Plasma IP-10 is associated with rapid disease progression in early HIV-1 infection

Cytokines play key roles in modulating disease progression in simian immunodeficiency virus/human immunodeficiency virus (SIV/HIV) infection. There are a few studies on the relationship between early cytokines and HIV disease prognosis. In this study, we first report the relationship based on two groups with clearly different disease progression. We found that IP-10 was the only cytokine among the 26 cytokines tested that was always positively correlated with disease progression, and was associated with the time for CD4 counts to fall below 200 cells/μL during Fiebig stages III-V in HIV-1 infection. This suggests that high IP-10 levels in the blood are associated with rapid disease progression during Fiebig stages III-V in HIV-1 infection.