Short- and long-term effects of antiretroviral therapy on peripheral regulatory CD4+/CD25hi/CD127low T lymphocytes in people living with HIV/AIDS

Abstract

The effect of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on CD4 + /CD25 hi /CD127 low T lymphocyte changes in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) is still a matter of debate. From October 2015 to December 2019, peripheral blood from 70 cases of PLWHA were collected for the detection of CD4 + /CD25 hi /CD127 low T lymphocytes by flow cytometry. Statistical analysis was performed to detect changes of CD4 + /CD25 hi /CD127 low T lymphocytes in patients with different duration of ART and different treatment effects. We found that the number of CD4 + /CD25 hi /CD127 low T lymphocytes in ART-naive PLWHA were lower than those in healthy volunteers (10.3±6.0 cells/uL vs 31.7±8.0 cells/uL, P < 0.05). CD4 + /CD25 hi /CD127 low T lymphocyte counts increased to 17.8±4.0 cells/uL 6 months post-ART and 25.0±11.9 cells/uL 9 months post-ART, respectively (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in CD4 + /CD25 hi /CD127 low T lymphocyte counts between PLWHA who reached a complete immune reconstruction after ART and healthy volunteers. The growth of CD4 + /CD25 hi /CD127 low T lymphocyte counts in patients who had baseline CD4 > 200 cells/uL was greater than those who had baseline CD4 ≤ 200 cells/uL (12.6±4.6 cells/uL vs 5.6±5.0 cells/uL, P = 0.027). CD4 + /CD25 hi /CD127 low T lymphocyte counts were positively correlated with CD4 + T lymphocyte counts (r = 0.923, P < 0.001) and CD4 + /CD8 + ratio (r = 0.741, P < 0.001), but were negatively correlated with HIV-VL (r = −0.648, P = 0.000). In conclusion, the results of the present study showed that changes in CD4 + /CD25 hi /CD127 low T lymphocyte counts can be used to assess the effect of ART in PLWHA.