Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Nov 2;17(4 Suppl 3):19672.
doi: 10.7448/IAS.17.4.19672. eCollection 2014.

Relationship between discordant response to HAART, Tregs, immune activation and low-level viraemia

Affiliations

Relationship between discordant response to HAART, Tregs, immune activation and low-level viraemia

Julien Saison et al. J Int AIDS Soc. .

Abstract

Introduction: The incomplete immune recovery upon effective long-term highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality in HIV infected patients [1]. Immune cellular activation, Tregs or very low-level viraemia has been alternatively suspected, but never investigated simultaneously [2].

Materials and methods: We performed a cross-sectional study in 87 aviraemic patients (men=62, mean CD4+T cells=570/mm(3), mean duration of HAART=12 years). Patients with at least 500 CD4+ T cells /mm(3) were classified as complete immunological responders (cIR), whereas remaining patients were classified as inadequate immunological responder (iIR). Tregs were characterized based on CD4+CD25highFoxP3+phenotype using a one-step intracellular staining. Effector Tregs and terminal effectors Tregs were respectively defined as CD4+CD25+FoxP3+CD45RA-, and CD4+CD25+FoxP3+CD45RA-HLADR+phenotypes as recently described [3]. Activated T cells were identified using (i) elevated HLA-DR expression for CD4+T cells, and (ii) increased expressions of HLA-DR, or CD38, or both (HLADR+CD38+cells) for CD8+T cells. Very low-level viraemia was defined as detectable viraemia between 1 and 39 cp/mL. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify determinants of iIR.

Results: Thirty-nine patients were classified as iIR, and 48 as cIR. Patients from the iIR group were significantly older (55 vs 50 years, p=0.027), and had percentages of activated CD4+ T cells, Tregs, effector Tregs and terminal effector Tregs significantly higher (5.3 vs 4%, p=0.014; 9 vs 7.5%, p=0,022; 8 vs 6.3%, p=0.01 and 1.8 vs 1.3%, p=0,033 among CD4+T cells, respectively). Neither the percentage of activated CD8+T cell nor very low-level viraemia were found to be associated with iIR. In the multivariate analysis, nadir of CD4+T cell count and percentage of Tregs were the only two parameters independently associated with iIR (OR=2.339, p=0.001, and OR=0.803, p=0.041, respectively).

Conclusions: We present here the largest study investigating simultaneously immune response to long-term HAART, immune activation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, Tregs percentages and very low-level viraemia. Our results highlight the importance of Tregs in CD4 homeostasis. This aspect should now be prospectively explored in a large cohort of patients.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Rodger AJ, Lodwick R, Schechter M, Deeks S, Amin J, Gilson R, et al. Mortality in well controlled HIV in the continuous antiretroviral therapy arms of the SMART and ESPRIT trials compared with the general population. AIDS. 2013;27:973–9. - PubMed
    1. Gaardbo JC, Hartling HJ, Gerstoft J, Nielsen SD. Incomplete immune recovery in HIV infection: mechanisms, relevance for clinical care, and possible solutions. Clin Dev Immunol. 2012;2012:670957. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sakaguchi S, Miyara M, Costantino CM, Hafler DA. FOXP3+ regulatory T cells in the human immune system. Nat Rev Immunol. 2010;10:490–500. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources