CD4 cell counts help in assessment of AIDS or death risk in HIV-infected adults on cART

Public release date: 20-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Clare Weaver press@plos.org 44-122-344-2834 Public Library of Science

Using data from the Collaboration of Observational HIV Epidemiological Research in Europe (COHERE), Jim Young and colleagues from The Opportunistic Infections Project Team of COHERE show in this week's PLoS Medicine that in successfully treated patients, the risk of a new AIDS event or death follows a CD4 cell count gradient in patients with viral suppression. An increase in CD4 cell count provides the greatest benefit for patients with a CD4 cell count below 200 cells/L but still provides some benefit for those with a CD4 cell count above 500 cells/L, report the authors.

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Funding: The COHERE study group has received generic funding from: Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le SIDA et les Hpatites Virales (ANRS), France; HIV Monitoring Foundation, The Netherlands; and the Augustinus Foundation, Denmark COHERE, which receives funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under EuroCoord grant agreement nu 260694. A list of the funders of the participating cohorts can be found on the Regional Coordinating Centre websites at http://www.cphiv.dk/COHERE/tabid/295/Default.aspx and http://etudes.isped.u-bordeaux2.fr/cohere. This project was funded by unrestricted grants from the Emile Dreyfuss Foundation, Basel, Switzerland and the Stiftung fr Infektiologie Beider Basel, Basel, Switzerland. Jim Young and Heiner C. Bucher are supported by Sant suisse and the Gottfried and Julia-Bangerter-Rhyner-Foundation. These funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: PR in the last 3 years has served as a scientific advisor to Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Inc, GlaxoSmithKline, ViiV Healthcare, Merck & Co, Inc, Tibotec Therapeutics, and Ferrer. PR has served in the last three years on data and safety monitoring boards and endpoint adjudication committees for Tibotec Therapeutics and has received honoraria for speaking engagements at scientific conferences from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Inc, GlaxoSmithKline. PR has received research support from Gilead Sciences, ViiV Healthcare, Tibotec, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, Abbott and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. FG has received honoraria for participation on advisory boards, unrestricted educational grants or travel grants from Abbott, BMS, ViiV Healthcare, Gilead, MSD, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and Tibotec-Janssen. HF's institution has received payments for participation in advisory boards and/or unrestricted educational grants and/or travel grants from Abbott, BMS, ViiV Healthcare, Roche, Gilead, MSD, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Tibotec-Janssen and unrestricted research support from Gilead, MSD, and Roche. JM has received travel grants, as well as speaker fees from Abbott, Gilead, BMS Gilead, GSK, Tibotec and Merck Sharp. In the past 3 years, GC has received consulting fees (Scientific Committee) from Roche, and has had scientific responsibilities in projects receiving specific grant support from Gilead, Tibotec, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Pfizer, MSD, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen, ViiV Healthcare and managed through her Institution or a non-profit society. Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Pfizer, MSD, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen, ViiV Healthcare and managed through GC's Institution or a non-profit society. HB has received travel grants, honoraria and unrestricted research grants from various pharmaceutical companies including, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Gilead, Janssen, Roche, Abbott, Tibotec, Boehringer-Ingelheim and ViiV Healtcare. All other authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Citation: The Opportunistic Infections Project Team of the Collaboration of Observational HIV Epidemiological Research in Europe (COHERE) in EuroCoord (2012) CD4 Cell Count and the Risk of AIDS or Death in HIV-Infected Adults on Combination Antiretroviral Therapy with a Suppressed Viral Load: A Longitudinal Cohort Study from COHERE. PLoS Med 9(3): e1001194. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001194

Copyright: 2012 Collaboration of Observational HIV Epidemiological Research in Europe (COHERE). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

CONTACT: Jim Young Basel Institute for Clinical Epidemiology University Hospital Basel Basel Switzerland jyoung@uhbs.ch

Original post:
CD4 cell counts help in assessment of AIDS or death risk in HIV-infected adults on cART