CORRELATION BETWEEN PLASMA-LEVELS OF CYTOKINES AND HIV-1 RNA COPY NUMBER IN HIV-INFECTED PATIENTS

The plasma levels of HIV-1 RNA, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha ), soluble receptors type II of TNF-alpha (sTNF-alpha RII), soluble re ceptors of interleukin-4 (sR IL-4), interleukin-6 (IL-6), soluble rece ptors of interleukin-6 (sR IL-6), granulocyte macrophage colony stimul ating factor (GM-CSF), soluble receptors of GM-CSF (sR GM-CSF), RANTES , MIP-1 alpha and MIP-1 beta were measured in 80 HIV-infected patients , All patients had not been treated previously with antiretroviral dru gs and did not present a recent history of opportunistic infection, A statistically significant correlation was found between HIV-1 RNA and TNF-alpha (p = 0.005) or sTNF-alpha RII levels (p < 0.001), RANTES and MIP-1 alpha levels did not correlate with HIV-1 RNA, MIP-1 beta level s were correlated with plasma RNA titers in patients with CD4(+) T cel ls < 200 x 10(6)/l (p = 0.03), MIP-1 alpha and sR IL-4 levels were sig nificantly different according to the CD4+ T cell range (p = 0.003 and p = 0.0002, respectively), GM-CSF and sR GM-CSF were undetectable in each case, These data confirm that HIV-1 replication in the plasma is correlated with TNF-alpha levels, but do not show a clear correlation with levels of the chemokines studied.