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Updated: May 6, 2026

Assessing the Innate Sensing of HIV-1 Infected CD4+ T Cells by Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells Using an Ex vivo Co-culture System.
Published on: September 1, 2015
Prospective relationship between hemispheric lateralisation and CD4+ T cells in human immunodeficiency virus type 1
Rachel C Sumner1, Alexander V Nowicky, Andrew Parton
1Centre for Rehabilitation Research,Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK.
Objectives:
Neuromodulation of the immune system has been proposed to be influenced by hemispheric lateralisation (HL). The present study tested whether HL predicted CD4+ levels, statistically controlling for confounders.
Methods:
Employing two assessments of HL, 68 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1+ patients were followed prospectively. Numerous exclusion criteria and confounder assessments were employed (e.g. age/medication).
Results:
Left HL significantly positively predicted CD4+ levels at follow-up, and this was qualified by medication (HAART) status: only in HAART-naïve patients did HL predict CD4 levels. Furthermore, HL significantly predicted whether patients had clinically significantly high/low CD4+ counts.
Conclusions:
Using a more rigorous methodology than a previous study, the present work partly corroborated the theory of HL influences on immunity, extended it to HIV immunity and identified a possible moderator: HAART medication. Implications for future research and treatments are provided.

