Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 31, 2026

New Tools to Expand Regulatory T Cells from HIV-1-infected Individuals
Published on: May 30, 2013
T cell Activation does not drive CD4 decline in longitudinally followed HIV-infected Elite Controllers
Philomena Kamya1, Christos M Tsoukas, Salix Boulet
1Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montréal, Québec, Canada. nicole.bernard@mcgill.ca.
Background:
Elite controllers (EC) are a rare subset of HIV infected individuals who control viral load below 50 copies/ml of plasma without treatment.
Methods:
Thirty four EC were studied. The slope of CD4 count change was available for 25 of these subjects. We assessed immune activation by measuring the percent of CD38+HLA-DR+CD8+ T cells in the EC group and comparing it with that in 24 treatment-naïve HIV disease progressors and 13 HIV uninfected healthy controls.
Results:
Compared to HIV uninfected subjects, EC had higher percentages of CD38+HLA-DR+CD8+ T cells (p < 0.001) that was lower than that observed in progressors (p < 0.01). Fifteen of 25 EC had a slope of CD4 count change that was not significantly different from 0 while 3 had a positive and 7 a negative CD4 count slope. Immune activation did not distinguish EC subsets with stable/increasing versus declining CD4 counts.
Conclusions:
Elevated immune activation in ECs is not associated with a faster rate of CD4 decline.
Related Concept Videos
T Cell Activation and Clonal Selection
Naive T cells that have not yet encountered an antigen express two primary CD...
T Cell Types and Functions
Th1 cells stimulate dendritic cells to express necessary co-stimulatory molecules on their surfaces for...
Cytotoxic T Cells-mediated Immune Response
Immunological surveillance is the ability of immune cells to monitor and eliminate infected cells with intracellular pathogens, neoplastically transformed cells, and cells with non-self antigens. Cytotoxic T cells and NK...
Retrovirus Life Cycles

