RESEARCH ARTICLE Different Plasma Markers of Inflammation Are Influenced by Immune Recovery and cART Composition or Intensification in Treated HIV Infected Individuals

Background: HIV-1 infection increases plasma levels of inflammatory markers. Combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) does not restore inflammatory markers to normal levels. Since intensification of cART with raltegravir reduced CD8 T-cell activation in the Discor-Ral and IntegRal studies, we have evaluated the effect of raltegravir intensification on several soluble inflammation markers in these studies. Methods: Longitudinal plasma samples (0–48 weeks) from the IntegRal (n567, 22 control and 45 intensified individuals) and the Discor-Ral studies (44 individuals with CD4 T-cell counts,350 cells/ml, 14 control and 30 intensified) were assayed for 25 markers. Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon, Spearman test and linear mixed models were used for analysis. Results: At baseline, different inflammatory markers were strongly associated with HCV co-infection, lower CD4 counts and with cART regimens (being higher in PI-treated individuals), but poorly correlated with detection of markers of residual viral replication. Although raltegravir intensification reduced inflammation in individual