Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Jul 1;212(1):39-43.
doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiu827. Epub 2014 Dec 23.

Early Antiretroviral Therapy in South African Children Reduces HIV-1-Infected Cells and Cell-Associated HIV-1 RNA in Blood Mononuclear Cells

Gert U van Zyl  1 , Margaret A Bedison  2 , Anita Janse van Rensburg  3 , Barbara Laughton  4 , Mark F Cotton  4 , John W Mellors  2
Affiliations

Early Antiretroviral Therapy in South African Children Reduces HIV-1-Infected Cells and Cell-Associated HIV-1 RNA in Blood Mononuclear Cells

Gert U van Zyl et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

We measured cell-associated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 DNA (CAD) and RNA (CAR) and plasma HIV-1 RNA in blood samples from 20 children in the Children with HIV Early Antiretroviral (CHER) cohort after 7-8 years of suppressive combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Children who initiated cART early (<2 months; n = 12) had lower HIV-1 CAD (median, 48 vs 216; P < .01) and CAR (median, 5 vs 436; P < .01) per million peripheral blood mononuclear cells than children who started later (≥ 2 months; n = 8). Plasma HIV-1 RNA levels were not significantly lower in early-treated children (0.5 vs 1.2 copies/mL; P = .16). Early treatment at <2 months of age reduces the number of HIV-infected cells and HIV CAR.

Keywords: HIV-1 cell associated RNA; HIV-1 cell-associated DNA; HIV-1 single copy assay; early infant antiretroviral therapy; measures of HIV-1 persistence; transcriptionally active proviruses.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Boxplots of HIV-1 cell-associated DNA and RNA and plasma RNA in patients at 7–8 years of age who were respectively initiated on therapy before or after 2 months of age. Patients who started cART before 2 months had significantly lower cell-associated HIV-1 DNA and RNA (P < .01, Mann–Whitney U test). To show data spread and fit in outliers, gapped boxplots (discontinuous y axes) were used. Gap ranges contained no patient results. The first figure has a gap between 1000 and 3000 HIV-1 DNA copies/million PBMCs, the second between 1800 and 7000 HIV-1 RNA copies/million PBMCs, and the third between 20 and 63 HIV-1 RNA copies/mL. Abbreviations: cART, combination antiretroviral therapy; HIV, human immunodeficiency virus; PBMCs, peripheral blood mononuclear cells.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Maldarelli F, Wu X, Su L, et al. Specific HIV integration sites are linked to clonal expansion and persistence of infected cells. Science 2014; 345:179–83. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kearney MF, Spindler J, Shao W, et al. Lack of detectable HIV-1 molecular evolution during suppressive antiretroviral therapy. PLOS Pathog 2014; 10:e1004010. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Stover K, Bock R, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Mississippi Baby” now has detectable HIV, researchers find. NIH News; 2014.
    1. Luzuriaga K, Tabak B, Garber M, et al. Reduced HIV reservoirs after early treatment HIV-1 proviral reservoirs decay continously under sustained virologic control in early-treated HIV-1–infected children. J Infect Dis 2014; 210:1529–38. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cotton MF, Violari A, Otwombe K, et al. Early time-limited antiretroviral therapy versus deferred therapy in South African infants infected with HIV: results from the children with HIV early antiretroviral (CHER) randomised trial. Lancet 2013; 382:1555–63. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types