{"id":14338,"date":"2025-08-22T11:51:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T15:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urbanarch\/?page_id=14338"},"modified":"2025-09-29T14:35:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:35:25","slug":"international-urban-arch-center-core-and-project-updates-vol12iss2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urbanarch\/international-urban-arch-center-core-and-project-updates-vol12iss2\/","title":{"rendered":"International URBAN ARCH Center Core and Project Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Administrative Core<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Admin Core has had another eventful and productive few months. In April, Dr. Sarah Gutin and Dr. Alain Favina presented results from their papers using URBAN ARCH data, titled \u201cIntersectional stigma and health of people living with HIV on ART who use alcohol in southwestern Uganda,\u201d and \u201cAssociation between alcohol use, CD4 count, and depression among people living with HIV in southwestern Uganda.\u201d The event recording can be viewed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In May, Dr. Geetanjali Chander joined us for the latest quarterly International URBAN ARCH Visiting Scholar Research-in-Progress to share updates and preliminary results from the Alcohol Research Consortium in HIV (ARCH)<\/a> P01 program. The recording can be viewed here<\/a>. We are looking forward to our next Visiting Scholar webinar, which will take place on Tuesday, October 28 at 11am ET \/ 8am PT. Dr. Bob Cook will present progress and emerging results from the Southern HIV and Alcohol Research Consortium (SHARC)<\/a> P01 program.<\/p>\n

The Admin Core also successfully organized one-on-one mentoring sessions for early stage investigators at the 4th<\/sup> Annual Research on Alcohol and HIV Satellite Meeting at RSA in June. Read more about URBAN ARCH involvement at summer conferences in this issue\u2019s main story<\/a>!<\/p>\n

We are beginning to plan the 2026 URBAN ARCH Annual Meeting, which will take place in-person in Boston and virtually on Monday, March 30. Stay tuned for updates!<\/p>\n

<\/a>Biostatistics and Data Management Core<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Data management activities, including derived variable creation and documentation, are ongoing for GRAIL, TALC, and TRAC. The BDM Core supported the development of two analytic plans for the TALC study. TALC baseline analyses are ongoing. The BDM Core supported the development of multiple TRAC analytic plans, analyses, and manuscripts, on topics including new TB infection\/disease; smoking; intersectional stigma and health; and depression and under-reported alcohol use.<\/p>\n

<\/a>TB Risk by Alcohol Consumption (TRAC) Study<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The aims of the\u00a0<\/span>T<\/strong>B\u00a0<\/span>R<\/strong>isk by\u00a0<\/span>A<\/strong>lcohol\u00a0<\/span>C<\/strong>onsumption (<\/span>TRAC<\/strong>) study are to estimate the incidence rate of new TB infection among people with HIV (PWH) with prior negative tuberculin skin test (TST) results by level of alcohol use (Aim 1) and to determine the incidence of active TB disease among PWH with prior latent TB infection (LTBI), who received TB preventative therapy (TPT), by level of alcohol use (Aim 2).<\/span><\/p>\n

As of September 1, 2025, we have successfully concluded TRAC study enrollment with 500 participants. To achieve this goal, we made phone call attempts to 694 prior study participants for Aim 1 screening. We reached 558 participants and invited all of them for screening. Of the 558 screened, we found 522 to be eligible, while 20 people declined consent to participate in the study. Therefore, we enrolled a total of 502 participants into the study. 2 participants were enrolled in error and were subsequently excluded, leaving the total number enrolled as 500. Self-reported AUDIT-C scores from TRAC baselines visits show 138 (28%) in the no alcohol group, 203 (41%) in the low\/moderate alcohol use group, and 158 (32%) in the high-risk alcohol use group. Baseline PEth results of 451 participants show 155 (34%) in the no alcohol use group with PEth levels of <20 ng\/ml, 155 (34%) in the no alcohol use group with PEth levels of 20-<200 ng\/ml, 155 (34%) in the no alcohol use group with PEth levels of ><\/u>200 ng\/ml.<\/p>\n

Of the 500 (217 (43%) females and 283 (57%) males) enrolled with a median age of 42 years, 75 had positive TST results following placement and reading of TST within 72 hours. After excluding 4 participants (2 with prior active TB on chart review, and 2 with no TST result), and including 8 with active TB on chart review but with TST negative results, we found 83 out of 496 (16.7%) had new TB infection\/disease. We found no associations with active TB\/positive TST at baseline by smoking status, household TB diagnosis, or number of rooms in the household.<\/p>\n

\"\"
TRAC team members during the CROI 2025 conference in March 2025, San Francisco, CA, USA (L-R: Judy Hahn, Winnie Muyindike, Nneka Emenyonu, Robin Fatch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We successfully completed 474 6-month follow up phone calls (95% completion rate), 478 12-month in-person visits (96% completion rate), 480 18-month follow-up phone calls (97% completion rate), 443 24-month in-person visits (98% completion rate), 299 30-month follow-up phone calls (96% completion rate), and 126 36-month in-person visits (93% completion rate). At the 12-, 24-, and 36-month visits, we placed PPDs on only those who had negative results at baseline, 12, and 24 months. Of the 407 PPDs placed at the 12-month visit, 42 were positive (10% positivity rate). Of the 358 PPDs placed at the 24-month visit, 33 were positive (9% positivity rate). Of the 95 PPDs placed at the 36-month visit, 7 were positive (7% positivity rate). Ten participants were disenrolled from the study and ten died due to reasons unrelated to study participation.<\/p>\n

Aim 2 procedures are in progress. We have completed three rounds of review from TB registries, clinical registries, and medical records in 18 clinics from which participants were recruited in previous studies. We found all records (988 total) included in Aim 2. Of the 988 records reviewed, 30 (3%) participants were diagnosed with active TB after receiving INH and 39 (4%) participants were dead. We are investigating the cause of death in these participants. We also found that 139 (14%) participants transferred out of their original clinics.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Tuberculosis, Alcohol, and Lung Comorbidities (TALC) Study<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The TALC team has now completed recruitment and enrollment of all 200 participants for Aim 1 in order to investigate the relationship between alcohol use and post-TB lung disease in people with HIV (PWH). Follow-up is still ongoing at 3-, 6-, 9-, 12-, 15-, and 18-month visits.<\/p>\n

The team has also completed all data collection for Aim 2 to qualitatively evaluate factors for tailoring alcohol and smoking interventions in PWH being treated for TB. The team is in the process of transcribing and coding interviews for data analysis.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Thank you, Brian!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The TB HIV Aging in Uganda 50-over-50 (THAU 50\/50) sub-study aims to investigate relationships between alcohol use, TB, and aging in PWH. Fifty new participants (without TB) over the age of 50 have been enrolled. At the end of August, the team said goodbye to THAU RA Brian Kamugisha. Thank you Brian for your hard work on the study!<\/p>\n

TALC participants over the age of 50, and 50 The team has now finished enrolling all 50 new participants for the sub-study, and qualitative data collection has also been completed.<\/p>\n

Congratulations to the team and a big thank you to all of the staff on the ground for helping us reach these important milestones!<\/p>\n

Gabapentin to Reduce Alcohol and Improve Viral Load Suppression (GRAIL) Study<\/span><\/h3>\n

GRAIL study enrollment began in November 2023 and recruitment was temporarily paused from June 9, 2025 through September 15, 2025 due to funding constraints. As of September 24, 2025 the study has enrolled and randomized 169\/300 participants. A total of 412 in-person screenings have been completed to date. The main reasons for ineligibility include an undetectable HIV viral load (102\/129; 79.1%), a negative AUDIT-C score (40\/409; 9.8%), and a negative EtG test (144\/372; 38.7%). Women comprise 24.3% of the sample. During the pause in recruitment, the study team continued to actively complete follow-up visits, with 874 in-person and 631 phone visits completed to date with follow-up rates above 80% for all visits.<\/p>\n

The GRAIL study team recently met with the DSMB in June 2025 and are preparing for the next DSMB meeting in January 2026.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jeffrey Samet (PI), Dr. Nneka Emenyonu, and Dr. Winnie Muyindike (site PI) recently presented a poster at the Research Society on Alcohol (RSA) conference. This poster explored GRAIL study screening data and found that self-reported unhealthy alcohol use was highly prevalent (90% by AUDIT-C) and recent use was common (EtG biomarker-confirmed in 75%) among people who drink any alcohol and have non-suppressed HIV in the GRAIL study in Mbarara, Uganda.<\/p>\n

The team recently submitted the GRAIL protocol paper “Gabapentin to achieve HIV viral load suppression in people with risky drinking in Mbarara, Uganda: study protocol for a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial (GRAIL)” to Trials.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Nneka Emenyonu presenting the GRAIL poster at RSA 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Administrative Core The Admin Core has had another eventful and productive few months. In April, Dr. Sarah Gutin and Dr. Alain Favina presented results from their papers using URBAN ARCH data, titled \u201cIntersectional stigma and health of people living with HIV on ART who use alcohol in southwestern Uganda,\u201d and \u201cAssociation between alcohol use, CD4 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20124,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":15,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/no-sidebars.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urbanarch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urbanarch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urbanarch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urbanarch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urbanarch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14338"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urbanarch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14399,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urbanarch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14338\/revisions\/14399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urbanarch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}