Functional activity of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) was tested in 63 HIV-1 infected patients. PMN chemiluminescence (CL) and intracellular enzyme activity were both depressed in patients at all stages of infection, though this depression was more pronounced in AIDS patients. We found no such depression when cells were incubated in the presence of autologous serum. PMN phagocytosis in the presence of serum was reduced in the early stage of HIV infection (LAS) but was in the normal range in AIDS patients. No differences in PMN functional activity between patients with LAS and those with dermatological disorders were found. The appearance of recurrent upper respiratory tract infection was associated with reduced PMN CL. The most pronounced changes in PMN activity were observed in patients with severe, recurrent bacterial pneumonia and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. A lower level of PMN activity was found in patients with infection progressing rapidly towards AIDS than in patients with a relatively stable course of infection. Thus, PMN CL may be regarded as a predictive factor for the progression of HIV infection.
Nineteen oropharyngeal Candida albicans isolates from six children and seven adults living with AIDS at the Russia AIDS Centre, Moscow, from 1990 to 1998 were selected for molecular typing. Two fluconazole-resistant C. albicans genotypes were identified from a child who contracted human immunodeficiency virus infection during the Elista Hospital outbreak in the Kalmyk Republic in 1989. Highly related strains were observed 4 years later in the oral lesions and colonization of two patients and a health care worker. There may be a tendency for persons who are living with AIDS in a long-term care facility and who receive fluconazole therapy for oropharyngeal candidiasis to harbor and spread fluconazole-resistant C. albicans strains.
The aim of this study was to determine whether polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) can modify the immune response in HIV cases. Supernatants of PMN (PMNS) from 33 HIV-infected patients (16 with lymphoadenopathy syndrome, 17 with AIDS-related complex) were tested for their influence on the functional activity of lymphocytes and monocytes from 6 healthy donors. PMNS from another 6 healthy donors comprised a control group. It was found that PMNS from HIV-infected patients, but not from healthy donors, induced suppression of lymphocyte proliferative response and down-regulation of CD8 receptor expression on lymphocytes. Decrease of NK-cell cytotoxicity in the presence of PMNS from HIV-infected patients was the same as that from healthy donors. PMNS did not influence the production of anti-HIV antibody by lymphocytes from HIV-infected patients, as well as non-specific IgG by lymphocytes from healthy donors. PMNS effect on functional activity of lymphocytes was blocked completely after treatment of PMN by catalase and superoxide dismutase. At the same time PMNS from HIV-infected patients but not from healthy donors induced increased production of TNF-alpha by monocytes and up-regulation of monocyte phagocytosis. These effects were independent of catalase and superoxide dismutase and were not abrogated by antibody against IL-1, IL-8, TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma or IFN-alpha.
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