HIV SPECIFIC IMMUNE RESPONSES AND DISEASE PROGRESSION IN PEDIATRIC HIV-1 INFECTI

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Children and adolescents with HIV infection display great variability in their clinical course and rate of progression to AIDS. The specific aims of this study are 1) to characterize the magnitude, breadth, and epitope specificity of HIV-specific CTL and T-helper responses in a cohort of HIV-infected pediatric subjects (ages birth to 21 years); and 2) to use new assays to gain a better understanding of the determinants of innate immunity (NK cells, NKT cells) and dendritic cells/monocytes in the control of HIV viremia in pediatric subjects. One hypothesis of this study is that in pediatric subjects who are not receiving antiretroviral therapy or who are viremic on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), but are asymptomatic, correlates of effective immune control of HIV-1 can be identified. The second hypothesis is that differences in innate immune responses of asymptomatic pediatric subjects with control viremia as compared to pediatric subjects with high viral loads and clinical progression, can be identified by longitudinal comparison of functional and phenotypic markers of NK cells, NKT cells and dendritic cells/monocytes.