Altered oxidative stress indexes related to disease progression marker in human immunodeficiency virus infected patients with antiretroviral therapy

BackgroundIt is generally accepted that oxidative stress (OS) is implicated in immunological and metabolic abnormalities during HIV infection. The acting mechanism used by Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) comes to add metabolic alterations.MethodThis is an observational study assessing the effect of two HAART combinations on redox indicators and on progression markers of disease. A cohort of 84 healthy and 84 HIV+ subjects were followed for 6 months. Fifty-six HIV+ subjects were distributed in group I (AZT, 3TC, IND) and group II (D4T, 3TC, NEV) according to drug combination. Peroxidation potential (PP), glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA), total hydroperoxides (HPO), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP), percent of DNA fragmentation (% FDNA), CD4+, CD38+, CD95+ T lymphocytes subsets, viral load and body mass index (BMI) were measured at baseline and at 6 months.ResultsAfter HAART started, CAT values for both groups receiving treatment did not showed significant difference. For group II, all other OS indexes were significantly higher than those for group I and the HIV+ not treated group (p < 0.05), except for GSH values in group II (p < 0.05) which was lower than group I values. These data suggest poor prognostic for group II. Not significant differences were found between treatment groups respect CD4+, CD8+, CD38+, CD95+ T cell subset count, viral load and BMI.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that increased OS occurs additionally to persistent redox imbalance associated to HIV infection during apparently successfully HAART. This conclusion does not only underline HAART associated toxicity but it may be also methodologically important for the follow-up of further clinical studies.