Assessment of CD8+ T cell immune activation markers to monitor response to antiretroviral therapy among HIV-1 infected patients in Côte d’Ivoire

Because of the paucity of plasma HIV RNA viral load (VL) tests in resource-poor settings, the CD4(+) T cell count is often used as the sole laboratory marker to evaluate the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in HIV-infected patients. In untreated patients, the level of activated T cells is positively correlated with VL and represents a prognostic marker of HIV infection. However, little is known about its value to predict early drug failure, taking into account the relatively high non-specific immune activation background observed in many resource-limited tropical countries. We assessed the use of immune activation markers (expression of CD38 and/or human leucocyte antigen-DR on CD8(+) lymphocytes) to predict virological response to ART in a cohort of HIV-1 infected patients in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Correlations between VL, absolute CD4(+) T cell counts and immune activation levels were examined in 111 HIV patient samples at baseline and after 6 and 12 months of therapy. The percentage of CD38(+) CD8(+) T cells appeared to be the best correlate of VL. In contrast, changes in CD4(+) T cell counts provided a poor correlate of virological response to ART. Unfortunately, CD38(+) CD8(+) percentages lacked specificity for the determination of early virological drug failure and did not appear to be reliable surrogates of RNA viral load. CD38(+) CD8(+) T cell percentages may, rather, provide a sensitive estimate of the overall immune recovery, and be a useful extra laboratory parameter to CD4 counts that would contribute to improve the clinical management of HIV-infected people when VL testing facilities are lacking.