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The Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group (AACTG) is a self-governed organization with its own scientific agenda and process to determine what will be evaluated in its clinical trials. Non-AACTG investigators wishing to evaluate potential therapies or test pathogenesis hypotheses in the AACTG must collaborate with AACTG investigators.

The AACTG is a cooperative clinical trials network funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to evaluate clinical interventions, including the efficacy of drugs and drug combinations for treating HIV infection and HIV-associated illnesses. It consists of a Coordinating and Operations Center, a Statistical and Data Management Center, and 30 Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Units throughout the United States.

AACTG Research Agenda

The AACTG evaluates innovative therapeutic strategies and interventions for HIV/AIDS and its complications, including opportunistic infections (OIs) and neurological disorders associated with HIV/AIDS. This mission is accomplished through three Research Agenda Committees (RACs):

• HIV Disease RAC

  The HIV Disease RAC develops new antiretroviral treatment strategies and investigates new therapies aimed at reducing HIV-1 virus replication to undetectable levels and lengthening virus-free survival of patients. The RAC develops and validates laboratory techniques to quantitate and characterize clinical isolates of HIV-1 and it improves the design, conduct and analyses of clinical trials. Additional information can be obtained from the AACTG web site by clicking here .

• Immunology/Immune-Based Therapies (IBT) RAC

  The Immunology/IBT RAC develops and implements clinical trials designed to interrupt pathogenic mechanisms responsible for immune dysfunction in HIV-1 infection, reconstitute and augment immune responses of patients, and utilize immune or other host mechanisms to treat or prevent infectious or neoplastic complications of HIV-1 disease. Additional information can be obtained from the AACTG web site by clicking here .

• Complications of HIV RAC

  The Complications of HIV RAC develops and implements clinical trials designed to improve prophylaxis of, and optimize therapy for acute OIs such as Pneumocystic carinii pneumonia, invasive fungal disease, toxoplasmosis, cytomegalovirus, and Mycobacterium avium complex. The RAC also develops, in collaboration with the AIDS Malignancy Consortium, treatment strategies for AIDS-associated malignancies (Kaposi's sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and papilloma virus-associated tumors). Additional information can be obtained from the AACTG web site by clicking here.

Accessing These Resources

Investigators wishing to have a therapy evaluated by the AACTG should do the following:

1. Refer to the AACTG research agenda above to determine whether the therapeutic concept is likely to be of interest to this group. If so:
2. Write a concept proposal in the appropriate format.
3. Submit the concept proposal to the DAIDS Therapeutics Research Program for review and forwarding to the AACTG.

AACTG's interest or disinterest in further pursuing the proposed concept will be relayed to investigators and additional information may be requested.