View clinical trials related to HIV Disease.
Filter by:The overarching plan for TOWER is to develop and test an algorithmic version of the Center for Disease Control Guidelines (CDCG) tailored for a specific primary care setting, the HIV primary care clinic. This CDCG intervention incorporates communication and implementation strategies tailored for the HIV primary care setting, and enabled with technology (an app for use by patients and EMR tools for providers).
The purpose of this study is to explore a possible link between the autonomic nervous system and immune function in patients with HIV. Sometimes HIV can cause these nerves to function abnormally, this is called HIV-associated autonomic neuropathy (HIV-AN). HIV-AN is a condition that is different from person to person. In some people it causes no symptoms and is not harmful, in others it may cause symptoms such as dizziness or lightheadedness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, or problems urinating. Most people with HIV-AN don't know that they have it. One of the important nerves in the autonomic nervous system is the vagus nerve. Abnormal function of the vagus nerve may cause stomach and intestinal slowing, which could lead to an overgrowth of bacteria. The body senses these bacteria and tries to fight them, leading to inflammation. In this study the researchers will test whether abnormal function of the vagus nerve in HIV is associated with stomach slowing and overgrowth of bacteria, and if a drug called pyridostigmine can help.
Adherence to combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) is critical for successful HIV viral suppression. Nonadherence to ART poses several potentially serious health consequences, including higher viral loads, faster progression to AIDS, and a heightened risk of viral mutations, treatment resistance and HIV transmission. The prevalence of serious mental illness (SMI) conditions, including bipolar disorder (BD), is elevated among HIV-infected populations and is associated with poor ART adherence. HIV-infected individuals with co-occurring BD (HIV+/BD+), when compared to demographically similar HIV+/BD- persons, demonstrated poorer ART and psychotropic medication adherence and were twice as likely to be non adherent to their ART regimen using a ≥ 90% cutoff score. HIV+/BD+ individuals are particularly at-risk for medication non adherence, and there is a critical need to develop interventions to improve adherence in this population. Poor psychotropic medication adherence is also common among people with SMI - it has been estimated that 40% of those with BD do not take their mood stabilizer as prescribed. Among persons with BD, nonadherence to psychotropic medications can lead to greater risk for manic and depressive episodes, decreased quality of life, suicide attempts, and hospitalization. The utilization of mobile health (i.e., mHealth) technologies to improve everyday functioning is growing. mHealth interventions capitalize on technology already incorporated into most people's daily lives (e.g., cell phones) to assist people with behavior modification and disease self-management. Text messaging, in particular, may support daily ART adherence by delivering reminders at precise times to match an individuals' dosing schedule. The initial evidence for using text messaging to improve ART medication adherence has been compelling. Researchers and clinicians have also started employing technology-based approaches to improve treatment for individuals with BD. Taken together, a distinct need for RCTs utilizing text messaging to improve medication adherence within an at-risk HIV population is warranted. Individualized Texting for Adherence Building (iTAB) is one such intervention. The investigators propose an intervention development study designed to address these potential mechanisms of nonadherence with the following Specific Aims: 1) To further develop and refine a personalized, automated, real-time, mobile phone, text messaging intervention (iTAB) designed to improve adherence to ART and psychotropic medications among HIV+/BD+ persons; 2) To evaluate the acceptability and effectiveness of a brief psychoeducation plus text messaging intervention (iTAB) as compared to psychoeducation alone (CTRL) for the improvement of objectively measured medication adherence among HIV+/BD+ persons; and 3) To examine predictors of within-person trajectories of nonadherence using the longitudinal data collected over the study. In order to realize these aims, the investigators will leverage the infrastructure of two unique UCSD resources increasing likelihood of study success, impact, and innovation: 1) the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Program (HNRP), which encompasses multiple NIH-funded studies that focus on the effects of HIV infection, and 2) the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), which conducts research on state-of-the-art wireless means of health promotion. Initially, the investigators will refine the iTAB intervention to ensure that it is user-centered and tailored to the needs of HIV+/BD+ persons via focus groups and rapid prototyping. Once refined, the proposed iTAB intervention will use text messages that are automated, scalable, personalized, interactive, flexible, and motivating. The investigators will assess the acceptability and effectiveness of iTAB in improving objectively measured adherence (i.e., MEMS caps) over a 4-week period via a pilot RCT with 58 participants were randomized into 2 groups (30 HIV+/BD+ assigned to the iTAB intervention and 28 HIV+/BD+ assigned to a psychoeducational control). Predictors of nonadherence including neuropsychological impairment, and mood will be examined to determine whether iTAB is better able to compensate for these factors associated with nonadherence as compared to CTRL. Further refinement to the iTAB intervention will be made in order to pursue a large-scale R01 using the investigators tailored intervention.
This is a feasibility/pilot test of a set of positive affect skills provided online to HIV positive people with elevated depressive symptoms - a Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale D (CES-D) score > 10. The investigators will test the feasibility of recruitment, retention and acceptability of these skills in an online delivery format, determine feasibility and acceptability of daily emotion assessments via text messaging and assess efficacy of these skills for improving psychological well-being this population.
In this study we will use a multi-modal imaging approach of MRS and fMRI to comprehensively assess the biological changes in the brain associated with EFV-based regimen (EFV/FTC/TDF), specifically alterations in the brain circuitry, function and local neurochemistry, and their correlation with neuropsychological function. In a cohort of HIV-infected patients who are clinically stable on the commonly use regimen of EFV/emtricitabine (FTC)/truvada (TDF) or Atripla, we propose to replace the EFV component with a new integrase inhibitor, elvitegravir (EVG) boosted with cobicistat (COBI), given as the EVG/COBI/FTC/TDF Single Tablet Regimen (STR) to evaluate the EFV-related neural alterations. This is a multidisciplinary study which involves a team of infectious disease experts in the field of HIV, neuroradiologists with expertise in fMRI and MRS techniques to study various central nervous system and psychiatric disorders and a psychiatrist with experience and expertise in research on abnormalities of affective and motivational processing in the context of neuropsychiatric disorders. We will utilize the established clinical research platform in the Infectious Disease outpatient clinical practice at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, where there is currently have many ongoing HIV-related studies and a large panel of HIV-infected patients motivated to be involved in clinically relevant research. We propose to use advanced neuroimaging to measure biologically changes in the brain associated with long-term EFV use with the following specific aims: 1. Determine changes in neurometabolites measured by MRS in the brain associated with long-term EFV use 2. Assess for alterations in neural activity correlated with affective symptoms associated with EFV vs STR use using fMRI, and their associations with changes in neurometabolites assessed by MRS, and with changes in cognition assessed by Trail Making and Digit Substitution Tests. 3. Determine changes in emotion, cognition and sleep quality after switching from EFV to STR, and how they correlate with subject treatment preference. This clinical study will extend our current understanding of EFV neurotoxicity by further defining the nature of these biological changes. Further elucidation of the neurobiological underpinnings of EFV-induced CNS toxicity will have clinical relevance in improving the quality of life and drug adherence of HIV-infected patients on ART, especially among older patients or those with baseline neuropsychiatric disorders, whom at baseline are more vulnerable to neurocognitive decline from long-term HIV infection.
Along with its effects on bone metabolism, vitamin D is an important modulator of the immune system. Experimental studies have shown that the active metabolite of vitamin D [1,25(OH)2D] is able to skew the T cell compartment into a more anti-inflammatory state, with inhibition of Th1 and Th17 cells and promotion of Th2 and T regulatory subsets. In the context of HIV infection, in which Th1 subpopulations are devoted to inhibit viral replication, any alteration of the Th1/Th2 balance would be of concern. The aim of this Randomized Controlled Trial is to test wether oral supplementation with cholecalciferol could be able: 1) to improve vitamin D status and, 2) to play an immunomodulatory role, in vertically HIV-infected children and young adults with hypovitaminosis D.
For more than 20 years, alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor therapy has been the standard treatment for patients who have inherited alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor deficiency. Adult patients with this condition eventually develop emphysema. Most HIV-1 patients who have low viral load also have alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor deficiency. The number of CD4 cells in blood increases when alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor increases. Patients will be asked to participate in a pilot study to see whether the use of Zemaira® (alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor) can increase blood levels of alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor and consequently increase CD4 counts.