Leukapheresis Procedures to Obtain Plasma and Lymphocytes for Research Studies on Antiretroviral Naive HIV-1 Research Participants

There is evidence that early and aggressive treatment with antiretroviral drugs can prevent the loss of immune cell function that accompanies HIV infection. This study will use leukapheresis (drawing blood, separating out the white cells and returning the blood to the patient) to obtain blood cells from HIV-infected patients in either the acute or chronic stage of infection who are being treated with early highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Leukapheresis is necessary to obtain enough cells to delineate the response of B cells to CD4+ T cell help, the CD8 factors associated with suppression of viral replication and normalization of immune function, and natural killer function relative to HIV disease. Study participants will be adult (older than 18 years) HIV primary or acutely affected patients (those with a history of exposure to HIV but not yet showing chronic symptoms of HIV disease) and HIV chronically infected patients (those infected with HIV for longer than 12 months or showing other symptoms of HIV disease) who are not receiving HAART at the beginning of the study. The study seeks to enroll 30 primary and 30 chronic patients. Pregnant women will not be enrolled in the study; women who become pregnant will be dropped from the study. Leukapheresis will be performed on each patient before HAART therapy begins and then three times a year. Each session will take between 1 and 3 hours. This longitudinal study will enable researchers to examine the function of certain B cells, natural killer cells, and CD8+ T cells in people who do not have chronic HIV disease and in those who do have the disease and are treated with HAART.

HIV-1 infection is known to cause profound and irreversible dysfunction of both innate and adaptive arms of the immune system. However, there is mounting evidence that early and aggressive treatment with antiretroviral drugs can prevent loss of immune cell function. In an attempt to further delineate the effect of early antiretroviral therapy (ART) on maintenance of immune cell function, we wish to recruit people with drug-naive HIV-1 who are either in early or chronic stage of the disease. The study will require that participants undergo leukapheresis or research blood draw once before and several times after enrollment. Leukapheresis will be used in order to obtain sufficient cells to pursue the following objectives: delineating B cell response to CD4+ T cell help, delineating the effect of ART on persistent HIV reservoirs in CD4+ T cells of people with HIV (PWH), and delineating CD8+ T cell-mediated suppression of viral replication and normalization of immune function, and characterizing natural killer (NK) function relative to HIV disease. The required number of mononuclear cells needed to perform these experiments can be easily and safely obtained using leukapheresis procedures in the Clinical Center Apheresis Unit. This protocol is specifically designed to conform to the requirements of the Apheresis Unit for donors to have leukapheresis procedures, but the protocol, by itself, is not an independent research study. Alternatively, whole blood draws may be used in cases where participants are unable to undergo leukapheresis. While this approach will limit extensive functional analyses, informative phenotypic and limited functional analyses can nonetheless be performed.