Helminth-Associated Systemic Immune Activation and HIV Co-receptor Expression: Response to Albendazole/Praziquantel Treatment

Background:it has been hypothesized that helminth infections increase hiv susceptibility by enhancing systemic immune activation and hence contribute to elevated hiv-1 transmission in sub-saharan africa.objective:to study systemic immune activation and hiv-1 co-receptor expression in relation to different helminth infections and in response to helminth treatment.methods:hiv-negative adults with (n = 189) or without (n = 57) different helminth infections,as diagnosed by kato-katz,were enrolled in mbeya,tanzania. blinded to helminth infection status,t cell differentiation (cd45ro,cd27),activation (hla-dr,cd38) and ccr5 expression was determined at baseline and 3 months after albendazole/praziquantel treatment. plasma cytokine levels were compared using a cytometric bead array.results:trichuris and ascaris infections were linked to increased frequencies of activated cd4 and/or cd8 t cells (p<0.05),whereas hookworm infection was associated with a trend towards decreased hla-dr+ cd8 t cell frequencies (p = 0.222). in trichuris infected subjects,there was a linear correlation between hla-dr+ cd4 t cell frequencies and the cytokines il-1β and il-10 (p<0.05). helminth treatment with albendazole and praziquantel significantly decreased eosinophilia for s. mansoni and hookworm infections (p<0.005) but not for trichuris infection and only moderately modulated t cell activation. ccr5 surface density on memory cd4 t cells was increased by 1.2-fold during trichuris infection (p-value: 0.053) and reduced after treatment (p = 0.003).conclusions:increased expression of t cell activation markers was associated with trichuris and ascaris infections with relatively little effect of helminth treatment. © 2014 chachage et al.