Immunological response to highly active antiretroviral therapy in children with clinically stable HIV-1 infection

We studied changes in 60 immunological parameters after the administration of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in 192 clinically stable antiretroviral drug-experienced HIV-1-infected children 4 months-17 years old. The studied immunological parameters included standard lymphocyte subsets and lymphocyte surface markers of maturation and activation. The most significant changes during the 48-week study period were seen for CD8⁺, CD8 ⁺CD62L⁺CD45RA⁺, CD8⁺CD38 ⁺HLA-DR⁺, and CD4⁺ T cell percentages (P < .0001 for all parameters). These changes suggest that significant decreases in the expression of activation markers and increases in the expression of naive markers in the CD8⁺ T cell population may be related to better virologic control in these HIV-1-infected children, who had relatively stable immune function at the initiation of HAART. At week 44 of HAART, the major immunological parameters in these HIV-1-infected children moved from baseline values to about halfway to two-thirds of the way toward the values in healthy, uninfected children.