Role of immune activation in CD4⁺ T-cell depletion in HIV-1 infected Indian patients

Objectives: The correlation of immune activation with CD4⁺ depletion and HIV-1 disease progression has been evidenced by several studies involving mainly clade B virus. However, this needs to be investigated in developing countries such as India predominately infected with clade C virus. Materials and methods: In a cross-sectional study of 68 antiretroviral treatment naïve, HIV-1 infected Indian patients, we studied the association between CD4⁺ T cells, plasma HIV-1 RNA levels, and immune activation markers using unadjusted and adjusted correlative analyses. Results: Significant negative correlations of higher magnitude were observed between the CD4 ⁺ T cell percentages and plasma HIV-1 RNA levels in the study population when adjusted for the effects of immune activation markers. However, the negative association of CD4⁺ T cells with immune activation markers remained unaffected when controlled for the effects of plasma HIV-1 RNA levels. Conclusions: Our results support the important role of immune activation in CD4⁺ T cell depletion and disease progression during untreated HIV-1 infection.