JAC Advance Access published online on February 12, 2004
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, doi:10.1093/jac/dkh105
© 2004 by The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Original article
1 Department of Experimental
Medicine and Biochemical Science, ‘Tor Vergata’ University
Hospital
* Corresponding author. E-mail: macchi{at}med.uniroma2.it.
Received 3 September 2003
; revised 24 November 2003
; accepted 8 December 2003
Objectives: We have addressed the
relationships between inhibition of CD4+ and CD8+ cell
apoptosis and CD4+ cell recovery in HIV patients undergoing
potent antiretroviral therapy (PART) by correlating apoptosis levels
with virological and immunological parameters detected over a long-term
period in HIV patients undergoing therapy. Patients and methods: Twenty-two HIV-1-infected
patients undergoing PART were enrolled in a long-term, open longitudinal
study. Data derived from 17 patients with successful response to
therapy (TS; median time of follow-up 36 months, range 24-36
months) were used for correlation studies. Apoptosis was evaluated after
short-term culture of peripheral blood lymphocytes by flow cytometry
analysis of isolated nuclei or of annexin V/CD4, annexin V/CD8 double-stained
cells. Results: Sustained, noticeable levels of apoptosis
inhibition in peripheral blood mononuclear cells were measured,
in the long-term, in 16 of the 17 TS patients. Levels of total cell
apoptosis correlated with levels of CD8+ apoptotic cells
more significantly than with levels of CD4+ apoptotic cells.
In addition, CD4+ cell counts were correlated inversely
with levels of CD8+ apoptotic cells in a highly significant
fashion, but not with levels of CD4+ apoptotic cells. Conclusions: Our data indicate that the increase
of CD4+ lymphocytes in HIV patients, as a consequence of successful
response to PART, may be related to changes in apoptosis level occurring
in the CD8+, and not in the CD4+, cell compartment.
Keywords: HIV, antiviral, CD8+ cells
Inverse correlation between CD8+ lymphocyte
apoptosis and CD4+ cell counts during potent antiretroviral
therapy in HIV patients
2 Department
of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, University of Rome ‘La
Sapienza’, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Rome;
3 Clinical Immunology Unit, S. Giovanni
Hospital, Via Codirossoni, 00169 Rome;
4 Istituto Superiore di Sanità,
Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome;
5 Department
of Neuroscience, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’,
Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome; IRCCS, S. Lucia, Via Ardeatina 306, 00179 Rome;
6 Department of Microbiological,
Genetic and Molecular Sciences, University of Messina, Salita Sperone
31,
96168 Messina, Italy
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?