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The Use of Leukapheresis to Support HIV Pathogenesis Studies

Recruiting
Conditions
HIV
Interventions
Procedure: Leukapheresis
Registration Number
NCT01161199
Lead Sponsor
University of California, San Francisco
Brief Summary

Despite the dramatic improvements that have resulted from combination antiretroviral treatment, long-term efficacy, toxicity, cost, and the requirements for life-long adherence remain as formidable challenges. Also, there is emerging consensus that persistent HIV-associated disease occurs during long-term highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). This disease may be due to either direct drug-toxicity and/or persistent viral replication/production and/or persistent HIV-associated inflammation. Hence, strategies aimed at achieving complete viral eradication may be needed in order to fully restore health among HIV infected individuals. Even if complete eradication proves impossible-as most believe to be the case-a less rigorous but still desirable outcome might be achieving durable control of virus in the absence of therapy. That a "functional" cure is possible is well illustrated by those rare individuals who are able to durably control replication competent virus in the absence of therapy ("elite" controllers).

A more complete understanding of the relationship between inflammation and viral persistence is necessary before more rationale studies of HIV eradication can be designed. Also, a well validated high through-put virologic assay needs to be developed that can estimate the size of the latent reservoir. Since the level of replication competent virus in long-term treated patients (and in elite controllers) is very small (\< 1% of CD4 cells harbor HIV), large numbers of CD4+ T cells most be obtained from study participants in order to routinely isolate and quantify virus persistence.

Detailed Description

Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
100
Inclusion Criteria
  • HIV seropositive
  • Able to give informed consent
  • Willing to undergo blood sampling and/or leukapheresis
  • Meeting one of the following criteria: (1) on stable highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) with a recent undetectable viral load (< 50 copies/mL) ("HAART suppressed"), (2) antiretroviral untreated with an undetectable viral load (< 50 copies/mL) ("elite" controllers) and (3) antiretroviral untreated with a detectable viral load (> 1000 copies/mL) ("non-controllers")
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Exclusion Criteria
  • Known anemia (HIV+ males Hct<34; females Hct<32) or contraindication to donating blood
  • Blood coagulation disorder (including bleeding tendency or problems in past with blood clots)
  • Platelets < 50,000/mm3
  • PTT > 2x ULN
  • INR > 1.5
  • Albumin < 2.0 g/dL
  • ALT > 5x ULN
  • AST > 5x ULN
  • Biopsy-proven or clinical diagnosis of cirrhosis
  • Weight <120 lb
  • High blood pressure > 160/100
  • Low blood pressure < 100/70
  • Pregnant
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Study & Design

Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Study Design
Not specified
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Elite controllersLeukapheresis-
HAART-suppressedLeukapheresis-
Untreated non-controllersLeukapheresis-
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
HIV DNA and RNABaseline and 6-12 months
Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

San Francisco General Hospital

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San Francisco, California, United States

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