Immunology study finds decreased activation markers related to better viral control.

This study measured 60 immune-system parameters over 48 weeks, in 192 antiretroviral-experienced children from 4 months to 17 years old. The results "suggest that significant decreases in the expression of activation markers and increases in the expression of naive markers in the CD8+ T cell population may be related to better virologic control in these HIV-l-infected children, who had relatively stable immune function at the initiation of HAART. At week 44 of HAART, the major immunological parameters in these HIV-l-infected children moved from baseline values to about halfway to two-thirds of the way toward the values in healthy, uninfected children." (quote from the abstract)

Comment: This is a kind of study that has been needed for a long time, to measure immune changes in patients and correlate them with virologic and/or clinical outcomes. These studies can be done in children because, for political reasons and also due to the success of preventing maternal transmission, the amount of money for AIDS research for children is disproportionate to the number of U.S. cases. Immunological studies in patients have lagged far behind antiviral studies, since there is little commercial interest in them, as there are no approved immune treatments for HIV infection. Fortunately this study could be done because one political influence on research helped to correct another.

Reference: Rosenblatt HM, Stanley KE, Song LY and others. Immunological response to highly active antiretroviral therapy in children with clinically stable HIV-1 infection. Journal of Infectious Diseases. August l, 2005; volume 192, number 3, pages 445-455.