Evaluation of CXCL12, CD28 and FOS gene expression in HIV-infected patients with discordance in CD4+T-Cell Levels

Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) should considerably ameliorate the recovery of the immune system in HIV infected patients. In some patients a failure to satisfactorily increase CD4 counts on ART despite successful virological control did occur, named discordant immune response (DIR).  The aim of this study is the evaluation of CD28, CXCL12, FOS genes in patients with DIR.

In current study, after PBMC isolation, RNA was extracted for two groups; Control group (immunologic responders) and case group (non immunologic responders). Real-time relative quantitative PCR was performed in duplicate using One Step PrimeScript™ RT-PCR Kit and data analyzed by using GraphPad prism software version 8.0.2.

The expression levels in the case group compared to the control group were measured for CD28, CXCL12, FOS. The Fold change ratio for CD28 and CXCL12 were (0.46), (0.19) respectively and in both of them, a significant decrease was observed. The Fold change ratio for FOS was (0.70) and no statistically significant was observed.

we showed significantly decrease in the expression of CD28 and CXCL12 genes in the case group compared to control group, but we couldn’t say, this low expression of these genes are the reason of the low count of CD4 T cells. The more investigation is necessary for it, if the suppression of these genes can impact on proliferation of CD4 T cells, in-vitro.