HIV Treatment Interruption Does Not Alter T Cell Receptor Repertoire -- HIV/AIDS INFO AND UPDATES

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Date Posted: 22:04:31 02/28/02 Thu
Author: Anonymous
Subject: HIV Treatment Interruption Does Not Alter T Cell Receptor Repertoire

HIV Treatment Interruption Does Not Alter T Cell Receptor Repertoire

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Feb 15 - Despite rapid increases in viral load and substantial decreases in CD4 T cells seen when antiretroviral therapy is suspended, T cell receptor beta chain (TCR-beta) repertoire shows no marked changes, Canadian researchers report. This observation contrasts with perturbations seen during primary HIV infection.

Dr. Michael Grant, from Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, and associates studied the TCR-beta repertoire in eight HIV-positive patients who suspended antiretroviral therapy.

Once treatment was halted all patients experienced varying patterns of increasing viral load and decreasing CD4 T cell counts. However, none of the changes in viral load or CD4 T cell count were associated with changes in the TCR-beta repertoire, the Canadian team found.

In the January 25th issue of AIDS, Dr. Grant's team speculates that these findings may indicate the T cell clones activated by HIV, which undergo clonal deletion, are not available to be activated during viral rebound, or HIV-specific T cells may not acquire long-term memory status and quickly disappear with antiretroviral treatment.

It is also possible that the immunological defects resulting from HIV may "preclude strong secondary or de-novo immune responses during viral rebound."

"A fourth possible reason for the absence of marked changes in individual [TCR-beta] families during treatment interruption is that the diversification of the T cell response against HIV after primary infection spreads the T cell response sufficiently over different [TCR-beta] families that it becomes inapparent by global TCR repertoire analysis," Dr. Grant and colleagues write.

All this does not exclude the possibility of an anti-HIV T cell response during viral rebound, they point out. In fact, they say they have documented such responses using more sensitive assays.

AIDS 2002;16:287-293.

Reuters Health Information 2002. � 2002 Reuters Ltd
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