Quantifying the impact of human immunodeficiency virus-1 escape from cytotoxic T-lymphocytes.

ABSTRACT: HIV-1 escape from the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response leads to a weakening of viral control and is likely to be detrimental to the patient. To date, the impact of escape on viral load and CD4(+) T cell count has not been quantified, primarily because of sparse longitudinal data and the difficulty of separating cause and effect in cross-sectional studies. We use two independent methods to quantify the impact of HIV-1 escape from CTLs in chronic infection: mathematical modelling of escape and statistical analysis of a cross-sectional cohort. Mathematical modelling revealed a modest increase in log viral load of 0.051 copies ml(-1) per escape event. Analysis of the cross-sectional cohort revealed a significant positive association between viral load and the number of "escape events", af

SUBMITTER: Kadolsky UD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2973816 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature