Immunophenotypic Markers and Antiretroviral Therapy (IMART): T cell activation and maturation help predict treatment response

Abstract

To determine whether markers of T cell activation and maturation are independently predictive of the response to potent antiretroviral therapy, the Immunophenotypic Markers and Antiretroviral Therapy study applied a novel data-sharing strategy across 5 Adult AIDS Clinical Trial Group trials that counted naive and activated CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in 324 subjects. Regression models - adjustment for baseline CD4 cell count, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) RNA, and study - revealed that high pretreatment CD8+ T cell activation predicted virologic failure (P = .046). Additional models showed the greatest increase in CD4+ T cell counts in subjects with highest pretreatment naive CD4+ T cell counts (P