QUANTIFICATION OF HIV IN SEMEN - CORRELATION WITH ANTIVIRAL TREATMENTAND IMMUNE STATUS

Objective: This study examined the concentration of HIV in semen and t he effects of biological factors on HIV excretion. Methods: Semen samp les from 101 men at different stages of the disease were evaluated by quantitative HIV culture and HIV RNA detection. Blood plasma samples w ere available from 56 patients. The effects of CD4 and CD8 count, bloo d plasma RNA levels, treatment status and clinical staging on the shed ding of HIV were evaluated. Results: HIV RNA levels in semen correlate d with quantitative HIV culture of: seminal cells and a strong associa tion of positive seminal cell culture with high RNA levels was observe d. CD4 count and antiviral treatment were inversely correlated with th e concentration of HIV in semen. Blood plasma HIV RNA values were corr elated with HIV RNA levels in semen, although some patients had highly discrepant results. Conclusions: The strong correlation between semin al cell culture and concentration of HIV RNA in seminal plasma suggest ed that HIV detected in seminal plasma was released by productively in fected cells in the male genital tract. The study showed that the conc entration of HIV in semen, which was likely to be correlated with HIV infectivity, was a function of the immune status of the HIV-infected i ndividual. The results suggested that antiviral therapy may have reduc ed the concentration of HIV in semen.