Little is known about autophagy during HIV infection. Recently, two different teams reported important dysfunctions of autophagy in HIV-infected patients despite sustained suppressive antiretroviral therapy. As altered autophagy is strongly linked to cellular senescence and chronic inflammation, two hallmarks of HIV-infected patients despite long-term suppressive antiretroviral therapy, it is important to improve our knowledge in the area.
Our main objective is to determine whether all or part of mononuclear cell subpopulations (CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes, and monocytes) exhibit a defect in autophagy function in a cohort of HIV-infected patients who are virologically-controlled (plasma HIV RNA \<50 copies / ml) either spontaneously (i.e. HIV controllers or post-treatment controllers) or after they started antiretroviral therapy at different time points (i.e. at the acute or chronic phases), as compared with a control group (i.e. uninfected healthy blood donors).
Age >=18 years
Man or woman
Infected with HIV-1 (and not co-infected with HIV-2)
Followed at Orleans' Regional Hospital
Patient unable, according to the investigator, to meet the requirements of the protocol
Pregnant or lactating woman
Patient with a history of inflammatory bowel disease, malignancy, intestinal ischemia, malabsorption or other gastrointestinal dysfunction that, in the judgment of the investigator, could interfere with the interpretation of the results.
Presence of coagulation abnormality or unexplained bleeding history
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Treatment groupsSee each treatment group below.