- Norris, Philip J;
- Zhang, Jinbing;
- Worlock, Andrew;
- Nair, Sangeetha V;
- Anastos, Kathryn;
- Minkoff, Howard L;
- Villacres, Maria C;
- Young, Mary;
- Greenblatt, Ruth M;
- Desai, Seema;
- Landay, Alan L;
- Gange, Stephen J;
- Nugent, C Thomas;
- Golub, Elizabeth T;
- Keating, Sheila M;
- Study, the Women's Interagency HIV;
- Anastos, Kathryn;
- Minkoff, Howard;
- Gustafson, Deborah;
- Cohen, Mardge;
- French, Audrey;
- Young, Mary;
- Greenblatt, Ruth;
- Aouizerat, Bradley;
- Tien, Phyllis;
- Gange, Stephen;
- Golub, Elizabeth;
- Milam, Joel
Background. Subjects on suppressive combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) who do not achieve robust reconstitution of CD4(+) T cells face higher risk of complications and death. We studied participants in the Women's Interagency HIV Study with good (immunological responder [IR]) or poor (immunological nonresponder [INR]) CD4(+) T-cell recovery after suppressive cART (n = 50 per group) to determine whether cytokine levels or low-level viral load correlated with INR status. Methods. A baseline sample prior to viral control and 2 subsequent samples 1 and 2 years after viral control were tested. Serum levels of 30 cytokines were measured at each time point, and low-level human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) viral load and anti-HIV antibody levels were measured 2 years after viral suppression. Results. There were minimal differences in cytokine levels between IR and INR subjects. At baseline, macrophage inflammatory protein-3β levels were higher in IR subjects; after 1 year of suppressive cART, soluble vascular endothelial growth factor-R3 levels were higher in IR subjects; and after 2 years of suppressive cART, interferon gamma-induced protein 10 levels were higher in INR subjects. Very low-level HIV viral load and anti-HIV antibody levels did not differ between IR and INR subjects. Conclusions. These results imply that targeting residual viral replication might not be the optimum therapeutic approach for INR subjects.