- Asian Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences (2014) Volume 4, Issue 34

Effect of combinational non protease inhibitor ART treatment on CD4+ T lymphocyte count in AIDS patients: a study from East India

CD4+ T lymphocyte count measures the progression of HIV infection and hence considered as a useful tool for monitoring patients on antiretroviral (ART) treatment. Scattered data is available regarding the response to ART in terms of CD4+ counts. Therefore, present study was undertaken to analyze the effect of ART treatment on CD4+ cells in HIV serology positive patients in Manipur, an eastern state of India. 210 serology positive patients were counseled and enrolled after obtaining their consent. Patients were given ART treatment in following combinations as two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, and a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor. The combinations used were Zidovudine + Lamivudine with Efavirenz or Nevirapine, and Stavudine + Lamivudine with Efavirenz or Nevirapine, depending on patient tolerance. Blood specimens were collected from each subject and were subjected to CD4+ cell count by fluorescent activated cell sorter (FACS). ART therapy results in increase of CD4+ count in 168 cases (80%) showed a mean increase in their cell count while 42 cases (20%) showed a net decrease in their cell count after a period of 6 months of treatment. The results of the present study showed that treatment with non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, Efavirenz or Nevirapine does not affect the cell count and need to be study in detail to find out the factors playing role in it.

Author(s): Rakshit P, Brajachand Ng, Rebachandra H, Gupta RK

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