Study Population
Participants were enrolled between August 2017 and December 2019; the last follow-up visit was in June 2020, when the study was prematurely terminated because of slow accrual worsened by COVID-19 pandemic. Of 53 enrolled participants, 28 completed the follow-up and were included in the longitudinal analysis, as shown in Table Demographic and clinical characteristics Baseline and W24, by arm allocationData are presented as median (interquartile ranges) or number (percentage). At baseline, the two arms did not differ for any demographic nor viro-immunological parameter or for HAART regimens: SOC were more commonly on NNRTIs, whereas MARAND-x arm had a larger proportion of participants coming from INSTI-based regimens, with no statistically significant difference (Table 