Enhancement by Poly-ICLC During HIV-1 Infection

Overview

This study involves researching new approaches to treating HIV infection. Currently, HIV infection is treated with combinations of drugs called antiretrovirals. These drugs protect cells from infection by interfering with the viruses' ability to make copies of itself by infecting new target cells. Though these drugs are very effective, they cannot cure HIV infection and must be taken each and every day at prescribed doses to maintain their beneficial effect. This research study is investigating a new approach that involves an addition to existing medications. The study is investigating a medication called Poly-ICLC (Hiltonol®, Oncovir), which is an adjuvant. Adjuvants are medications that are designed to boost your body's immune responses resulting from a vaccine. The investigators want to test whether Poly-ICLC is an adjuvant that is effective in HIV-infected patients. A vaccine is not given in this study, but just investigating the adjuvant, Poly-ICLC, to determine whether it may be safe and useful in future vaccines that could be used to treat HIV, called therapeutic vaccines. One goal of future therapeutic vaccines is to reduce the virus that remains persistently inside of cells in a dormant or resting state despite treatment with HIV medications. This persistent pool is termed the "latent virus pool" or "viral reservoir". One tactic to reduce this viral reservoir is to first stimulate HIV to start replicating in order to force it out of hiding. Once viral replication occurs, the infected cells may then be recognized and killed by cells of the immune system. Therefore, we also want to see what effect Poly-ICLC has on the virus that lives inside of cells. Specifically, the investigators want to look at whether Poly-ICLC increases the level of virus inside your cells while also improving your immune system's responses. The investigators are doing this research in hope to find new ways to treat HIV infection that may reduce exposure to medications that are called antiretrovirals. Antiretrovirals are medications used to treat HIV infection. They are very effective but have side effects and have to be taken each and every day and cannot cure HIV.

Effective combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) has dramatically altered the morbidity and mortality associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection. Nevertheless, the current treatment paradigm of lifelong antiviral therapy with near perfect patient adherence to avoid the emergence of drug resistant HIV remains less than ideal and this therapeutic approach has clear limitations. In addition to long term toxicities associated with currently preferred therapies, combination therapy for HIV-1 infection cannot address the issue of viral persistence. HIV-1 persists in both blood and tissue despite long-term suppression with antiretroviral agents (ARVs). Eradication strategies for HIV-1 are likely to require a multi-faceted approach to reduce the latent reservoir, with key components focusing upon both the disruption of viral latency and the enhancement of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) function to promote killing of infected cells. In order to successfully achieve these objectives, agents that safely stimulate replication of the latent reservoir AND explore approaches to enhance HIV-specific adaptive immunity to augment CTL function must be investigated. The investigators propose that this may be accomplished with a single therapeutic modality that is devised appropriately. Certain adjuvants may possess immunostimulatory properties that trigger transient activation of viral transcription while simultaneously enhancing HIV-specific CTL function and, thus, may play an important role in such a vaccine. Here, the investigators propose a proof of concept clinical trial to determine the ability of Poly-ICLC (Hiltonol®, Oncovir), to safely activate the latent viral reservoir and enhance innate immunity when administered to HIV-infected individuals. This randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study will administer two doses of Poly-ICLC to HIV-infected individuals whom are virologically suppressed on combination anti-retroviral therapy (cART). The investigators hypothesize that Poly-ICLC will be safe and well-tolerated and will transiently disrupt viral latency while enhancing innate immune responses. Should this be the case, then Poly-ICLC would be an ideal modality to combine with a therapeutic HIV vaccine to reduce the number of latently infected CD4+ T cells in treated HIV-1 infected individuals.