Critical reviews in clinical laboratory sciences
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Crit Rev Clin Lab Sci · Apr 2014
ReviewRole of inflammation in HIV-1 disease progression and prognosis.
Inflammation and immune activation have been thrust to center stage in the understanding of HIV-1 disease pathogenesis and progression. Early work demonstrated that heightened levels of immune activation correlated with the extent of CD4 + T cell death in lymphoid tissue; however, this concept was not incorporated into the general view of disease pathogenesis. Since these early studies, the extension of life for patients on combination antiretroviral therapies (cART) has heralded a new era of non-AIDS-related diseases and incomplete restoration of immune function. ⋯ Studies highlighting the potentially harmful effects of ongoing inflammation/immune activation are reviewed and the contributions of the GI tract "damage" and other co-infections such as CMV are explored. The complications resulting from persistent immune activation include enhanced CD4 + T cell death, lymphoid tissue destruction, and various pathologies related to chronic inflammation. Ultimately, we envision that the long-term management of the disease will incorporate both the identification and the amelioration of the potentially harmful effects of ongoing immune activation and inflammation.