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Role of HIV‐1 phenotype in viral pathogenesis and its relation to viral load and CD4+ T‐cell count
Author(s) -
Kupfer Bernd,
Kaiser Rolf,
Rockstroh Jürgen Kurt,
Matz Bertfried,
Schneweis Karl Eduard
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199811)56:3<259::aid-jmv14>3.0.co;2-9
Subject(s) - virology , viral load , pathogenesis , viral pathogenesis , phenotype , biology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , viral disease , immunology , virus , viral replication , genetics , gene
The predictive value of HIV‐1 phenotype in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) coculture and the relation among viral phenotype, viral load, and CD4+ T‐cell count were examined in two studies. In study A, 132 HIV‐1–infected individuals were examined retrospectively for the relation between the result of their initial HIV cultivation in PBMC coculture and survival rate 6 years later. In study B, 176 patients were examined since 1994 for markers of HIV disease progression. HIV‐1 phenotype was determined by PBMC cocultivation, viral load by NASBA HIV RNA QT System, and CD4+ T‐cell count by flow cytometry. In study A, the percentage of survival for patients with initial negative virus culture was significantly higher (95%) than in patients with nonsyncytia‐inducing (NSI) isolates (78%) and syncytia‐inducing (SI) isolates (21%) ( P < 0.05 and P < 0.0001, respectively). When SI phenotype was subdivided into moderately cytopathogenic and highly cytopathogenic, significant differences in the rate of survival between these subgroups could be observed (45% vs. 14%; P < 0.05). In study B, progression from negative virus culture to the isolation of NSI variants was associated with increasing viral load ( P < 0.0001) but did not affect CD4+ T‐cell count significantly ( P > 0.07), whereas the switch from NSI to SI virus was accompanied by significant decline of CD4+ T‐cells ( P < 0.0001) but no change in viral load ( P > 0.21). Thus, isolation and phenotyping of HIV represents an additional striking predictive marker for progression of HIV infection. J. Med. Virol. 56:259–263, 1998 . © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.