Cellular HIV DNA quantitative testing and its significance in Chinese AIDS patients during 48 weeks' highly-active antiretroviral treatment / 中华内科杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo observe the dynamic changes of peripheral blood T lymphocytes and monocytes,which serve as HIV-1 viral reservoirs,in Chinese HIV-infected patients receiving highly-active antiretroviral treatment ( HAART ) for 48 weeks and its clinical significance. MethodsA total of 35 chronic HIV-1 infected adults naively received HAART.The peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets counts were determined by flux cytometry at week 0,24 and 48.Magnetic activated cell sorting was used to extract cellular DNA from monocytes and T lymphocytes purified from peripheral blood mononuclear cells.Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR was used to detect the serum HIV RNA and HIV DNA of monocytes and T lymphocytes.SPSS 18.0 software was used to analyze the collected data.ResultsAt week 0,24,and 48 after initiation of HAART,HIV RNA levels of peripheral blood were (4.12 ± 1.41 ),≤1.69,and ≤1.69 lg copies/ml,respectively ; CD4+ T cells were ( 196 ± 101 ),(321.90 ± 112) and ( 392 ± 127 ) cells/μl,respectively ; HIV DNA level in T lymphocytes were ( 4.03 ± 0.53 ),( 2.74 ± 1.16 ) and ( 2.45 ± 0.41 )lg copies/106 cells respectively; while in monocytes,HIV DNA levels were (2.51 ±0.68),(2.16 ±0.34) and (2.03 ± 0.25 )lg copies/106 cells.Statistical analysis revealed that HIV RNA level was negatively correlated with the CD4+ T cell count through the whole trail,while positively correlated with the HIV DNA level in blood T lymphocytes and monocytes.HIV DNA level in T lymphocytes decreased more slowly than HIV DNA in monocytes. Moreover,peripheral blood CD4+ T cell count was negatively associated with the HIV DNA capacity from T lymphocytes.ConclusionsBoth T lymphocyte and monocyte may serve as viral reservoirs,and T lymphocyte might play a more important role as HIV reservoirs. The blood HIV RNA is correlated positively with the cellular HIV DNA,whereas,CD4+ T cell count is correlated negatively with HIV DNA from lymphocytes,which suggests that HIV DNA levels in T lymphocyte might be one of indicators of AIDS progress during HAART.