Expression of cytokine-mRNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cell of human immunodeficiency virus-1 subtype C infected individuals with opportunistic viral infections from India (South)

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease progression is associated with a marked change in the level of plasma cytokines. The study reported here investigated the level of mRNA expression of different cytokines: Tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interferon (INF)-gamma, interleukin-10 (IL-10) and IL-21 in the peripheral blood mononuclear cell among the antiretroviral therapy naive subtype C HIV-1 infected individuals and normal healthy controls by real time polymerase chain reaction. The mRNA expressions of all the 4 cytokines in HIV-1 infected individuals were significantly higher compared to healthy controls (P value range 0.0004-0.01). The mean level of IL-10, INF-gamma and TNF-α were higher in HIV infected individuals with low CD4 counts (<300 cells/μl). The IL-10 expression showed a significant negative correlation with CD4 counts (r = -0.25, P = 0.04) while IL-21 showed a positive correlation with CD4 counts (r = 0.26, P = 0.03). There was a significant negative correlation between the cytomegalovirus (CMV) viral load and IL-21 expression. Cytokine levels by mRNA detection avoids the inherent problem of measuring plasma level and this study also provide information on the cytokine levels and CD4⁺ T cell level among HIV-1 subtype C infected individuals with opportunistic viral infections like CMV.