AIDSWEEKLY Plus, Monday, 17 March 1997
Daniel J. DeNoon, Senior Editor
Common infectious diseases significantly increase HIV viral load, early data from a prospective study suggest.
The infections also increased the exaggerated immune activation seen in people with HIV infection.
R. Greenblatt and colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco and the Gladstone Institute of Virology evaluated virologic and immunologic markers within 72 hours of acute events such as sinusitis, infection of the urinary tract, or purified protein derivative (PPD) tuberculosis tests. Men and women with HIV infection were compared to an uninfected control group.
Greenblatt reported preliminary study findings at the Fourth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, held January 22-26 in Washington, D.C.
"These preliminary findings suggest that acute, even minor illnesses may result in significant changes in level of immune activation and viremia," Greenblatt and colleagues wrote in their presentation abstract.
Evaluations performed at days 3, 7, 14, and 28 included plasma viral load, flow-cytometry analysis of lymphocyte subsets, and quantitation of mRNA for the cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-(alpha)), interleukin 2 (IL-2), IL- 6, IL-12, and interferon gamma. Diagnoses were confirmed by physical examinations and medical histories.
The HIV(+) study participants had baseline CD4(+) counts of 200-500 cells/(micro)L.
The first four subjects to complete the study had a 1.5 log[10] increase in viral load and a 20 percent decrease in CD4(+) cell counts. Changes in CD8(+) T cell counts varied widely.
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