Characterizing the Role of Immune Activation in HIV Persistence

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Investigator: Steven Deeks, MD
Sponsor: University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

Location(s): United States

Description

The ongoing activation of the immune system during HIV infection, even when virus levels are low, is increasingly recognized as a source of illness and accelerated aging. Dr. Kitchen, of UCLA, plans to probe further the relationship between immune activation and virus levels, and she hypothesizes that immune activation contributes to the ability of the virus to persist even in the face of antiretroviral therapy. She will track changes over time both in immune activation and the size of the reservoir of persistent virus, to determine whether one may result in the other, a first step in devising interventions to break the reciprocal cycle of immune activation and virus replication.