Characterizing Mucosal Changes in the FRT Leading to Increased HIV Acquisition

The goal of the project at Northwestern is to generate a multifaceted data using samples collected from women whom are either infected or uninfected with HIV. Collections will include whole blood, plasma, PMBC, cervical/vaginal mucus, and vaginal weck cell sponges. The samples will be used to correlate blood hormone levels, viral load, and PBMC phenotype to the local FRT environment looking at antibodies and cervical mucus. Assays to be run include estrogen and progesterone testing, HIV viral load, bacterial vaginosis (Nugent) scoring, HIV mobility assays in CVM, infectivity assays in PBMCs, microbiome, and determine HIV related antibody concentrations and binding Kd in mucosal fluids and plasma.