the initial stages of infection, in various tissues and cells of the body, which is known as viral reservoirs. In this reservoirs, the virus can continue living in a latent state, that is, without producing new copies.Most of these reservoirs are found in lymphoid organs and mucosa, as they contain large amounts of target cells. There, the immune system is unable to recognize and eliminate the HIV virus, and this is the main barrier to definitively cure the disease."The project aims to identify in each of these tissues, such as the intestines, tonsils and cervix, the local immunological mechanisms that contribute to their persistence in order to find new strategies that manage to restrict, and even eliminate, the presence of HIV in the body", says Dr. María José Buzón.