The study will evaluate rates of HIV elimination in peripheral blood in comparison to secondary lymphatic tissues, including inguinal lymph nodes (LN) and gastrointestinal lymphatic tissues (GALT). HIV-infected patients who are antiretroviral therapy (ART) naive and fit criteria to initiate ART will be randomized to either Truvada (tenofovir/emtricitabine) + Sustiva (efavirenz - 600mg qDAY orally - standard of care) or Truvada + Isentress (raltegravir - 400mg BID orally).
Patients will have a blood draw, a colonoscopy with biopsies, and inguinal lymph node excision at days 0, 2, 7, 14, and week 52. Plasma HIV RNA and CD4+ T cell quantitation will be performed conventionally. HIV mRNA will be quantitated in LN and GALT using in-situ hybridization (ISH). Immunohistochemistry (IHC) will be performed to quantitate changes in CD4+ cell numbers over time in tissues from each respective ART regimen.
