COFACTORS AND MARKERS OF DISEASE PROGRESSION IN HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS INFECTION

The identification of factors which are related to human immunodeficie ncy virus (HIV) disease progression, either by a direct interaction wi th HIV to increase the rate of disease progression or by providing an indication of an infected individual's likely prognosis, can have grea t value when understanding HIV pathogenesis and in the development of novel therapeutic approaches. This paper describes the roles of the CD 4 cell count and the viral load as markers of disease progression and discusses the recent findings on chemokine receptors in HIV infection. Our current knowledge on these factors is summarized and unresolved s tatistical issues are highlighted.