Pakistani microbiologist Shazia Tabassum Hakim has been researching some complex matters concerning hepatitis and HIV vaccines, and she found Claflin's biotechnology department a "friendly, cooperative" place in which to finish her work.

After screening about 3,000 Pakistani women for hepatitis B and C, Hakim had "genotyped" (or derived the genetic makeup of) the positive blood samples. She then chose six vaccines being sold in Pakistan to determine whether their genotype was the same as that which they had isolated from the volunteers with B or C. Both forms of hepatitis are sexually transmitted or spread by sharing needles and can lead to chronic liver disease, liver scarring and liver cancer.

Dr. Omar Bagasra, Claflin biology professor and director of the biotechnology department, said various kinds of inexpensive "makeshift vaccines," one of which is made in China, are being sold in Pakistan and other developing nations without any real study of their effectiveness.

In the United States, he said, hepatitis B vaccines are made in bacteria, which can be engineered from DNA to make those proteins which stimulate the immune system against hepatitis B. In nations like Pakistan and India, however, vaccines are being sold that are not made in bacteria, he said, and some are made in human cell lines, which sometimes even carry cancer-causing genes, he explained.

Claflin's biotechnology department is setting up a gene sequencing system for Hakim in which they use a polymer chain reaction to amplify a specific gene sequence to determine what type of viral disease has infected a person, Bagasra said.

These results, Shakim said, can be compared with the vaccines available in Pakistan so that the scientists can tell which vaccine really contains the genotype present in the Pakistani population.

Potential for an HIV vaccine

Hakim also studied the development of a molecular vaccine to block HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from entering human cells.

Dr. Bagasra has focused on the potential of an HIV vaccine and has written a book about his idea. Since vaccines to produce antibodies against HIV have not proven successful, he has studied the development of a vaccine based on the development of a specific gene sequence that would mimic the HIV-blocking micro-RNA found in chimpanzees, who do not get AIDS.

"He (Bagasra) is a person who is really doing a lot," Hakim said. "That's why I am honored that I could do something related to HIV also. We've also started to look for some homologous sequence ... of this virus with the human micro-RNA and chimpanzee micro-RNA," she said, noting that her own study involves the evaluation of why chimpanzees do not get AIDS.

Bagasra says about 4,000 trials have failed, so he is working on a molecular vaccine which works extracellularly and was the subject of his book. Several in the Claflin lab are working on the vaccine, he said.

A new discovery is that human cells have small sequences of RNA called micro-RNA, which are designed to perform against HIV and HIV-like viruses, Bagasra said, adding "We believe chimpanzees have the correct sequence of micro-RNA which allow them to block HIV. Shazia asked if she could figure out what kind of micro-RNA man has and how they bind with HIV to see if we can use the same micro-RNA to protect man."

"For the first time, because of her help, we were able to figure out exactly what sequence we should use to block HIV. We're actually pulling a paper together already, Bagasra said. "We have some of the students now developing a special viral, nonpathogenic agent which can be put into the white blood cells of humans to block HIV infection. It will be 10 years before it goes to man and takes a long time to actually get approval."

While HIV/AIDS is not a major problem in Pakistan and more predominant among drug addicts, "it is always better to prepare" with the development of a potential vaccine to stop the spread of HIV, Hakim said.

Chair of the Jinnah University for Womenmicrobiology department in Karachi, Pakistan, Hakim has conducted research elsewhere, such as her six-month stint at the University of Minnesota in Duluth, but said she had a pleasant experience in her two months at Claflin.

"Dr. Bagasra and his team, the department and the people here are very friendly and cooperative, and that's why I was able to finish most of my work in this short time," she said.

Through a proposal for evaluating the hepatitis B vaccines and developing a drug for hepatitis C, she received a travel grant from the American Society for Microbiology and United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Other traveling professors using Claflin as a site for research and training are Romanians Dr. Ariana Stir, an internal medicine specialist and post doctoral fellow conducting research on prostate cancer and zinc transporters, and Dr. Ioana Rotar, an OB/GYN working on the effectiveness of an HPV vaccine.

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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