[441] HAS HIV INFECTION BY ITSELF ANY EFFECT ON MITOCHONDRIAL (MT) DNA CONTENT?

2nd International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment

Paris, France - July 13 - 16, 2003

[TITLE:] HAS HIV INFECTION BY ITSELF ANY EFFECT ON MITOCHONDRIAL (MT) DNA CONTENT?

[AUTHOR(S):] S López¹, Ò Miró¹, E Martínez², E Pedrol³, A Beato¹, E Deig³, JM Gatell², J Casademont¹ and F Cardellach¹
¹Muscle Research Unit, Internal Medicine Department, Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, IDIBAPS, University of Barcelona; ²Infectious Unit, Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, IDIBAPS, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; and ³HIV Unit, Hospital Fundació-Asil de Granollers, Granollers, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

IAS Conf HIV Pathog Treat 2003 Jul 13-16;2nd: Abstract No. 441
Antiviral Therapy 2003; 8(Suppl. 1):S300

[ABSTRACT:] Purpose of Study: A close relationship between nucleoside analogues antiretroviral therapy and mt DNA depletion has been consistently demonstrated. In contrast, the role of HIV infection by itself on this mt DNA decline is not established. Recently, Côté et al. (N. Engl. J. Med. 2002; 346:811–820) reported that lymphocytes from HIV-infected people that had never received treatment exhibited a 56% of mt DNA content with respect to lymphocytes from noninfected people. The aim of the present study was to ascertain if the infection by HIV has any effect on mt DNA content.

Methods: One group of asymptomatic antiretroviral-naïve HIV+ patients (n=22) was included in the study and compared with a HIV– control group (n=27), matched by age (±5 years) and gender. Total DNA was extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated from 20 ml of venous blood. The relative mt DNA content was determined by quantitative real-time PCR based on LightCycler technology (Roche Applied Science, Germany). It was expressed as the ratio mtDNA/nDNA, as it was normalized by the nuclear r18s gene quantification.

Results: HIV+ patients presented a 68% of mt DNA content with respect to the control group (1.16 ±0.53 vs 1.7 ±0.60; P=0.002).

Conclusions: We demonstrate that mt DNA depletion can be promoted by the proper HIV infection or concomitant conditions. Further investigations are necessary to elucidate the mechanism/s implicated, although several hypotheses around the HIV infectionderived apoptotic processes induced by the mitochondrial pathway have been invoked. Supported by FIPSE 3102/00 and Fundació la Marató de TV3 02/0210.

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