PATH
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A Prospective Observational Study of HIV Peptide Presentation Assessment in Gut-Associated Lymphoid Tissue of People Living With HIV
IRAS ID
360417
Contact name
Sarah Fidler
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 30 days
Research summary
A permanent cure for HIV is needed to enable people living with HIV (PLWH) to maintain health without depending on continuous antiretroviral therapy (ART) for life. Cellular HIV reservoirs, comprising long-lived CD4+ cells containing integrated proviral DNA, present a major challenge for the development of curative therapies. Reservoirs are not eliminated by the immune system due to viral latency, with sporadic viral antigen expression, together with viral mutational escape and other immune evasion strategies. Phenotypic characterisation of HIV reservoirs is hampered by the rarity of infected cells in the blood in PLWH on ART, coupled with inaccessibility of lymphoid tissue and very low level of antigen expression in both compartments. This project will use our soluble high affinity HIV-specific T cell receptors as tools, together with state-of-art fluorescence imaging and highly sensitive mass spectrometry techniques, to explore and evaluate viral antigen expression in blood and gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) in PLWH.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/WM/0221
Date of REC Opinion
5 Nov 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion