Efficacy Study of T Cell Vaccination in HIV Infection

The hallmark of HIV infection and AIDS is the continuous attrition of CD4 T cells. One of the mechanisms that may account for the CD4 attrition , is autoimmunity against the CD4 T cells, caused by autologous immune cells. Vaccination against autoimmune reactive T cells has been successfully tried in animal models of autoimmune diseases and is now being tried in patients with Multiple Sclerosis. The purpose of the present study is to test this hypothesis in HIV infection. We will vaccinate HIV infected patients in whom specific autoimmune reactivity against CD4 is present , with their own CD4 reactive T cells. Following that, we shall study the patients and find out if the T cell vaccination caused a rise in CD4 T cell levels, and whether it influenced HIV viral load, as well as HIV and CD4 specific immunity.