Structured Treatment Interruptions With or Without Pegylated Interferon Alpha for HIV-Infected Patients After Prolonged Viral Suppression

Primary Outcome Measures:

• Proportion of patients who did not reach the criteria to resume antiretroviral treatment at week 72 [W 72] (viral load over 30000 cp/ml at two consecutive monthly samples and/or CD4 count below 350/mm3 at two consecutive monthly samples)
  

Secondary Outcome Measures:

• Viral rebound one and 3 months after stopping all antiviral treatments
  
• Specific anti-HIV CD4 and CD8 response
  
• Proviral HIV DNA at baseline and during follow-up
  
• Description of genetic HIV viral mutations during procedure
  
• Safety
  

The limitations of the drugs used against HIV include their toxicity, their tolerability, their propensity to induce resistance when not taken with absolute regularity and their cost. Treatment interruption in patients receiving antiretroviral treatment in the setting of chronic infection is associated with viral rebound and rapid CD4 T cell decrease conducting to antiretroviral therapy restart. In patients with high CD4+ cell counts (patients receiving treatment of chronic infection with controlled viremia and patients who are receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) now in whom treatment would not have been started based on current guidelines), the investigators evaluated whether the adjunctional of interferon alfa 2b to 3 structured treatment interruptions correlated with a long time off treatment. HAART was interrupted for 4 weeks, restarted and continued for 12 weeks. After 3 such cycles treatment was indefinitely suspended 48 weeks after study entry. Another aim of this study was to assess the immunological and virological factors associated with the duration of treatment interruption (proviral HIV DNA at baseline and during follow-up, plasma HIV RNA at baseline and during follow-up, CD4 T cell and CD8 T cell HIV specific responses at baseline and after 6 months of interruption).