To analyze the correlation between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 reservoir and poor immune reconstitution of HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients, and to investigate the influence of HIV-1 reservoir on the immune reconstitution.

Cross-sectional survey was conducted to measure HIV-1 RNA and T lymphocyte subsets from 219 patients with HIV/AIDS who had been treated with anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for more than two years with HIV RNA lower than the limit of detection. Among them, there are 195 patients from the Sixth People′s Hospital of Zhengzhou, 12 patients from Shangqiu Municipal Hospital and 12 patients from Zhoukou Infectious Diseases Hospital. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were collected and HIV-1 DNA was detected. The measurement data of normal distribution were analyzed by two independent sample t-test. The measurement data of skewness distribution were analyzed by rank sum test. Spearman′s rank correlation was used for correlation analysis. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to predict the predictive value of occurrence of poor immune reconstitution AIDS patients.

There were 121 patients with poor immune reconstitution and 98 patients with healthy immune reconstitution. HIV-1 DNA was (2.50±0.52) copies/1×10⁶ PBMC in the group with poor immune reconstitution, which was significantly higher than the healthy immune reconstitution group ((2.11±0.66) copies/1×10⁶ PBMC, t=4.78, P<0.001). The CD4⁺ T lymphocyte counts in the group with poor immune reconstitution was 192(139, 227)/μL, which was lower than that in the healthy immune reconstitution group (573(457, 730)/μL). The difference was statistically significant (Z=12.68, P<0.001). HIV-1 DNA was reversely correlated with CD4⁺ T lymphocyte counts and CD4⁺ /CD8⁺ T lymphocyte ratio (after adjusting the influence of age and ART time, r=-0.277 and -0.316, respectively, both P<0.001). The area of ROC curve for HIV-1 DNA to predict poor immune reconstitution was 0.679(95% confidence interval (CI) 0.604 to 0.750). The HIV-1 DNA threshold value was 100 copies/1×10⁶ PBMC with the sensitivity of 90.13% and specificity of 42.91%. The area of ROC curve of CD4⁺ /CD8⁺ T lymphocyte ratio to predict poor immune reconstitution was 0.905 (95%CI 0.863 to 0.942). The threshold value of CD4⁺ /CD8⁺ T lymphocyte ratio was 0.536 with the sensitivity of 77.68% and specificity of 89.84%.

There is correlation between HIV-1 DNA and poor immune reconstitution in HIV/AIDS patients. The value of HIV-1 DNA higher than 100 copies/1×10⁶ PBMC and CD4⁺ /CD8⁺ T lymphocyte ratio lower than 0.536 could be used as predictor of poor immune reconstitution.

HIV-1; Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome; HIV-1 reservoir; Antiretroviral therapy; Poor immune reconstitution