Correlation between viral load and T lymphocyte subsets in human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome patients with or without hepatitis C virus infection in Xinjiang，China

Abstract:

Objective：To investigate the correlation between viral load and number of T lymphocytes in human immunodeficiency virus （HIV）/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome（AIDS） patients with or without hepatitis C virus（HCV） infection in Xinjiang，China. Methods：According to the degree of infection，patients were divided into HIV/AIDS simple infection group with 68 patients and HIV/HCV combined infection group with 80 patients. CD4+ T lymphocytes，CD8+ T lymphocytes，HIV RNA，and HCV RNA were measured，and the correlation between indices was analyzed. Results：Compared with the HIV/HCV combined infection group，the HIV/AIDS simple infection group had significantly higher numbers of CD4+ and CD8+T lymphocytes[CD4+：（352.691±216.324）/?滋L vs. （164.488±101.447）/?滋L，t=6.585，P=0.000；CD8+：（1 102.088±578.909）/?滋L vs. （760.65±491.962）/?滋L，t=3.879，P=0.000]，while there was no significant difference in HIV RNA load between the two groups（9.871±3.487 vs. 10.737±3.095，t=-1.600，P=0.112）. In the HIV/AIDS simple infection group，the number of CD4+ T lymphocytes was negatively correlated with HIV RNA load[（9.871±3.487） log10 copies/mL]（r=-0.433，P=0.000），and there was no correlation between the number of CD8+ T lymphocytes and HIV RNA load（P=0.696）；in the HIV/HCV combined infection group，the numbers of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes were not correlated with HIV RNA load[（10.737±3.095） log10 copies/mL]（P=0.148 and 0.114）. In the HIV/HCV combined infection group，the number of CD4+ T lymphocytes was positively correlated with HCV RNA load[（15.046±2.654） log10 copies/ml]（r=0.242，P=0.031），the number of CD8+ T lymphocytes was not correlated with HCV RNA load[（15.046±2.654） log10 copies/mL]（P=0.154），and HIV RNA load was negatively correlated with HCV RNA load（r=-0.533，P=0.000）. Conclusion：When HIV/AIDS patients develop HCV infection，there is a significant reduction in the number of CD cells，but there is no significant difference between HIV RNA and HCV RNA，and there is a negative correlation between them.