Observational Study on Anti-Tat Immune Response in HIV-1-infected HAART-treated Adult Subjects

The present study is designed as a prospective observational study directed at evaluating the frequency, magnitude, quality and persistence (primary endpoint) of the anti-Tat immune response in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)-receiving HIV-1 infected individuals, and to prospectively evaluate the immunological, virological and clinical outcome of anti-Tat positive versus anti-Tat negative subjects under successful HAART (secondary endpoint), in order to determine the impact of anti-Tat immunity on HIV disease progression as well as the potential use of anti-Tat immune response assessment for the clinical and therapeutic management of HAART-treated infected patients. This survey provided important information for the design, planning and conduction of future therapeutic vaccine trials based on the HIV-1 Tat protein in HAART-treated patients.