ABSTRACT
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease progression is associated with a marked change in the level of plasma cytokines. The study reported here investigated the level of mRNA expression of different cytokines: Tumour necrosis factor‑alpha (TNF‑α), interferon (INF)‑gamma, interleukin‑10 (IL‑10) and IL‑21 in the peripheral blood mononuclear cell among the antiretroviral therapy naive subtype C HIV‑1 infected individuals and normal healthy controls by real time polymerase chain reaction. The mRNA expressions of all the 4 cytokines in HIV‑1 infected individuals were significantly higher compared to healthy controls (P value range 0.0004–0.01). The mean level of IL‑10, INF‑gamma and TNF‑α were higher in HIV infected individuals with low CD4 counts (<300 cells/μl). The IL‑10 expression showed a significant negative correlation with CD4 counts (r = −0.25, P = 0.04) while IL‑21 showed a positive correlation with CD4 counts (r = 0.26, P = 0.03). There was a significant negative correlation between the cytomegalovirus (CMV) viral load and IL‑21 expression. Cytokine levels by mRNA detection avoids the inherent problem of measuring plasma level and this study also provide information on the cytokine levels and CD4+ T cell level among HIV‑1 subtype C infected individuals with opportunistic viral infections like CMV.