View clinical trials related to HIV Infections.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about why drug therapy sometimes stops working in people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This occurs in 30 to 40% of patients treated with powerful antiretroviral drugs. The study will examine how the virus becomes resistant to drug treatment through mutations (changes) and how different mutations produce new variants that are resistant to more than one drug. HIV-infected patients 18 years and older who have not been treated with antiretroviral medications and who have a relatively stable amount of virus in their blood (viral load) may be eligible for this study. Pregnant or breastfeeding women may not participate. Candidates will be screened with blood tests to determine viral load and to study the genetics of the virus. Participants will be hospitalized at the NIH Clinical Center for 10 days for daily blood sampling. (In exceptional circumstances, the sampling may be done on an outpatient basis.) After discharge, patients will be followed by weekly visits for blood tests for a total of 120 days. When antiretroviral treatment begins, the patient may do one of the following: 1. Continue on this study with antiretroviral treatment. Therapy will consist of D4T, 3TC, and efavirenz. Other drugs may be substituted for any of these that cannot be tolerated. HIV protease inhibitors will not be included in the regimen. 2. Complete participation in this study and, if eligible, enroll in another NIH protocol (AVBIO). 3. Begin standard antiretroviral therapy with a private physician. Patients for whom treatment is not yet recommended or who choose not to be treated may continue to be monitored with blood tests for a total of 18 months. (Patients who leave the study after this time may re-join when they decide to start treatment.) Participants may also undergo the following optional procedures to study the genetic variation of HIV: lymph node biopsy, spinal tap, and semen donation or female genital washing to collect secretion samples. Sexual partners or needle-sharing partners of study patients are invited to enroll in this study to provide blood samples at the time the patient enrolls and at two intervals after any needle sharing or unsafe sex event they may report to NIH. Partners may also donate genital secretions or semen, and a lymph node or spinal fluid sample. Information from this study may help in the development of new drug treatments that will be effective in controlling HIV infection when other treatments no longer work.
This study will examine the safety and effectiveness of renal (kidney) transplantation for HIV-infected patients with end-stage renal disease (kidney failure). Although kidney transplant is the best treatment for most causes of kidney failure, people infected with HIV are not offered this procedure because the immunosuppressive drugs (drugs that suppress immune function) required to prevent organ rejection could further impair the patient's already weakened immune system. This study will use a regimen of immunosuppressants designed to complement treatment for patients taking highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). HIV-infected patients between 18 and 60 years of age with renal failure who have not had any opportunistic infections for 5 years may be eligible for this study. Candidates will be screened with a medical history, physical examination, and blood and urine tests. Before the transplant procedure, participants will undergo additional tests and procedures, including blood studies, 24-hour urine collection, infectious disease consultation, tuberculin skin test, PAP smear for women, chest X-ray, brain and hip MRI studies and DEXA-scan to evaluate bone density. In addition, patients may undergo leukapheresis to obtain white blood cells for study. For this procedure, whole blood is drawn through a needle in an arm vein and passed through a cell separator machine. The white cells are collected for removal, and the rest of the blood is returned to the body through the same needle or another needle in the other arm. When a donor organ becomes available for transplant, the patient will receive three anti-rejection drugs-cyclosporine, mycophenolate mofetil and prednisone-to prevent organ rejection. Immediately after the surgery, HAART drugs will be stopped for 7 days until stable levels of the immune suppressants can be achieved. Then, HAART will be re-started and all medications will be adjusted to achieve adequate blood levels. Patients must stay in the local area 60 days after discharge from the hospital for monitoring. Frequent blood samples will be taken to monitor kidney function, viral load and CD4+ T cell counts. Follow-up visits will then be scheduled monthly for the first 6 months after transplant, then every other month for 1 year. Kidney biopsies will be done at the end of the first month, after 6 months, and yearly for 5 years. For the biopsy, a special needle is used to remove a small piece of kidney tissue for microscopic examination. The biopsies and blood tests are done to evaluate the immune response to the transplanted organ and to study how HAART interacts with the immune suppressing drugs.
The purpose of this study is to compare the change in viral load (amount of HIV in the blood) of patients who receive T-20 with selected anti-HIV drugs to that of patients who receive only selected anti-HIV drugs.
The purpose of this study is to see if treatment with PEG-interferon-alfa-2a (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin is a more effective treatment for hepatitis C virus (HCV) than interferon-alfa-2a (IFN) plus ribavirin for patients infected with both HCV and HIV. The study will also compare the 2 regimens to see which has fewer side effects. HCV infection is common in patients infected with HIV. Patients infected with both HIV and HCV viruses seem to have more severe hepatitis C. A combination of IFN and ribavirin has been shown to lessen the severity of HCV. PEG-IFN is a modified form of IFN that stays in the blood longer, which means that patients would not have to take the treatment as often. This study will compare the safety and effectiveness of PEG-IFN to IFN when each is combined with ribavirin.
It is suspected, but not well documented, that persons with severe mental illness (SMI) represent a significant transmission source of serious infectious diseases. SMI diagnoses are defined as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Severely mentally ill persons are at high risk for Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS). To assess the risk of HIV and related infections among these individuals, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Office on AIDS funded the HIV/SMI five site collaborative study "Assessing HIV/AIDS and Associated Health Risks in People with Severe Mental Illness". This Durham ERIC study supplements the NIMH HIV/SMI study with a four-year longitudinal cohort study of 300-plus SMI veterans in order to estimate the prevalence of HIV risk behaviors and HIV infection, as well as to measure utilization of health services over time. The Durham VA is the only VA site represented in the study and is collaborating with four non-VA sites including Dartmouth, University of New Hampshire, University of Connecticut and Duke University. As such, we have the additional goals of investigating health and health-care-service issues relevant to veterans with SMI and of establishing a database for the longitudinal study of veterans with SMI.
The purpose of this study is to gain information on how the type and amount of HIV present in certain places in the body and in the blood are affected when potent (powerful) anti-HIV drugs are given. Researchers know that the type and amount of HIV may differ in certain places in the body (called compartments) but are not sure how anti-HIV treatment affects these differences. This study gathers information to help understand how the virus grows and changes between blood and nonblood compartments in patients receiving anti-HIV treatment.
The purpose of this study is to see if it is safe to give ALVAC-HIV vCP205, a possible HIV vaccine, and to study the immune responses in adult HIV-1 uninfected volunteers. Uganda has been severely affected by HIV infection and AIDS and has been selected to participate in HIV-vaccine development. The HIV viruses commonly isolated from Uganda are 2 kinds that are not used in making current vaccines. Current vaccines generate several kinds of immune responses. Researchers would like to see if a response to the kind of virus in a current vaccine will also protect people from the viruses commonly found in Uganda.
The purpose of this study is to see if the vaccines tested are safe when given alone and when given together, and how the immune system responds to the vaccines. Vaccines are given to people to try to prevent an infection or disease. Early testing in a few people has shown that the HIV vaccines ALVAC vCP1452 and AIDSVAX B/B seem to be safe to use.
The intima-media thickness (IMT) test is a low cost, non-invasive way to measure the thickness of the carotid artery (the large artery in the neck). The purpose of this study is to compare the thickness of the carotid artery among HIV infected adults taking protease inhibitors (PIs), HIV infected adults not taking PIs, and HIV uninfected adults, and to examine how the thickness may change over time.
The purpose of this study is to determine the safety and effectiveness of stavudine (d4T), didanosine (ddI), and BMS-232632 when given early in the course of HIV infection. Acute HIV infection may develop in patients that are exposed to the HIV virus. Following infection, the viral load (level of HIV in the blood) rises rapidly over the next few days to weeks. It is not known which is the best treatment in patients with very early HIV infection. Researchers believe these patients may respond well to strong early treatment. A combination consisting of enteric-coated didanosine (ddI-EC), stavudine (d4T), and the HIV-1 protease inhibitor, BMS-232632, will be tested.