ArticleThe Journal of infectious diseases2008
Relationship between T cell activation and CD4+ T cell count in HIV-seropositive individuals with undetectable plasma HIV RNA levels in the absence of therapy.
Article in The Journal of infectious diseases, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 411 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
411 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 636 citations in OpenAlex.
- Characterization and stratification of risk factors of stroke in people living with HIV: A theory-informed systematic review.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2025Pooled it
- Systematic review and quantitative meta-analysis of age-dependent human T-lymphocyte homeostasis.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- SARS-CoV-2-Seronegative Subjects Target CTL Epitopes in the SARS-CoV-2 Nucleoprotein Cross-Reactive to Common Cold Coronaviruses.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Trial
- Antiretroviral Therapy Reduces T-cell Activation and Immune Exhaustion Markers in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Controllers.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2020Trial
- ART in HIV-Positive Persons With Low Pretreatment Viremia: Results From the START Trial.Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · 2019Trial
- Laboratory surrogate markers of residual HIV replication among distinct groups of individuals under antiretroviral therapy.PloS one · 2019Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Atorvastatin reduces T-cell activation and exhaustion among HIV-infected cART-treated suboptimal immune responders in Uganda: a randomised crossover placebo-controlled trial.Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH · 2015Trial
- Intragenic transcription from defective HIV proviruses triggers interferon responses in myeloid cells.Journal of virology · 2026Article
- The elite controller phenotype.Current opinion in HIV and AIDS · 2026Review
- Intragenic Transcription from Defective HIV Proviruses Triggers Interferon Responses in Myeloid Cells.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Ongoing lymphoid HIV production drives pyroptosis and GLP-1 counter-regulation in ART-suppressed infection.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Unsupervised proteomic stratification of people living with HIV reveals inflammatory biotypes beyond conventional clinical classifications.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Learning from nature: HIV elite controllers as blueprints for a functional cure.Virology journal · 2025Review
- From Steatosis to Immunosenescence: The Impact of Metabolic Dysfunction on Immune Aging in HIV and Non-HIV Populations.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Diagnostic value of Serum Amyloid A (SAA) in HIV-associated pulmonary infections and its correlation with inflammatory markers.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Plasma Inflammatory Biomarkers Link to Worse Cognition Among Africans With HIV.Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · 2025Article
351 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlthough untreated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients maintaining undetectable plasma HIV RNA levels (elite controllers) have high HIV-specific immune responses, it is unclear whether they experience abnormal levels of T cell activation, potentially contributing to immunodeficiency.
methodsWe compared percentages of activated (CD38(+)HLA-DR(+)) T cells between 30 elite controllers, 47 HIV-uninfected individuals, 187 HIV-infected individuals with undetectable viremia receiving antiretroviral therapy (antiretroviral therapy suppressed), and 66 untreated HIV-infected individuals with detectable viremia. Because mucosal translocation of bacterial products may contribute to T cell activation in HIV infection, we also measured plasma lipopolysaccharide (LPS) levels.
resultsAlthough the median CD4(+) cell count in controllers was 727 cells/mm(3), 3 (10%) had CD4(+) cell counts <350 cells/mm(3) and 2 (7%) had acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Controllers had higher CD4(+) and CD8(+) cell activation levels (P < .001 for both) than HIV-negative subjects and higher CD8(+) cell activation levels than the antiretroviral therapy suppressed (P = .048). In controllers, higher CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell activation was associated with lower CD4(+) cell counts (P = .009 and P = .047). Controllers had higher LPS levels than HIV-negative subjects (P < .001), and in controllers higher LPS level was associated with higher CD8(+) T cell activation (P = .039).
conclusionHIV controllers have abnormally high T cell activation levels, which may contribute to progressive CD4(+) T cell loss even without measurable viremia.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.