This month an international HIV prevention trial was launched that is testing the infection-preventing prowess of a monoclonal antibody called VRCO1.
Created spontaneously by the immune system of a patient with HIV, VRCO1 was identified as a broadly neutralizing HIV antibody in 2010. It attaches to HIV and blocks it from binding to human T-cells.
The Antibody Mediated Prevention (AMP) study is a randomized controlled trial, with one track underway in Brazil, Peru and the United States, and another track set to launch in seven African countries. The Americas track will eventually enroll 2,700 participants at 27 study sites, including 18 sites in the United States.
According to the study’s coordinating center, on April 6, Vanderbilt University Medical Center became the first AMP study site to enroll a participant. The study’s first enrollee is Matthew Seckman, an administrative assistant II at Vanderbilt.
The AMP study’s next participant was enrolled 27 minutes later at Columbia University Medical Center in Manhattan.
The study is enrolling men and transgender people who have sex with men. Participants will receive the antibody or placebo over an 18-month period in a series of 10 intravenous infusions, then will be followed for 20 more weeks. Participants are reimbursed for their participation.
Vanderbilt’s participation in the AMP Study is overseen by Spyros Kalams, M.D., associate professor of Medicine and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, and principal investigator of the Vanderbilt HIV Vaccine Trials Unit.
The AMP Study is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NCT02716675, NCT02568215). For more information, visit the AMP Study website or the Vanderbilt HIV Vaccine Program.
