Pilot Study of Adding Raltegravir (MK-0518) to Antiretroviral Therapy in Patients With Low Level Viremia

Summary

The medicines used to treat HIV can suppress but cannot kill all the virus in the body. A small amount of virus remains at low levels in the part of the blood called the plasma. It is of crucial importance to identify the source of the residual virus in patients receiving antiretroviral therapy. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the source of low level plasma virus is from latent (old) infection or ongoing (new) infection. MK-0518 is a investigational drug, which means that is not yet FDA approved, that works in a different way to other anti-HIV medicines to help kill the virus. We hypothesize that addition of MK-0518 to a stable anti-HIV regimen will reduce the viral load further in patients with undetectable plasma virus.

Timeline

Start

2007-10

Primary completion

2009-03

Completion

2009-03

Publications

• Background Natarajan V, Bosche M, Metcalf JA, Ward DJ, Lane HC, Kovacs JA. HIV-1 replication in patients with undetectable plasma virus receiving HAART. Highly active antiretroviral therapy. Lancet. 1999 Jan 9;353(9147):119-20. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(05)76156-0. No abstract available.
• Background Dornadula G, Zhang H, VanUitert B, Stern J, Livornese L Jr, Ingerman MJ, Witek J, Kedanis RJ, Natkin J, DeSimone J, Pomerantz RJ. Residual HIV-1 RNA in blood plasma of patients taking suppressive highly active antiretroviral therapy. JAMA. 1999 Nov 3;282(17):1627-32. doi: 10.1001/jama.282.17.1627.
• Background Zhang L, Ramratnam B, Tenner-Racz K, He Y, Vesanen M, Lewin S, Talal A, Racz P, Perelson AS, Korber BT, Markowitz M, Ho DD. Quantifying residual HIV-1 replication in patients receiving combination antiretroviral therapy. N Engl J Med. 1999 May 27;340(21):1605-13. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199905273402101.
• Background Palmer S, Wiegand AP, Maldarelli F, Bazmi H, Mican JM, Polis M, Dewar RL, Planta A, Liu S, Metcalf JA, Mellors JW, Coffin JM. New real-time reverse transcriptase-initiated PCR assay with single-copy sensitivity for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNA in plasma. J Clin Microbiol. 2003 Oct;41(10):4531-6. doi: 10.1128/JCM.41.10.4531-4536.2003.
• Background Maldarelli F, Palmer S, King MS, Wiegand A, Polis MA, Mican J, Kovacs JA, Davey RT, Rock-Kress D, Dewar R, Liu S, Metcalf JA, Rehm C, Brun SC, Hanna GJ, Kempf DJ, Coffin JM, Mellors JW. ART suppresses plasma HIV-1 RNA to a stable set point predicted by pretherapy viremia. PLoS Pathog. 2007 Apr;3(4):e46. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.0030046.
• Background Hazuda DJ, Wolfe AL, Hastings JC, Robbins HL, Graham PL, LaFemina RL, Emini EA. Viral long terminal repeat substrate binding characteristics of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 integrase. J Biol Chem. 1994 Feb 11;269(6):3999-4004.
• McMahon D, Jones J, Wiegand A, Gange SJ, Kearney M, Palmer S, McNulty S, Metcalf JA, Acosta E, Rehm C, Coffin JM, Mellors JW, Maldarelli F. Short-course raltegravir intensification does not reduce persistent low-level viremia in patients with HIV-1 suppression during receipt of combination antiretroviral therapy. Clin Infect Dis. 2010 Mar 15;50(6):912-9. doi: 10.1086/650749.

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