Active clinical trials for "Communicable Diseases"

This is a Phase 3, multi-center, randomized, placebo-controlled trial to determine the effectiveness and safety of the 6% cellulose sulfate (CS) vaginal gel for the prevention of HIV infection.

Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) are ubiquitous organisms that cause isolated pulmonary disease in otherwise healthy patients with yet undefined susceptibilities. Patients typically present with a history of chronic cough, eventually progressing to hemoptysis, fever, and hypoxia. With half or more of all patients failing standard three-drug therapy, this is an insidious disease with a poor prognosis. Under the natural history protocol of nontuberculous mycobacterial infection (NTM; #01-I-0202), 46 patients with diagnosed pulmonary MAC disease are being studied. Numerous studies have suggested that a dysregulation in cytokine production may make these patients susceptible to mycobacterial infection. Cytokines are particularly important in the activaction of macrophages, which help to clear mycobacterial infection. Interferon gamma 1b (Actimmune) and GM-CSF (Leukine) are two cytokine therapies that have been approved in the treatment of chronic granulomatous disease and post-transplantation hematopoietic reconstitution, respectively. A number of in vitro studies suggest that either or both of these therapies may help to clear MAC infection. Given the poor outcomes of therapy and the persistent, debilitating nature of the disease, new therapies are desperately needed, and many are being tried without benefit of scientific foundation. Currently, there are no prospective trials that show any effect of these drugs in the lung delivered subcutaneously. This protocol proposes to perform a pilot study to evaluate the effects, if any, of these macrophage stimulating cytokines in the context of ongoing pulmonary MAC infection. Aims: To determine the local and systemic effect, if any, of adjuvant IFN gamma and GM-CSF in pulmonary MAC patients. Methods: Fifteen patients will be randomized into three treatment groups of five patients each. The first group will receive a standard drug regimen, based on the 1997 ATS guidelines. The second and third groups, in addition to receiving the standard therapy, will also receive three months of (IFN{gamma}) and GM-CSF, respectively. All patients will undergo bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) at the beginning of the study, after three months, and at six months. In addition to obtaining traditional subjective and objective clinical measures, both proteomic and genomic analysis of the BAL will be performed to determine if cytokine therapy effects any detectable change in the lungs. In vitro studies on typ...

Treatment of HIV repairs the immune system, but continuous treatment is expensive and causes side effects. Would it not be better to treat intermittently, e.g. stop treatment when the immune system has recovered, and start again only when damage reappears? That is the question which STACCATO proposes to answer. Approximately 500 patients were recruited for this trial from 2002 to 2004. One third were treated continuously; in two thirds, the treatment was interrupted whenever the CD4 count, a measure of immune recovery, exceeded 350. At the end of 2005, the two treatment groups will be compared in order to see which fared better regarding amount of drugs used, side effects, CD4 counts, and development of resistance to treatment.

Study 0018 (NCT00107978) compares the safety and effectiveness of an investigational drug, telavancin, and an approved drug, vancomycin, for the treatment of complicated skin and skin structure infections.

To determine if linezolid is superior to vancomycin in the treatment of complicated skin and soft tissue infections due to MRSA in adult subjects

To evaluate the safety and efficacy of tigecycline in the treatment of subjects with selected serious infections caused by resistant gram-negative bacteria, eg, Acinetobacter baumannii, Enterobacter species, Klebsiella pneumoniae or other resistant gram-negative pathogens, for whom antibiotics have failed or who cannot tolerate other appropriate antimicrobial therapies. The primary efficacy endpoint will be the clinical response.

This study will treat patients who have a community-acquired pneumonia that is due to a specific bacteria (S. pneumoniae)

This study will evaluate the effects of intermittent short cycles of HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) for treating HIV infection. HAART is a multi-drug regimen that is very effective in suppressing HIV and perhaps slowing or halting progression to AIDS. However, the treatment has significant drawbacks: it cannot completely rid the body of virus; long-term therapy carries a risk of toxicity (harmful side effects); and the regimen is difficult to comply with because many pills and capsules must be taken daily. When patients stop taking HAART, their HIV levels climb again. This study will see if giving HAART in short cycles of 7 days on, 7 days off, can keep viral levels low while maintaining CD4+ T cell counts. HIV-infected people age 18 or older who are receiving HAART and have a viral load of less than 50 copies/ml and a CD4+ T cell count of at least 175 cells/mm3 may be eligible for this study. Candidates will be screened with a medical history and physical examination, blood and urine tests, and possibly a chest X-ray and electrocardiogram. Women of childbearing potential will have a pregnancy test. Participants will be randomly assigned to either continue their current medication regimen or to take HAART in intermittent cycles of 7 days off, 7 days on. Patients will continue treatment for 72 weeks or until viral levels increase or CD4+ T cell counts decline to a level of concern. Upon entering the study, patients will have blood tests to monitor the amount of virus in the blood, CD4+ T cell count, viral resistance to HAART medications, side effects of the drug, and immune response to HIV in the test tube. They will have clinic visits for a history, physical examination and blood draws every month for 12 months. At that time, depending on T cell counts and viral load, the number of visits may be reduced, but never less frequently than every other month. Patients will also undergo leukapheresis-a procedure for collecting quantities of white blood cells-every 3 to 4 months while on the study. For this procedure, whole blood is collected through a needle in an arm vein (similar to donating blood). The blood is circulated through a cell separator where the white cells are removed, and the rest of the blood (plasma, red cells and platelets) is returned through the same needle or through a second one in the other arm. The collected white cells are used for special studies on the level and function of T cells and to detect hidden virus.

This study will test the safety, side effects and anti-HIV activity of different doses of capravirine in children and adolescents with HIV infection. Capravirine belongs to a class of drugs called non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), which prevent the virus from replicating (making more copies of itself). Other NNRTIs are nevirapine, delavirdine and efavirenz. HIV-infected children between the ages of 4 months and 21 years may be eligible for this study if they: 1) have received less than 6 weeks of treatment with antiretroviral drugs; 2) have not benefited from antiretroviral therapy after 12 weeks of treatment; 3) cannot continue antiretroviral treatment because of harmful side effects. For the first week of the study, participants will have a 1-week "washout period" in which they will receive no anti-HIV therapy. During this time, they will have physical, eye and neuropsychologic examinations, blood and urine tests, echocardiogram, electrocardiogram (EKG), chest X-ray, head CT scan and skin tests. These physical exams and tests will be repeated throughout the study to determine changes in health. After the washout period, patients will take capravirine once a day in the morning for 6 days. After each dose, a small amount of blood will be drawn at 8 different times over 12 hours to measure the activity of the drug and HIV blood levels. A heparin lock will be placed in the vein to avoid multiple needlesticks. After the 6 days of capravirine there will be another washout period, this time for 21 days. During this time, doctors will determine the optimum combination therapy for the individual patient. After the second washout, patients will begin combination therapy with capravirine plus at least two other anti-HIV medicines. (These may include a reverse transcriptase inhibitor such as zidovudine, didanosine, lamuvidine, zalcitabine, or stavudine, and maybe one or more protease inhibitors such as ritonavir, nelfinavir, saquinavir, indinavir or amprenavir.) For the first week, patients will have a daily blood test to determine HIV blood levels. Afterwards, treatment will continue on an outpatient basis with clinic visits every 4 to 8 weeks for physical exams, lab tests and other procedures as required. The study will last approximately 48 weeks. Patients who benefit from capravirine therapy may be able to continue to receive the drug from the drug company sponsor or as part of another study, or the protocol for this study may be amended to lengthen the treatment period.

To compare two different routes of intermittently administered rhIL-2 with a highly active antiretroviral regimen (HAART) to HAART alone. The comparison is based on the following: proportion of patients achieving at least 50-percent increase in CD4 counts above prerandomization baseline values after 1 year of rhIL-2 and the rate of change in CD4 counts. To compare the safety and tolerance of these regimens and their effect on quality of life. To assess the effects of rhIL-2 when combined with HAART on changes in immune cell phenotypes and function and on HIV viral load and the rate of antiviral drug resistance development. The poor responsiveness of late stage HIV-infected patients to rhIL-2 is thought to occur because of low T cell regenerative capacity and high viral burden. If means were available to effectively suppress virus replication, the indigenous immune restorative responses of the host may be further stimulated and enhanced by rhIL-2. The use of protease inhibitors with nucleoside-analogue combination regimens appears to be most effective in controlling virus replication. High-dose intermittent rhIL-2 administered either intravenously or subcutaneously has been shown to be effective in inducing CD4 responses in a number of studies.