Contracts Management Section, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, NIH, Natcher Building, Room 4AN-44D, 45 Center Drive MSC 6402, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-6402

A -- ROLE OF MONONUCLEAR PHAGOCYTES IN OPPORTUNISTIC INFECTIONS OF ORAL MUCOSA AND OTHER TISSUES IN AIDS PATIENTS SOL N01-DE-12585 POC Marion L. Blevins, 301-594-0652 The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research intends to negotiate with the George Washington University on a non-competitive basis for a three-year extension of Contract NO1-DE-12585 to continue the study of the role of mononuclear phagocytes in opportunistic infections of oral mucosa and other tissues in AIDS patients. This contract has focused on delineating mechanisms of transmission, infection, and viral expansion in HIV-1 infection. The impact of co-infections on viral replication, viremia, and negative clinical outcomes have provided critical information regarding targeting of antibacterial and antiviral therapy. Expanded efforts are being directed at defining the contribution of the tonsils in oral transmission and as a viral target tissue together with the impact of antiretroviral therapy on mucosal compartments. The Contractor provides an HIV tissue bank with archival and current tissue biopsy, autopsy and surgical materials for the identification of the immunological, virological and pathological consequences of HIV infection on the host. The archival tissue specimens, collected prior to the advent of antiretroviral therapies and the current use of highly active antiretroviral therapy, are essential for the multiparameter analyses of the impact of the virus and co-infections with opportunistic pathogens on cellular, biochemical and molecular changes in the immune system. Autopsy service as well as access to infected surgical and biopsy materials are required for provision of fixed and non-fixed tissue specimens. With the tissue bank, GWU provides critical expertise in the diagnosis and analysis of HIV-infected tissues at the gross morphology level, by light microscopy and at the ultrastructural level. Immunohistochemical parameters and in situ hybridization coupled with DNA microarray analysis and cell culture experiments require that the contractor provide rapid delivery for processing of fresh tissue specimens. The contractor has been responsible for continuously incorporating newtissue specimens into the tissue bank and developing new methodologies of analysis, new technologies and their refinements to improve the functional, structural and molecular analysis of HIV-infected cells, tissues and organs before and after co-infections and/or therapy. No other known source has an appropriate tissue bank of such proportions which extends back more than 15 years, is currently actively incorporating new specimens, and has expertise in the assessment of such tissues. To develop a comparable bank and knowledge base would be virtually impossible due to the changing nature of the disease process during the past decade; to try would be duplicative and of enormous cost to the Government. The incumbent contractor has the unique capability to provide the required services for continuation of this project. Authority: 41 USC 253(c)(1), as set forth in FAR 6.302-1. See Note 22.***** Posted 12/31/98 (W-SN284489). (0365)

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