Improvement in cell-mediated immune function during potent anti-human immunodeficiency virus therapy with ritonavir plus saquinavir.
Open Access
- 1 April 1998
- journal article
- clinical trial
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in The Journal of Infectious Diseases
- Vol. 177 (4) , 898-904
- https://doi.org/10.1086/515244
Abstract
Inhibiting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication with potent antiretroviral therapy may result in improved immune function, and this may lead to favorable outcomes, independent of changes in CD4+ lymphocyte count. The effect of combination protease inhibitor therapy (ritonavir plus saquinavir) on functional measures of cell-mediated immunity in 41 HIV-infected patients from one center of a multicenter trial was investigated. After 24 weeks, median plasma virus load decreased from 4.74 log10 copies/mL to below the detection limit of the assay (2.30 log10), and mean CD4+ lymphocyte count increased from 284 cells/mL to 413 cells/mL. Proliferative responses to phytohemagglutinin developed in 21 of 34 patients in whom responses were absent at baseline. Increases were observed in interleukin-2, -12, and -10 production and in the expression of CD28 on CD8+ lymphocytes. Initiation of potent anti-HIV therapy results in a degree of immune restoration, suggesting that HIV-induced immune suppression is a dynamic and potentially reversible process.Keywords
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