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Amplifying and Quantifying HIV-1 RNA in HIV Infected Individuals with Viral Loads Below the Limit of Detection by Standard Clinical Assays
Published on: September 26, 2011
Complete manuscript Title: Changes in RANKL during the first two years after cART initiation in HIV-infected cART
Inger Hee Mathiesen1, Mohammad Salem2, Jan Gerstoft1
1Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Background:
By assessing the changes in concentration of soluble receptor activator of nuclear factor κ B ligand (RANKL) and osteoprotegrin (OPG) after initiation of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in treatment-naïve HIV-infected patients we aimed to evaluate whether the initial accelerated bone loss could be mediated by increased soluble RANKL (sRANKL) levels associated with CD4+ T cell recovery.
Methods:
We used multiplex immunoassays to determine sRANKL and OPG concentrations in plasma from 48 HIV patients at baseline and 12, 24, 48 and 96 weeks after cART initiation.
Results:
Soluble RANKL changed significantly over time (overall p = 0.02) with 25% decrease (95% CI: -42 to -5) at week 24 compared to baseline and stabilized at a lower level thereafter. We found no correlation between CD4+ T cell count increment and changes in sRANKL or between percentage change in BMD and changes in sRANKL.
Conclusion:
In this study there was no indication that the accelerated bone loss after cART initiation was mediated by early changes in sRANKL due to CD4+ T cell recovery. Future studies should focus on the initial weeks after initiation of cART.
Trial Registration:
Clinical-Trial.gov . id NCT00135460 , August 25, 2005. The study was approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency, Danish Medicines Agency and Regional Ethics Committee.
