Zeitschrift für antivirale und antiretrovirale Medikamente
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In Vivo Treatment with Fusion Inhibitor Enfuvirtide Leads to Increased IL-12 Production by Autologous in Vitro Activated Monocytes from HIV-infected Individuals

Andrea Vecchi, Hamid Hasson, Andrea Galli, Antonella Castagna, Adriano Lazzarin and Priscilla Biswas

Enfuvirtide inhibits IL-12 synthesis in vitro. We investigated IL-12 production in monocytes from thirteen chronic, late-stage patients who underwent ENF treatment in vivo for at least 12 weeks. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from frozen samples and flow cytometry was used. Interestingly, a statistically significant increase of the percentage of IL-12-producing activated monocytes was documented after treatment with the ENF-containing antiretroviral regimen. In about 50% of the subjects the increase of IL-12 coexisted with increase of CD4 T lymphocyte count and, unexpectedly, serum IgE and with decrease of HIV-1 viremia. Lack of a true association could be due to the retrospective nature and small sample size of our study. Nevertheless, in vitro evaluation of IL-12 production in response to antiretroviral drugs should be taken into consideration as it could reflect the status of at least one arm of innate immunity and complement the information derived solely by the CD4 T lymphocyte count.