Th22/Treg, Th17/Treg And Th1/Treg Imbalance In Peripheral Blood Of HIV-1Positive Patients Before And After Short-time ART

[Objective]1. To characterize the ratio of Th22, Th17, Th1, Treg cells to CD4cells and Th22/Treg,Th17/Treg and Th1/Treg imbalance in peripheral blood of HIV-1positive patients.2. To define the relationship between immune balance and AIDS disease progression.3. To analyze the changes of Th22, Th17, Th1, Treg cells in peripheral blood of HIV-1positive patients before and after short-range ART.4. To determine effects of ART on HIV-1positive patients’ immunologic function andimmune balance.[Methods]40HIV-1positive patients with CD4+T cells count lower than350per microliter and30healthy donors were recruited at the Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital. Blood sampleswere collected before ART and after ART for1month,2months,3months. T cell subsetsincluding Th22, Th17, Th1and Treg percentage rate were analyzed by flow cytometry.[Results]1. The results of lymphocyte counts and viral load before and after ART in HIV-1positive patients. Lymphocyte increase and viral load decline after short-range ART.The CD4+T cell count in HIV-1positive patients was significantly increased and thelevel of viral load was significantly reduced after ART for3months.2. The change of Th22, Th17, Th1, Treg cells in peripheral blood of HIV-1positive patients before and after short-range ART.We found that the percentage of Th22, Th17, Th1cells reduced significantly after HIV infection. The percentage of Th22, Th17cells can be restored gradually after ART.The Th22cells at ART2months and Th17cells at ART3months increased close to thelevel of healthy control, but Th1cells has no significantly change and remain very lowlevel as before ART. However, the percentage of Treg cells increased significantly afterHIV infection. With the ART processing, the percentage of Treg cells declined gradually,but were still higher than the level of healthy controls.3. The Correlationship analysis between Th22, Th17, Th1, Treg cells and CD4+Tcells or viral load in HIV-1positive patients.The percentage of Treg in peripheral blood of HIV-1positive patients wassignificantly negative correlated with CD4+T cells and positive correlated with viral load.But the percentage of Th22, Th17, Th1cells had no significant correlation with CD4+Tcells or HIV viral load.4. Th22/Treg, Th17/Treg and Th1/Treg imbalance in peripheral blood of HIV-1positive patients before and after short-time ART.The Th22/Treg, Th17/Treg, Th1/Treg ratio in peripheral blood were reducedsignificantly after HIV infection. These ratios can be recovered to normal level graduallyafter ART. All ratios at ART3months were increased significantly comparing with thosebefore ART, but were still lower than healthy control.5. The correlation between the ratios of Th22/Treg, Th17/Treg, Th1/Treg andCD4+T cells or viral load in peripheral blood of HIV-1positive patients.The Th17/Treg ratio in peripheral blood of HIV-1positive patients has a significantlypositive correlation with CD4+T cells, and negative correlation with viral load. Th1/Tregratio has significantly positive correlation with CD4+T cells, but no correlation with viralload. Moreover, Th22/Treg ratio didn’t significantly correlate with CD4+T cells or HIVviral load.[Conclusions]1. HIV infection resulted in significant loss of Th22, Th17, Th1cells and ART contribute to immune reconstitution.2. HIV infection resulted in significant increase of Treg cells, and this can be droppedafter ART, ART regulate the immune status.3. HIV infection resulted in significant disrupted the balance of Th22/Treg, Th17/Tregand Th1/Treg in peripheral blood and significant correlation with CD4+T cells or viral load.Indicates the imbalance of T helper cell subsets is closely related to disease progression.4. The imbalance of Th22/Treg, Th17/Treg and Th1/Treg in peripheral blood can berestored gradually after ART. Showed that antiretroviral therapy can help balance thebody’s immune.