Soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor type II (sTNFRII) in HIV-infected patients: relationship with the plasma level of HIV-1 RNA.

The value of soluble receptor for tumor necrosis factor type II (sTNFRII) as a strong and early predictor of HIV disease progression was suggested. Recently it has been reported that sTNFRII may provide an indication of the HIV load. In this work we focused on the relationship between sTNFRII and HIV burden in 95 HIV-1+ patients without AIDS grouped according to the 1993 classification of the CDC as group A, n = 55, and group B, n = 40. Compared with healthy controls, higher values of sTNFRII were obtained in all groups of HIV-1 infected patients (P < 0.001), but we found no inverse correlation between sTNFRII and CD4+ lymphocyte counts in CDC group A and B of the disease, and no correlation with log RNA copy number in patients with CD4 T-cell counts > 499/microl. A correlation was obtained between sTNFRII and the viral load in patients with CD4 T-cell counts ranging from 200 to 499/microl, but only in CDC group B patients (P < 0.01, n = 26). There was no correlation between the variations of sTNFRII and HIV-1 RNA levels in 19 CDC group A and 15 CDC group B clinically stable patients in the course of a short follow up. The plasma level of sTNFRII do not appear as a valuable surrogate marker of the plasma level of HIV-1 RNA in patients. Further investigations are needed to define the mechanism of the raised level of sTNFRII in HIV-1 infected patients.