RESEARCH ARTICLE
Plasma IP-10 Concentrations Correlate Positively with Viraemia and Inversely with CD4 Counts in Untreated HIV Infection
Kudakwashe Mhandire1, 4, *, §, Tommy Mlambo2, *, Lynn Sodai Zijenah2, Kerina Duri2, Kudzaishe Mateveke6, Mqondisi Tshabalala2, Doreen Zvipo Mhandire1, 4, Cuthbert Musarurwa1, Petronella Taonga Wekare3, Lovemore Ronald Mazengera2, Hilda Tendisa Matarira1, Babill Stray-Pedersen4, 5
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2017Volume: 11
First Page: 24
Last Page: 31
Publisher ID: TOAIDJ-11-24
DOI: 10.2174/1874613601711010024
Article History:
Received Date: 21/11/2016Revision Received Date: 31/01/2017
Acceptance Date: 21/02/2017
Electronic publication date: 26/04/2017
Collection year: 2017
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Chronic immune activation is a feature of HIV infection associated with accelerated HIV disease progression. There is conflicting data on the association of biomarkers of immune activation with traditional markers of HIV disease progression; CD4 counts and viral load (VL).
Objective:
The study aimed to determine the association of biomarkers of immune activation; interferon (IFN)-γ-induced protein 10 (IP-10) and soluble cluster of differentiation 14 (sCD14) in chronic HIV infection with traditional markers of HIV disease progression.
Methods:
We collected demographic data, enumerated CD4 counts and quantified VL in 183 antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naive adults with chronic HIV infection. Plasma concentrations of IP-10 and sCD14 were quantified in the ART-naive adults with chronic HIV infection and 75 HIV-uninfected controls.
Results:
IP-10 concentrations were significantly higher in the HIV-infected group (median; 257.40pg/ml, IQR; 174.08-376.32) than in the HIV-uninfected (median; 86.19pg/ml, IQR; 67.70-116.39) (P<0.001). Similarly, sCD14 concentrations were significantly higher in the HIV-infected (median; 1.45µg/ml, IQR; 1.02-2.16) group than in the controls (median; 0.89µ/ml, IQR; 0.74-1.18) (P<0.001). High log10 IP-10 concentrations were positively correlated with high log10 viral loads (Spearman’s correlation coefficient [R]=0.21, P=0.003) and inversely correlated with low CD4 counts (R= -0.19, P=0.011). In contrast, log10 sCD14 was not significantly associated with either log10 viral loads (R=0.03, P=0.707) nor CD4 count (R=-0.04, P=0.568).
Conclusion:
We conclude that plasma sCD14 and IP-10 were elevated in the HIV-infected patients compared to HIV-uninfected individuals possibly due to on-going immune activation. In addition, plasma high concentrations of IP-10 but not sCD14 concentrations are associated with high VL and low CD4 count.
