Core and Cohort Updates

Admin Core

The Admin Core team has been busy over the past several months coordinating consortium-related meetings and projects. On October 6^th, URBAN ARCH welcomed Kendall Bryant, NIAAA’s Scientific Collaborator, to the Boston University Medical Campus to discuss recently released RFAs (U34; U01; UH2/UH3) and possible grant applications for submission by the team. The Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) meeting was held on November 9^th, and it focused primarily on the transition from the old studies to the renewal projects. The group also reviewed the ZINC RCT reports and revised DSMB charter at this meeting.

l-r: URBAN ARCH team discussing the NIAAA RFAs with Kendall Bryant; DBS cards returned to the repository from testing at USDTL

Carly Bridden and Julia Canfield are currently working on the IRB application for Boston University and Boston Medical Center’s role on the Uganda ARCH renewal study. They also continue to manage the sample repository, with samples being returned to Boston from the University of Vermont (Russia ARCH serum for biomarker testing) and United States Drug Testing Laboratories (Russia ARCH and Uganda ARCH DBS cards for PEth testing) in October.

In December, Jeffrey Samet and Julia Canfield attended the VACS Scientific Meeting in Washington DC, where they learned about VACS ongoing research and connected with past, present, and future collaborators.

Finally the Admin Core would like to congratulate Jeffrey Samet for being named the first John Noble Professor in General Internal Medicine at Boston University!

BDM Core

The BDM Core has been busy on several fronts. They have been actively working with all the cohorts to start up each new study, completing analyses for several manuscripts in progress, and collaborating with investigators on multiple new grant applications.

Uganda Cohort

The team is gearing up to launch the recently funded continuation of the Uganda ARCH cohort with the Alcohol Drinkers’ Exposure to Preventive Therapy for TB (ADEPT-TB) study. This 5-year, single arm study will examine 6 months of daily INH (6H) among persons co-infected with HIV and TB. Their main aim is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of the TB preventive therapy regimens, overall and by level of drinking. Their results will provide critical new insights for guidelines on how to best deliver TB preventive therapy to alcohol using, HIV/TB co-infected persons at high risk for TB disease and reduce morbidity and mortality.

Russia Cohort and ZINC RCT

As of December 1st, 2016, Russia ARCH (n=351) has completed all six-month (260) and twelve-month (244) assessments and has conducted 244 eighteen-month assessments and 186 twenty four-month assessments. As of December 1st, 2016, ZINC (n=254) has completed all six-month (160) and twelve-month (152) assessments and has conducted 167 eighteen-month assessments.

l-r: ZINC and St PETER PI, Matthew Freiberg, training St PETER research assessors at First St. Petersburg Pavlov State Medical University; Russia ARCH & ZINC addiction psychiatrist and research assessor, Vladimir Palatkin with ZINC and St. PETER PI, Jeffrey Samet

In November, study team members traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia to conduct a site visit at First St. Petersburg Pavlov State Medical University. The team performed various quality control and study monitoring procedures, as well as training activities for the new St PETER trial, which will begin recruitment in the spring of 2017.

On World AIDS Day (December 1st) the Prix Galien Russia Committee honored Russia ARCH Investigators, Dmitry A. Lioznov, Edwin E. Zvartau, Evgeny M. Krupitsky, and Russia ARCH Principal Investigator, Jeffrey H. Samet, for their research on the prevalence of HIV in vulnerable and special populations in the Russian Federation.

l tor: Sally Bendiks and Tatiana Yaroslavtseva; Members of the Russia ARCH study team at dinner on the final night in St. Petersburg

The team is actively pursuing data analyses, abstract submissions, and manuscript preparation.

Accepted Abstracts:

Longitudinal association between use and inflammatory biomarkers (Kaku So-Armah et al.)
- Accepted for poster presentation at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infectious (CROI) 2017
Are depression and anxiety symptoms associated with heavy smoking or higher nicotine dependence among HIV-infected smokers in Russia? (Karen Lasser et al.)
- Accepted for poster presentation at the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) 2017

Published Manuscripts:

Insights on the Russian HCV care cascade: minimal HCV treatment for HIV/HCV co-infected PWID in St. Petersburg (Judith Tsui et al.)
- Accepted for publication in Hepatology, Medicine, and Policy
Pain and risk behaviors among HIV-infected persons in St. Petersburg, Russia (Judith Tsui et al.)
- Accepted for publication in AIDS and Behavior
Mortality in HIV-Infected Alcohol and Drug Users in St. Petersburg, Russia (Nadia Fairbairn et al.)
- Accepted for publication in PLOS ONE

Boston Cohort

At the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA) meeting in November, Theresa Kim presented her Boston ARCH abstract entitled “Polypharmacy and Risk of Non-Fatal Overdose for Patients with HIV Infection and Substance Dependence.”

left: Theresa Kim presenting at AMERSA

At the International Network on Brief Interventions for Alcohol & Other Drugs (INEBRIA) conference in September, Emily Williams and Rich Saitz chaired a symposium entitled “Brief (and Extended) Interventions among HIV+ Patients in the U.S.” Emily Williams gave a presentation called “Among VA Patients with Unhealthy Alcohol Use, Those with HIV are Less Likely than Those Without to Receive Brief Intervention.”

The Boston ARCH team is beginning to launch their Frailty, Functional Impairment, Falls, and Fractures (4F) Study with the development of assessments and protocols. The team is also still looking for a new project manager and research assistants to work on this study. Please email Seville Meli at seville@bu.edu if you are interested.