Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) reduced immune activation and increased CD4 cells in HIV-positive people, according to a study published in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. The new research adds further evidence to the theory that over-activation of the immune system is responsible for the loss of CD4 cells in HIV disease.
Though the immune system does need to be “activated” to some degree in order to respond to HIV infection, many researchers have theorized that an overactive immune system response to the virus is what actually leads to the loss of CD4 cells and, eventually, AIDS. To test this theory, Joost Vermeulen, MD, of the International Antiviral Therepy Evaluation Centre (IATEC) in Amsterdam, and his colleagues enrolled six HIV-positive patients who had never taken antiretroviral treatment and were not currently on antiretrovirals. Vermeulen’s group gave the patients two IVIG injections four weeks apart.
Following the first IVIG treatment, the number of activated CD4 cells in the patients dropped by 3.5 percent, and the number of activated CD8 cells dropped by 5 percent. The total CD4 count increased by an average of 55 cells by the fourth day following the first treatment. The patients’ viral load also increased temporarily on the first day following the injection, but returned to pretreatment levels by day 7. The researchers had too few blood samples to measure the impact of the second dose.
Because the study was so small and did not have a placebo control arm, Vermeulen’s team can’t recommend that HIV-positive patients begin using IVIG. They do, however, state that the study results strongly suggest that immune activation does influence CD4 counts and that additional studies should be conducted.
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