Objective: Because effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) reduces immune activation, we hypothesize that early changes in immune activation are associated with subsequent virologic response to therapy.
Design: Observational cohort study.
Setting: Institutional HIV clinic.
Subjects: Thirty-four adult HIV patients with virologic failure on their current antiretroviral regimen.
Intervention: Change to salvage regimen selected by patient's physician.
Main Outcome Measures: Measures of immune activation at baseline and at 2, 4, 8, and 24 weeks after enrollment. Data were analyzed by proportional hazards (PH) models.
Results: PH models showed that reductions between baseline and week 2 in expression of CD38 (P = 0.02) or CD95 (P = 0.02) on CD4+ T cells were associated with increased likelihood of achieving virologic suppression. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that patients who had reductions within the first 2 weeks of therapy in CD4+ T-cell expression of CD38 (P = 0.003) or CD95 (P = 0.08) were more likely to achieve viral suppression than those who did not.
Conclusions: Reduced CD4+ T-cell expression of CD38 and CD95 occurring within 2 weeks of salvage therapy is associated with subsequent viral suppression. Monitoring CD38 and CD95 may allow earlier assessment of the response to ART.