Dynamic Observation of Interlukin 17 Levels in AIDS Patients Received Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy

Objective To observe the dynamic changes of interlukin 17(IL-17) in HIV/AIDS patients with or without highly active antiretrovival therapy(HAART).Methods Peripheral blood samples were collected from 30 normal volunteers and 33 HIV/AIDS patients received HAART.ELISA was used to determine IL-17 levels in sera and the results were compared.At the time points of pre-therapy,6th month and 12th month of therapy,IL-17 levels in sera were tested by ELISA,and the dynamic changes of IL-17 levels were compared and analyzed.The flow cytometer was used to count CD4+ T-cells and quantitative real-time RT-PCR was used to determine HIV RNA in blood.Results The levels of IL-17 in HIV/AIDS patients at the time points of pre-therapy,6th month and 12th month of therapy and in the normal volunteers were(5.3±2.5) pg/ml,(7.7±2.4) pg/ml,(10.4±3.1) pg/ml and(17.7±6.6) pg/ml,respectively.The levels of IL-17 were positively correlated with CD4+ T-cell counts,but negatively correlated with HIV viral load.Conclusions The results indicate that IL-17 may play an important role in the pathogenesis of AIDS,and likely to be one of the effective indexes for observing AIDS progress and efficacy of HAART.