This article is part of the supplement: 2006 International Meeting of The Institute of Human Virology .

Poster presentation

Lymphoproliferative responses to HIV-1 Gag p24 antigen and mitogens in HIV-1 subtype CRF01_AE infected Thai patients and HIV-1 seronegative donors

Thippawan Chuenchitra¹, Suchitra Sukwit¹, Pittapun Chaitaveep¹, Mark S de Souza^1,2, Silvia R Kim^1,3, Robert M Paris^1,2 and Sorachai Nitayaphan¹

¹  Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, Thailand

²  US Military HIV Research Program, Rockville, USA

³  Hawaii AIDS Clinical Research Program, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii

corresponding author email

from 2006 International Meeting of The Institute of Human Virology
Baltimore, USA. 17–21 November, 2006

Retrovirology 2006, 3(Suppl 1):P13doi:10.1186/1742-4690-3-S1-P13

Published:

21 December 2006

© 2006 Chuenchitra et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Background

Lymphocyte proliferation assay has been the standard assay to assess CD4+ T cell function. To determine lymphoproliferative responses (LPR) to HIV-1 p24 and mitogens of PBMC from HIV-1 subtype CRF01_AE infected Thai patients compared with PBMC from HIV-1 seronegative donors.

Methods

Frozen PBMC from 8 HIV-1 infected Thai patients and 8 HIV-seronegative donors were tested and compared for LPR to multiple concentrations of HIV-1 p24 antigen, phytohemagglutinin (PHA), and pokeweed mitogen (PWM). HIV-1 infected patients were grouped by the presence of CD4+ counts > 350 [mean = 483.5 cell/mm3, n = 2 (group A)] or CD4+ counts < 350 [median = 75.5 cells/mm3, n = 6 (group B)]. A stimulation index > 5 was considered a positive LPR.

Results

Both HIV-1 infected patients and HIV-seronegative donors Thai demonstrated positive LPR to PHA and PWM (8/8, 100%). LPR to HIV-1 p24 were seen only patients in group A (100%, 2/2), not in group B (0%, 0/6). This difference was significant (Chi-square test = 11.0, p = 0.0357).

Conclusion

This result suggests that CD4+ T cells in HIV-1 subtype CRF01_AE infected Thai patients with CD4+ counts >350 cells/mm3 have ability to proliferate in response to HIV-1 p24 and indicate they remained the good CD4+ T cell function.

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