TITLE:
Higher Type 1 Interferon Levels in Plasma of Asymptomatic HIV-2 than in HIV-1 Individuals
AUTHORS:
Samuel V. Nuvor, Hilton Whittle, Sarah Rowland-Jones, Assan Jaye
KEYWORDS:
Type I Interferon, HIV-I, HIV-2, Cytokines, Interleukins
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Infectious Diseases,
Vol.6 No.1,
March
22,
2016
ABSTRACT: A number of cytokines are
secreted during HIV infection that enhances both innate and adaptive immune
responses. Interferon-α/β/γ, IL-12, IL-15 and IL-18 have
been found to contribute to the development, maturation, differentiation and
function of NK and other immune cells. The levels of IFN-α/β/γ,
IL-12, IL-15 and IL-18 were compared in the plasma of 90 HIV-1 infected and 90
HIV-2 infected subjects by ELISA or Cytometric Beads Array assays. The
HIV-infected subjects were stratified according to CD4+T cell counts into three groups:
>500, 200 - 500 and αwas found to be significantly
increased in HIV-2 infected compared to HIV-1 infected subjects at high CD4+T cell counts (p = 0.001). The levels
of IFN-βwere seen to
differ between the two infections in patients from the category of medium CD4+T cell counts: this was significantly
increased in HIV-2 infected patients (p γwere similar at all the CD4+T cell categories except for an
increase in HIV-2 infected patients at low CD4+T cell counts (p = 0.02). The levels
of these cytokines were similar in all HIV-1 subjects. Also, the level of
IL-12p70 was similar between the two infections but significantly higher in
HIV-2 at low compared to medium CD4+T cells categories (p = 0.047).
Similar to IFN-γand
IL-12p70, the levels of both IL-18 and IL-15 were found to be significantly
higher in HIV-2 infected patients compared to HIV-1 at low CD4+T cell counts (p αin HIV-2 infected asymptomatic
subjects is consistent with the high innate NK responses previously noted at
this stage of infection.