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IV1 reservoir from which the rebounding virus originated. Although we detected ” no significant differences between initial virologic suppressors and non-suppressors in the number of accumulated HLA-associated HIV-1 polymorphisms, we cannot rule-out the possibility that qualitative differences exist between escape mutations with differential impact on viral fitness. Three participants were able to maintain virologic suppression 49 weeks after treatment interruption. All three individuals had received study vaccine and two of the three had CD4+ cell counts at ATI week 49 above that found at study entry. In evaluating which virologic or immunologic characteristics may be predictive of initial virologic suppression, we found a trend toward lower LGX-818 chemical information preART viral load for participants with initial virologic suppression. Pre-ART viral load has also been seen in other studies to be associated with the extent of viral rebound and validates the use of stratification by viral load at ” randomization in A5197. Two of the three participants who maintained virologic suppression were also found to have protective HLA alleles. HLA class I molecules mediate the cell-mediated immune response to HIV and play a crucial role in the immune control of HIV. Certain HLA alleles, termed “protective”, have been associated with decreased viral load set point and delayed disease progression. In addition, in the STEP trial of the rAd5 Gag-Pol-Nef vaccine, participants in the vaccine arm with protective HLA alleles were found to have significantly lower viral load set point after infection. However, the impact of HLA alleles on initial virologic rebound during treatment interruption is far less clear. In this study, the prevalence of individuals with protective HLA alleles was no higher in the initial suppressor group as compared to the non-suppressor group. One explanation is that in these chronically infected individuals, HIV has had an opportunity to adapt to the host immune response as evidenced by the fact that almost all individuals in the study were found to have accumulated HLA-associated polymorphisms in HIV-1 Gag. The magnitude of HIV-1 Gag-specific IFN-c-producing CD4+ T cells has been previously associated with virologic control. It has been hoped that a therapeutic vaccine-induced augmentation of such a response would lead to improved viral control. However, in a recent study of a recombinant canarypox HIV-1 vaccine, patients exposed to the vaccine had a worse outcome including higher levels of viral replication. A subsequent analysis suggested that the extent of vaccine-induced activation of HIV-specific CD4+ T cells was associated with the detrimental outcome. In contrast, we found no evidence of an adverse effect of HIV-specific CD4+ T-cell activation on plasma viremia. In addition, the initial analysis of A5197 found that a greater number of gag-specific IFN-c-producing CD4+ T cells were associated with lower viral rebound. Viral Suppression after Therapeutic Vaccination CTLA-4 and PD-1 are inhibitory immunoregulatory molecules that regulate T cell activation and peripheral immune tolerance. Their expression on HIV- specific CD4+ T cells has been associated with increased viral load and disease progression. As might be expected, we found that CD4+ T cells from initial virologic suppressors had a lower expression of CTLA-4 immediately prior to the ATI. We found, however, that CTLA-4+ and PD-1+ cells from initial virologic suppressors made up a greater prop

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Author: heme -oxygenase