No differences of immune activation and microbial translocation among HIV-infected children receiving combined antiretroviral therapy or protease inhibitor monotherapy

Abstract

This is a cross-sectional study of 15 aviremic chronic HIV-infected children revealing no differences in immune activation (IA; HLA-DR + CD38 + CD4 + and CD8 + T cells, and sCD14) and microbial translocation (MT; lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and 16S rDNA) among HIV-infected patients under combined antiretroviral treatment (cART; n=10) or ritonavir-boosted protease inhibitor monotherapy (mtPI/rtv; n=5). In both cases, IA and MT were lower in healthy control children (n=32). This observational study suggests that ritonavir boosted protease inhibitor monotherapy (mtPI/rtv) is not associated with an increased state of IA or MT as compared with children receiving cART.