ISSN 2736-1748
African Journal of AIDS and HIV Research ISSN 2326-2691 Vol. 8 (6), pp. 001-005, June, 2020. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Upregulation of interleukin-27 expression is correlated with higher CD4+ T cell counts in treatment of naive human immunodeficiency virus-infected Chinese
Lai He2#, Jin Zhao1,2#, Yong-Xia Gan1, Lin Chen1* and Ming-Liang He2,3*
1Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shenzhen, China.
2Faculty of Medicine, Stanley Ho Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases, School of Public Health and Primary Care;
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
3Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Accepted 16 January, 2020
Abstract
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a major global health problem and causes a huge number of deaths each year. Interleukin-27 (IL-27), which is composed of Epstein Barr virus-induced gene 3 (EBI3) protein and p28 protein, inhibits HIV replication in vitro. However, the status of IL27 and its relationship with CD4+ T cell counts in vivo in treatment -naïve HIV infected individuals has not yet investigated. We recruited 108 healthy and 120 HIV-infected but treatment-naive Chinese individuals to participate this study in the last two years. We determined the IL-27 titers in all the participants by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and measured the CD4+ T cell counts in HIV-infected individuals by using fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) assays. We showed that IL -27 titers were significantly elevated in HIV-infected individuals as compared to HIV negative healthy controls (612 ± 355 pg/ml vs 413 ± 230 pg/ml; P < 0.001). We also showed a significant positive correlation between plasma IL-27 titers and CD4+ T cell counts (r = 0.206, P = 0.024) in HIV-infected individuals. These findings suggest that the elevated plasma IL -27 levels may play important role in slowing down the CD4+ T cell declining in HIV-infected individuals and the process of AIDS disease.
Key words: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, interleukin-27, CD4+ T cell counts.