Assessment of Cytokine Values in Serum and by Specific cDNA Amplification and Detection Using RT-PCR in HIV-1 Infected Individuals With and Without Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART)

A cross-sectional study was performed on HIV-1 infected individuals with or without antiretroviral treatment (ARV) at the AIDS Day-Hospital, Botucatu School of Medicine, Unesp. Between August 2004 and October 2005, 73 HIV-1 infected individuals were divided into three groups: G1= 15 infected individuals with or without AIDS who never received ARV; G2= 27 patients on HAART, and plasma HIV-1 RNA viral load (VL) equal or greater than 50 copies/mL and G3= 31 patients on HAART with undetectable VL for at least the past 6 months and a fourth group G4= 20 individuals chosen between blood donors without any disease sign and with negative HIV serum tests (control group). Serum cytokine levels pg/mL (ELISA) and specific mRNA expression by RT-PCR were performed on all four groups for TNF-a, IL-2, INF-g, IL-4 and IL-10. All patients were submitted to VL determination and CD4+ and CD8+T lymphocyte counts. Results analysis showed a significant comparison between groups for both methods and association between them (>80% - r2>0.80) with only one exception, in the individuals of control group, for IL-2 by ELISA determination. The cytokine profile for both methods and three patient groups was mature Th-0. The behavior of IL-2 and INF-g must be emphasized with the consequent expression on dominant Th profile. Both methods showed low IL-2 and elevated mean INF-g values in the three patient groups. Several authors have recently drawn attention to the substantial apoptosis of infected and non infected CD4+T cells, mainly during primary infection, persisting only in those with INF-g phenotype producer and not IL-2.