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CompletedNCT01020045OPG-2Updated Oct 19, 2015

Effect of HIV Infection and Highly Active Antiretroviral Treatment (HAART) on Bone Homeostasis

An observational study in HIV Infection, Osteopenia and Osteoporosis, sponsored by Emory University. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 50 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2015-10-19.

Sponsored by Emory University · Observational

Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Cross-sectional
Enrollment
120
Ages
18 Years to 50 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Advances in HAART have been a huge success story in the management of HIV infection. However, serious metabolic complications including osteoporosis and bone fractures are increasingly been seen with HAART, and the responsible mechanisms remain poorly elucidated.

The skeleton continually regenerates through homeostatic bone remodeling. Osteoclasts the cells responsible for bone resorption form under the influence of the key osteoclastogenic cytokine Receptor- Activator of NF-KB (RANKL). The osteoclastogenic and pro-resorptive activities of RANKL are moderated by its physiological decoy receptor osteoprotegerin (OPG). Increase in the ratio of RANKL to OPG accelerates the rate of osteoclastic bone resorption leading to osteoporosis.

The investigators' preliminary studies have now demonstrated that in an animal model of HIV/AIDS, the HIV-1 Transgenic rat, the development of osteoporosis is recapitulated as observed in human patients. Furthermore, the investigators found that B cell expression of OPG is significantly downregulated, concurrent with a significant upregulation in production of RANKL.

Read the detailed description

The investigators hypothesize that "immunological disruption of B cell number and/or function, may play a key causal role in the bone loss associated with HIV/AIDS, by driving a "switch" from OPG production to overproduction of RANKL". The investigators propose to determine the role of perturbations in B and T cells on OPG and RANKL production and on bone turnover.

This is a cross-sectional analysis of changes in BMD (DXA), and B cell and T cell function in HIV seronegative/seropositive subjects matched by known risk factors for osteoporosis. Serum will be collected for quantitation of total OPG and RANKL, and for biochemical markers of bone turnover (CTx, and TRAP5b), specific and sensitive markers of osteoclast activity, and for osteocalcin and P1NP, specific and sensitive markers of bone formation by commercial ELISAs. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) will be isolated and total and percentage frequency and absolute number (/mL) of B cells (CD19+) and T cells (CD3) and their subsets (CD4 and CD8). B cells (CD19) and T cells (CD3 and CD4 and CD8) will be immunomagnetically purified and OPG and RANKL mRNA and protein production quantitated by RT-PCR and ELISA respectively. As a secondary endpoint, B cells will be fractionated into subsets based on differential expression of the markers CD10, CD21 and CD27 and OPG and RANKL production quantitated by in each subset by intracellular staining and FACS analysis.

02

Conditions studied

03

In context

Infections

6,687 studies on the registry are indexed under Infections; 807 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 120 is below the median of 240 across 2,136 observational studies indexed under Infections.

Browse Infections studies →

Lead sponsor

Emory University is the lead sponsor of 1,386 studies on the registry; 236 are open to participants now.

Of its 229 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 174 (76%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 50 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

Healthy (HIV sero-negative) volunteers and otherwise healthy antiretroviral treatment naïve HIV-1 sero-positive patients, age >18 years.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Healthy (sero-negative) volunteers and otherwise healthy treatment naïve HIV-1 sero-positive patient.
  2. Age >30\<50 years and segregated into age and gender ranges as described above in section 3.2 (15 subjects per stratification based on Power Test).
  3. Ability and willingness of subject or legal guardian/representative to give written informed consent.
  4. Antiretroviral naivety.
  5. No CD4 T-cell counts requirement.
  6. Absence of non-HIV related active immunological or bone disorders such as;

    • Bone marrow or organ transplantation
    • Inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis, crohn's disease)
    • Multiple Myeloma
    • Osteogenesis imperfect
    • Osteomalacia
    • Osteosarcoma
    • Paget's disease
    • Postmenopausal osteoporosis
    • Rheumatoid arthritis
    • Systemic lupus erythematosus
  7. Laboratory values obtained within 90 days prior to study entry:

    • Hemoglobin >9.4 g/dl
    • Creatinine \< 2 mg/dl
    • AST (SGOT) \< 2 x ULN
    • ALT (SGPT) \< 2 x ULN

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Physical or biochemical evidence or a medical history of malignancy.
  2. Currently (within the past 8 weeks) taking any medication with known influence on the immune or skeletal system (e.g. immune modulation therapy, glucocorticoids, steroid hormones, bisphosphonates).
  3. The patient is not fully ambulatory.
  4. Pregnancy or breast feeding.

Exclusion criteria are primarily centered on immunological aspects with bone related aspects secondary. This is because in our model immunological function is proximal to bone function. Consequently, use of vitamin D or calcium supplementation will not be exclusion criteria, but will be added as covariates in our analysis.

05

Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Cross-sectional
Enrollment
120 participants (actual)
Patient registry
No

Groups and cohorts

  • HIV-seropositive, HIV seronegative

    No intervention - biologic samples were collected from both HIV positive and HIV negative subjects

  • Treatment naive subjects

    HIV-seropositive subjects naive to antiretroviral therapy. HIV-seronegative subjects otherwise healthy.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. To correlate serum and B cell and T cell OPG and/or RANKL production in treatment-naïve HIV-infected patients, with indices of bone turnover and structure and with viral load.

    Time frame: During entry visit

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Grady Infectious Diseases Program Clinic
    Atlanta, Georgia 30308, United States
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Titanji K, Vunnava A, Sheth AN, Delille C, Lennox JL, Sanford SE, Foster A, Knezevic A, Easley KA, Weitzmann MN, Ofotokun I. Dysregulated B cell expression of RANKL and OPG correlates with loss of bone mineral density in HIV infection. PLoS Pathog. 2014 Nov 13;10(10):e1004497. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1004497. eCollection 2014 Oct. PubMed 25393853 ↗
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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Oct 19, 2015, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01020045
Lead sponsor
Emory University
Collaborators
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
Responsible party
Ighovwerha Ofotokun (Associate Professor of Medicine, Emory University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Nov 25, 2009
Start date
Oct 2010
Primary completion
May 2013
Completion
Oct 2015
Last update
Oct 19, 2015

Study contacts

Ighovwerha Ofotokun, MD, MSc
principal investigator · Emory University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Oct 2015. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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