Endotoxin Neutralization as a Biomonitor for HIV Disease Progression

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Endotoxin neutralization in human plasma is an excellent indicator of chronic immune activation, which is the most accurate predictor of mortality in HIV. Recently we developed an assay using endotoxin neutralization asan indicator of bacterial translocation. This assay is accurate in discriminating control patients from those with inflammatory bowel disease in addition to indicating disease severity. We propose to adapt our endotoxin neutralization assay for the evaluation of HIV disease severity and progression. In the 6 month Phase I part of the SBIR project, we will (1) collect plasma from 20 19-50 year old HIV-positive males and an equivalent number of demographically similar HIV-negative male subjects and test forviral load and CD4+ T cell count, (2) measure the levels of specific plasma markers indicative of bacterial translocation, immune system activation and/or inflammatory response, and (3) measure immune activation using our endotoxin neutralization biom