Core and Cohort Updates

Core and Cohort Updates

Admin Core

l-r: Julia Canfield, Natalie Foster, and Carly Bridden; Jeffrey Samet with URBAN ARCH collaborators  in Seattle, Washington for CROI 2017

The Admin Core team has been facilitating discussion regarding data collection harmonization of the research assessments for the renewal studies. The cohorts are harmonizing on over 20 variables, including alcohol use, smoking, falls, comorbidities, and social support.

Carly Bridden and Julia Canfield prepared Russia ARCH samples to be sent to a lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for ART and HVL testing. They are also currently working on a U13 grant application to receive funding to coordinate future CHAART meetings starting in 2018.

In February, Jeffrey Samet attended the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Seattle. A symposium entitled “Use of biomarkers to advance alcohol and HIV research“ was also accepted to the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) meeting in June. Jeffrey Samet and Kendall Bryant are organizing the symposium, and Kaku So-Armah and Theresa Kim will be presenting on data from Russia and Boston ARCH respectively.

Finally, Admin Core staff has been planning the 6th URBAN ARCH Annual Meeting to be held on March 28th and 29th at Boston Medical Center/Boston University. We look forward to welcoming both internal and external investigators and collaborators back to Boston for discussions and updates on URBAN ARCH HIV and alcohol research! Please email carly.bridden@bmc.org if you would like to attend this year’s Annual Meeting.

BDM Core

The BDM Core is currently collaborating with each cohort to start up the new studies and is also completing several analyses for manuscripts that are in progress.

We are also delighted to introduce Kerrin Gallagher (pictured right), the newest member of the BDM Core team! Kerrin started at the DCC in January and will primarily be working as an analyst and data manager for the St PETER project. Prior to joining the DCC, Kerrin worked as a study coordinator in Boston Medical Center’s OB/GYN department, and she has an MPH in Biostatistics from the BU School of Public Health.

Uganda Cohort

We are off to a great start with the Uganda ARCH ADEPTT study! The ADEPTT study is a single-arm trial of TB preventive therapy to assess its toxicity, measure adherence, and determine whether its benefits outweigh its risks when given to TB/HIV-infected drinkers (n=300). As of March 1, 2017, we have obtained all IRB approvals from Mbarara, Boston, and San Francisco, and we also executed the sub contracts with our partner institutions.

l-r: Yona, Allen, and Christine; ADEPTT lab technician, Yona, shows new machines for ADEPTT at the MUST lab

The project director, Nneka Emenyonu, completed a very productive trip to Mbarara, Uganda in January/February 2017 to prepare for study start up in April. While in Uganda, Nneka oversaw the hiring of new ADEPTT staff including a screener, data manager, research assistants, laboratory technicians, and pharmacy technicians, who will be joining the ADEPTT team later this month. We are excited to have our ADEPT study coordinator, Christine Ngabirano, continue as the study coordinator for ADEPTT. Christine has done a fabulous job, and we look forward to introducing her to the URBAN ARCH team in-person at the annual meeting in Boston. Our study tools are in their final stages of completion, a process involving insightful discussion and input from all of our collaborators over the past few months. We are on an equally productive track with publications with our first abstract presented at CROI 2017, prior to enrolling our first participant. We are motivated and excited to continue on this trajectory!

l-r: ADEPTT and MUST Grants office selfie following planning meeting for ADEPTT (Ezra, Didas, Allen, Nneka, Christine, and Margaret); Yona, Christine, and Nneka ending the week with an ADEPTT team lunch

CROI 2017 Abstract: J. Morgan Freiman, Karen R. Jacobson, Winnie Muyindike, C. Robert Horsburgh, Jerrold J. Ellner, Judith A. Hahn, Benjamin P. Linas. ‘Does the benefit of IPT for persons with HIV who consume alcohol outweigh the risk?’

Russia Cohort and ZINC RCT

As of March 3, 2017, Russia ARCH (n=351) and ZINC (n=254) are closed to follow-up. We are grateful to our teams in St. Petersburg, Boston, Nashville, Pittsburgh, and Burlington for their hard work and for making these studies possible!

In addition to getting ready to launch the St PETER trial, the team is actively pursuing data analyses, abstract submissions, and manuscript preparation. In February, Drs. Samet and So-Armah attended the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infectious (CROI) in Seattle, Washington, where Dr. So-Armah presented main findings from the Russia ARCH study in his poster entitled, “Longitudinal association between alcohol use and inflammatory biomarkers.” This abstract was also accepted to the symposium, “Use of biomarkers to advance alcohol and HIV research,” organized by Dr. Jeffrey Samet and Dr. Kendall Bryant at the 2017 Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) Annual Scientific Meeting.

l-r: Drs. Samet and So-Armah at CROI 2017 in Seattle, WA; The Russian team is celebrating the completion of the ZINC study (Drs. Olga Toussova, Vladimir Palatkin, Natalia Bushara, Elena Blokhina, Ms. Anna Kazishvilli, and Dr. Tatiana Yaroslavtseva)

Boston Cohort

The Boston ARCH team has been busy completing several secondary analyses, for which manuscripts are currently under review for publication. The team will also be presenting a poster entitled “The importance of self-medication with substances in people with HIV infection and substance dependence” at the upcoming CPDD Scientific Meeting in June 2017, and Theresa Kim will be presenting “Alcohol and changes in bone formation and resorption among people with HIV infection and substance dependence” at a cross-consortium Symposium at the RSA Scientific Meeting in June 2017.

Progress is continuing on the new Frailty, Functional Impairment, Falls, and Fractures (4F) Study. The team is obtaining necessary approvals for the study, and the finalization of assessments and protocols are under way.