title: [Immunological characteristic of children vertically infected with HIV: a case-control study].
abstract: HIV infection in children causes a serious immunodeficiency with special characteristics that distinguish it from the adult, causing a global immune deficit. This is a case-control study between Cuban paediatric patients infected with HIV by vertical transmission and a control group of supposedly healthy children. Both groups were characterized from the clinical point of view and markers were used for evaluating the immunologic and virologycal state. Clinically 75% of patients present a pattern of precocious progression; from the total, only two stayed asymptomatic. All HIV-infected children receive antirretroviral treatment and three of them present values of viral load bigger than 100,000 cp/mL. The immune alterations found in the HIV-infected children compared with healthy children were: a cellular immune depletion with diminished counts of lymphocyte subsets T CD4+, CD16+/CD56+ and CD19+, an increase in subsets of CD3+, CD8+, CD8+/CD38+, CD3+/ CD95+ and a hypergammaglobulinemia due to prevalence of immunoglobulin gamma IgG (p < 0.05). On the other hand, there were not significantly differences in the serum levels of both C3 and C4, as well as in the haemolytic activity of the classic and alternate activation pathways of the complement system. This finding allowed better attention and treatment of paediatric HIV patients.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Medicina Tropical Pedro Kourf, Ciudad de La Habana, Cuba. ida@ipk.sld.cu
authors.forename: Ida
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: Lizette
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gil
authors.forename: Randelys
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Molina
authors.forename: Aileen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: María E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Toledo
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Díaz-Jidy
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pérez
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003167:Complement Activation; D003176:Complement C3 / Q000032:analysis; D003181:Complement C4 / Q000032:analysis; D003462:Cuba; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D006942:Hypergammaglobulinemia / Q000209:etiology; D007223:Infant; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D003176:Complement C3; D003181:Complement C4