AIDSWEEKLY Plus; Monday, July 27 & August 3, 1998
Daniel J. DeNoon, Senior Editor
People with HIV disease who receive highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regain immune function: except for immunity to the AIDS virus.
"Successful HAART does not seem to induce a recovery of HIV specific immune responses," said Ann-Charlotte Leandersson of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, in a presentation to the 12th World AIDS Conference, held June 28-July 3, 1998, in Geneva, Switzerland.
Leandersson and colleagues performed intensive studies on the HIV specific immune responses of patients whose virus loads stayed undetectable for up to 16 months of HAART. Although the patients had significantly increased CD4(+) T-cell counts, they exhibited very little evidence of anti-HIV immunity.
Six of the HIV infected patients received immunizations with gp160 candidate vaccines before they underwent drug therapy. Before beginning HAART, they showed no evidence of anti-gp160 immune responses. But after HAART, they showed a trend toward better gp160- specific responses.
"A combination of HAART with specific HIV immunization might be needed in order to obtain both viral load reduction and improved immune responses to HIV," Leandersson said.
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