Short- and long-term effects of antiretroviral therapy on peripheral regulatory CD4(+)/CD25(hi)/CD127(low) T lymphocytes in people living with HIV/AIDS

The effect of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on CD4(+)/CD25(hi)/CD127(low) T lymphocyte changes in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) is still a matter of debate. From October 2015 to December 2019, peripheral blood from 70 cases of PLWHA were collected for the detection of CD4(+)/CD25(hi)/CD127(low) T lymphocytes by flow cytometry. Statistical analysis was performed to detect changes of CD4(+)/CD25(hi)/CD127(low) T lymphocytes in patients with different duration of ART and different treatment effects. We found that the number of CD4(+)/CD25(hi)/CD127(low) T lymphocytes in ART-naive PLWHA were lower than those in healthy volunteers (10.3±٦.٠ cells/uL vs 31.7±8.0 cells/uL, P < 0.05). CD4(+)/CD25(hi)/CD127(low) T lymphocyte counts increased to 17.8±٤.٠ cells/uL 6 months post-ART and 25.0±١١.٩ cells/uL 9 months post-ART, respectively (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in CD4(+)/CD25(hi)/CD127(low) T lymphocyte counts between PLWHA who reached a complete immune reconstruction after ART and healthy volunteers. The growth of CD4(+)/CD25(hi)/CD127(low) T lymphocyte counts in patients who had baseline CD4 > 200 cells/uL was greater than those who had baseline CD4 ≤ 200 cells/uL (12.6±٤.٦ cells/uL vs 5.6±٥.٠ cells/uL, P = 0.027). CD4(+)/CD25(hi)/CD127(low) T lymphocyte counts were positively correlated with CD4(+) T lymphocyte counts (r = 0.923, P < 0.001) and CD4(+)/CD8(+) ratio (r = 0.741, P < 0.001), but were negatively correlated with HIV-VL (r = −0.648, P = 0.000). In conclusion, the results of the present study showed that changes in CD4(+)/CD25(hi)/CD127(low) T lymphocyte counts can be used to assess the effect of ART in PLWHA.