Role of immune activation in CD4+ T-cell depletion in HIV-1 infected Indian patients.
OBJECTIVE
The correlation of immune activation with CD4(+) depletion and HIV-1 disease progression has been evidenced by several studies involving mainly clade B virus. However, this needs to be investigated in developing countries such as India predominately infected with clade C virus.


METHODS
In a cross-sectional study of 68 antiretroviral treatment naïve, HIV-1 infected Indian patients, we studied the association between CD4(+) T cells, plasma HIV-1 RNA levels, and immune activation markers using unadjusted and adjusted correlative analyses.


RESULTS
Significant negative correlations of higher magnitude were observed between the CD4(+) T cell percentages and plasma HIV-1 RNA levels in the study population when adjusted for the effects of immune activation markers. However, the negative association of CD4(+) T cells with immune activation markers remained unaffected when controlled for the effects of plasma HIV-1 RNA levels.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results support the important role of immune activation in CD4(+) T cell depletion and disease progression during untreated HIV-1 infection.
Vajpayee
M
M
Department of Microbiology, HIV & Immunology Division, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, India. mvajpayee@hotmail.com
Kaushik
S
S
Sreenivas
V
V
Mojumdar
K
K
Mendiratta
S
S
Chauhan
N K
NK
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D019562:Viral Load
D012367:RNA, Viral