ISSN 2736-1748
African Journal of AIDS and HIV Research ISSN 2736-1748 Vol. 13 (1), pp. 001-005, January, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Interleukin-27 Expression and CD4+ T Cell Counts in Treatment-Naive Chinese HIV Infection
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 6 January, 2025
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.