For Potential Participants in Ongoing Research

As a part of investigating the mechanism of disease, HIV infection impact on immune function, testing concepts for future study as HIV cure strategies, and immune recovery after ART, researchers at the Wistar Institute, in association with Philadelphia FIGHT and the University of Pennsylvania, are collecting peripheral blood to establish a repository of persons living with HIV that can donate blood. Donated blood will be archived and used in HIV immune research.

To investigate the impact of long-term viral suppression under antiretroviral therapy, we are recruiting persons with complete clinical histories of suppression for over 15-20 years. The goal is to evaluate the nature, composition, and features of the persistence of HIV when compared to persons with shorter periods of suppression.

Study investigators are collecting large volume blood samples and rectal biopsy specimens to improve current understanding of the HIV reservoir in blood versus tissue, which may lead to new strategies to put forward in future HIV-cure directed clinical trials.

Study investigators are collecting large volume blood samples and rectal biopsy specimens for use by BEAT HIV scientists in our laboratories. Scientists will work with these valuable samples to develop new theories which could result in strategies for future HIV-cure directed clinical trials.

Academic partners at UC San Diego are looking for altruistic people with HIV, who have been diagnosed with a life-shortening disease and reside in San Diego County. The Last Gift tissue donation research study aims to understand the behavior of HIV in the human body – giving scientists the rare opportunity to learn where the virus hides in an individual and inspire medical advancements for generations to come. See linked video for more information: http://lastgift.ucsd.edu

BEAT-HIV investigators are partnering with Merck, Inc. and Tasso, Inc. to assess the reliability and acceptability of a home-based viral load testing device. HIV cure-directed clinical trials often include an analytic treatment interruption (ATI) – see Position Paper on BEAT-HIV Home Page. ATIs require frequent clinic visits to monitor participants’ viral load in order to stay within study safety guidelines.

The device being tested could potentially reduce the number of required clinic visits for blood collection, but only if the home-based viral load device test works as well as standard lab-based viral load testing that can now only be done at the clinic. Just as important is to determine how people living with HIV feel about the device and the process for returning it to the lab by mail or courier, how comfortable they are with using the home-based device, and if they have any other concerns.

The inability of antiretroviral therapy (ART) to clear HIV infection, and the observation that a sterilizing cure and/or stable remission can be achieved by a subset of ART-treated persons has galvanized the interest to advance clinical strategies towards a cure and/or stable remission. Here, we build on clinical preliminary data from several single agent immunotherapy human trials that indicate a potential to inhibit HIV beyond ART. Including scientists from 8 institutions and 4 industry partners, the BEAT-HIV Delaney Collaboratory will seek to develop and test innovative combined immunotherapy strategies to eradicate and/or permanently suppress HIV into remission in the absence of ART. We tested the use of two broadly neutralizing antibodies together with interferon-alpha as immunotherapy after ART interruption.

Please refer to clinicaltrials.gov for more information, NCT03588715.

Current HIV-1 therapy (HAART) can control but not cure HIV-1 infection. The overarching scientific theme of this study was to protect CD4 cells by expressing C34-CXCR4 to render them resistant to both R5 and X4 HIV while increasing T-cell medicated clearance of HIV infected cells modified ty T cells.

Please refer to clinicaltrials.gov for more information, NCT03617198.

The identification and characterization of innovative strategies to reduce integrated HIV-1 DNA by harnessing host-mediated mechanisms are paramount to achieving eradication of HIV-1 without continued ART. This project pursued a strategies added on to ART testing for a reduction in integrated HIV DNA as an outcome measure.

Please refer to clinicaltrials.gov for more information, NCT02227277.