pgDC + conserved HIV peptides for HIV Infections
This study is evaluating whether a vaccine made from a person's own white blood cells may help prevent HIV.
See full descriptionAbout the trial for HIV Infections
Treatment Groups
This trial involves 6 different treatments. PgDC + Conserved HIV Peptides is the primary treatment being studied. Participants will be divided into 4 treatment groups. There is no placebo group. The treatments being tested are in Phase 1 and are in the first stage of evaluation with people.
Eligibility
This trial is for patients born any sex aged 18 and older. There are 10 eligibility criteria to participate in this trial as listed below.
Approximate Timelines
Measurement Requirements
This trial is evaluating whether pgDC + conserved HIV peptides will improve 2 primary outcomes and 6 secondary outcomes in patients with HIV Infections. Measurement will happen over the course of Baseline to Step 2-Week 22 (overall Study Week 34).
Patient Q & A Section
Can hiv infections be cured?
There is a reasonable chance of curing an asymptomatic HIV infection with treatment. Patients who have a weak immune system or viral load close to the current detection limit may have a greater chance of achieving a sustained viral suppression.
What are common treatments for hiv infections?
Antivirals may be effective in reducing viral load and therefore delaying further disease progression. Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inducers can reduce the duration of symptoms by two to three times. Antihypertensives can improve neurological and cardiac complications. There are few treatments for neurocognitive deficits in HIV infections, but medications such as memantine and diazepam appear to be of value. Antiparasitic medications are of no clinical benefit.\n
What is hiv infections?
There are several risk factors associated with the acquisition of HIV infection, including sex with an HIV infected individual, prior sexual experience, incarceration, unemployment, poverty, incarceration and injecting drug use. Most HIV infections are acquired through heterosexual sex. Most men who have sex with men (MSM) acquire HIV through this route. HIV infection is currently more common in the MSM than in the general population. The US currently has the highest prevalence rate of HIV among women, accounting for 40% of cases. However, the incidence rate is one of the lowest, accounting for only 1.5% of cases.
What are the signs of hiv infections?
At first glance, HIV cases often appear as in people suffering from the common infections of the time. However, an HIV diagnosis should be suspected if the following conditions are present: fever with low white cell counts at presentation, weight fall, swollen lymph nodes, high blood levels of lumps and/or spirochetes, or abnormal blood values. This diagnosis must be supported in cases where the duration and severity of the complaint is atypical, in cases where the history remains ambiguous, or where the clinical picture is otherwise unusual. In such instances, close, careful observation with the aid of modern diagnostic tests and consideration of the patient's exposure history is required.
How many people get hiv infections a year in the United States?
From 1986 to 2004, an estimated 3,917,964 new and established cases of HIV infection have occurred, with a ratio of men to women 1:1.7, a national estimated prevalence of 6.3 percent, and an incidence of 3.2 infections/100,000 population. Although the incidence of infection continues to decline, the prevalence is expected to peak in 2010-2020 at a higher value, at 7.8 percent. For this reason, the number of new total cases in the United States is expected to reach an absolute value of 5.4 million in 2022. For these reasons, the US epidemic is expected to continue for the next 15+ years.
What causes hiv infections?
[Infections caused by HIV-1 in the bloodstream have been reported for decades; most patients presented with acute illness with few symptoms. Patients with CD4 cell counts of 800 to 1,200 are common. The diagnosis of acute viral pneumonia with or without radiological evidence of infection is usually made, but diagnosis of acute HIV infection has rarely been considered even after a negative pulmonary test.] It also is the preferred term for such conditions in Latin America. [The definition of AIDS as a clinical disorder includes the possibility of impending, as well as current, infection(s). For this reason, some clinicians in the United States and Cuba view AIDS as a collection of syndromes rather than as a disease of the immune system.
Does hiv infections run in families?
[Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and a history of premature ovarian failure (POF) are familial risk factors for menopause. Genetic factors are also probably involved in the onset of osteoporosis and other age-related diseases (ORMD) of the skeleton, as well as in prostate cancer and breast cancer (BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes.
How does pgdc + conserved hiv peptides work?
In a recent study, findings demonstrate that D1 is dispensable for efficient presentation of a conserved peptide for T cell responses, while D2 does not play an important role in D1 mediated epitope presentation. In addition, the CTL response towards conserved peptide of gp41 is not dependent on the expression of gp41 on the surface of the DCs.
Has pgdc + conserved hiv peptides proven to be more effective than a placebo?
Results from a recent clinical trial suggest that the effectiveness of these peptides is not due to a Pgp inhibition or a combination effect. However, the results should be interpreted with caution. Nevertheless, further studies with more subjects are required to confirm these finding.
What does pgdc + conserved hiv peptides usually treat?
The absence of clinical benefit with the peptide vaccinations in this trial questions the current use of the peptides to mimic epitopes present within a variety of conserved HIV-1 and HIV-2 epitopes. A more effective vaccine delivery system may be necessary to activate an immune response against these conserved epitopes. The authors also conclude that further studies are needed to determine the mechanisms of the observed clinical response to pGc and pCons peptides.
What is the average age someone gets hiv infections?
The average age for people receiving their first HIV diagnosis in New York state was 27 years, which is much older than the national average of 16 years. This may be because of the large number of young women and Hispanic and African-American men who are infected with HIV in New York who are not being tested at risk.
What are the latest developments in pgdc + conserved hiv peptides for therapeutic use?
Recently, in spite of continuing development of proteome-wide libraries of candidate pgdc + peptides derived from conserved proteins, the therapeutic use of peptides is still limited. It seems that a further progress in the discovery and functional analysis of pgdc + peptides should be expected in the near future.