• Sophie Nalukwago, Christina L Lancioni, Joy Baseke Oketcho, Dave H E Canaday, W Henry Boom, Lonzy Ojok, and Harriet Mayanja-Kizza.
• Joint Clinical Research Centre, Kampala, Uganda.
• Afr Health Sci. 2017 Dec 1; 17 (4): 954962954-962.

BackgroundThe reconstitution of cellular immune components contributes to clinical outcome of HIV and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection. Interruption of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) could lead to perturbations in reconstitution of T cells in HIV/ tuberculosis (TB) patients.ObjectivesTo ascertain the effect of interrupted ART on reconstitution of CD4+ and CD8+ T sub-sets in TB patients.MethodsParticipants with HIV (CD4>350 cells/µL) and TB were recruited under a larger phase 3 open label randomised controlled clinical trial. The CD45RO and CD62L markers were measured on CD4+ and CD8+ cells by flow cytometry. Samples were analysed at baseline, 3, 6, 12 months.ResultsThere was a significant increase of naive CD8+ cells (p = 0.003) and a decrease in effector CD8+ cells (p = 0.004) among participants in ART/TB treatment arm during the first 6 months. Withdrawing ART led to naive CD8+ cells reduction (p=0.02) to values close to baseline. An increase of naive CD8+ cells after 6 months of TB treatment in TB alone treatment arm (p=0.01) was observed. A trend towards increment of naive CD4+ sub sets in either treatment arms was observed.ConclusionInterrupting ART alters CD8+ but not CD4+ sub-sets in patients with less advanced HIV infection and TB.

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