Use of plasma albumin, hepatic lipase and lipoprotein lipase enzyme as predictive markers of treatment failure in HIV-1 infected individuals in federal medical center, Lokoja, Nigeria

This was a cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the use of albumin, hepatic lipase (HL) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) enzyme as predictive markers of treatment failure in HIV-1 infected individuals. 154 participants {40 (group A), 35 (group B) on antiretroviral drugs (Test group) and 79 (group C) HIV naive participants (Control group)} aged 18 and 65 years were randomly recruited. Blood sample was collected from each test participant 6 months apart and once from control for determination of Albumin, HL, LPL, viral load (VL), CD4+  cells count. VL was significantly decreased while, Albumin, HL and LPL activities were significantly higher in test participants when compared with control P ≤ 0.05 respectively). Biochemical markers in test participants at 6 months of therapy were significantly lower compared with 12 months of therapy (P ≤ 0.05). Albumin and VL correlated positively with CD4  count while,  lamivudine, nevirapine, tenofovir, HL, LPL correlated strongly and negatively with VL (P < 0.05 respectively). The high sensitivities and positive predictive value of albumin showed their predictive superiority over CD4+ count, HL, LPL and antiretroviral drug concentrations.The study thus, concludes that hypoalbuminemia with decreased HL and LPL activities were associated with unsuppressed viral load above 1000 copies/ml. This suggests that albumin; HL and LPL are good biochemical markers for prediction of treatment failure or success in participants on antiretroviral drugs.