Long-term intake of Korean red ginseng in HIV-1-infected patients: development of resistance mutation to zidovudine is delayed.

Abstract We have observed that CD4 + T cell counts in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1-infected patients treated with only Korean red ginseng (KRG) are maintained or even increased for a prolonged period. In the present study, we investigated whether the development of resistance mutations in reverse transcriptase (RT) to zidovudine (ZDV) is delayed by combined therapy with KRG and ZDV. Nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and direct sequencing methods were used to define RT codons 41, 67, 70, 210, 215 and 219 of the HIV-1 pol gene in DNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) samples from 18 patients. Nine of these eighteen patients were in the KRG group and had been treated with KRG for 60±15 months (range: 38–82) and ZDV, and nine were in the control group and had been treated with ZDV only. The patients in the KRG group had been treated with ZDV for 75±24 months, and CD4 + T cell counts were maintained from 239±85 to 234±187 μl −1 ( P >0.05) during the study period, whereas the patients in the control group had been treated with ZDV for 51±31 months, and their CD4 + T cell counts decreased from 272±97 to 146±154 μl −1 ( P P P + T cell counts by ZDV and KRG-intake for a prolonged period might be indirectly associated with delayed development of resistance to ZDV by KRG-intake.