The overall objective of this study is to determine whether very early antiretroviral treatment (ART) initiation in HIV-infected infants limits the seeding of viral reservoirs and maintains immune responses, potentially allowing future periods off ART.
HIV-1 infection during adulthood leads to a stable, long-lasting viral reservoir in CD4 T cells that persists despite suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART), and is responsible for rapid viral rebound once treatment is stopped in most cases. In neonates, HIV-1 infection occurs at a time when the adaptive immune system is still in development, which may alter the establishment of a long-lasting viral reservoir and offer opportunities to reduce viral persistence through early antiretroviral treatment. Recently, scientific understanding of neonatal HIV infection has been challenged by the description of an infant who tested positive for HIV at birth, was treated with potent combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) within the first 30 hours of life, and achieved long-term remission of HIV infection when ART was stopped approximately 18 months later. Unfortunately, after 2 years off ART, rebound viremia occurred in this child, yet this case raises the provocative question of whether ART initiated within the first days of life for an antepartum infection, or in the first days/weeks of life for a peripartum infection, can prevent the seeding of a long-lasting reservoir of HIV infected cells in some infants (and therefore lead to long periods of HIV remission off ART).
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
67
Botswana Harvard HIV/AIDS Institute Partnership
Gaborone, Botswana
To determine the proportion of infants who have treatment-limiting adverse events within the first 14 days of treatment
Time frame: 14 days
To determine the proportion of infants who fail to achieve at least a 1.5 log10 copies/mL reduction in HIV-1 RNA by the 14th day of treatment
Time frame: 14 days
To determine the proportion of infants in the antepartum cohort with trough drug concentrations below defined therapeutic ranges at 7 and 14 days of treatment (trough concentrations will be evaluated for NVP, ZDV, 3TC)
Time frame: 14 days
To evaluate virologic and immunologic outcomes of very early ART in infancy
Virologic outcomes after early ART: We will evaluate how the timing of HIV infection and the timing of ART initiation affect the size and composition of the viral reservoir over time. Immunologic outcomes after early ART: We will evaluate how immune activation and immune activity against HIV-1 contribute to the size and composition of the HIV-1 reservoir over time in infants treated early with suppressive ART. Control Group Comparisons. We will evaluate virologic and immunologic outcomes at a single time point in children for whom ART initiation was later than in the prospective cohorts, and compared with immunologic testing of stored specimens from HIV exposed uninfected and HIV unexposed children.
Time frame: 84-96 weeks
Number of participants with HIV-1 RNA levels <40 copies/mL
Time frame: up to 576 weeks
Number of participants with reservoir HIV-1 DNA (in copies/million peripheral blood mononuclear cells, PBMCs) below the level of detection for total virus
Threshold of detection is expected to be approximately 5 copies/million PBMCs, but varies by sample volume available.
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Time frame: up to 576 weeks
Median CD4 cell count (cells/mm3) and 95% confidence intervals among participants
Time frame: up to 576 weeks