P07-11 LB. Impact of highly active antiretroviral therapy on cell-free and cell-associated HIV-1 in cervicovaginal secretions and blood

Results Cell-free HIV-1 RNA was frequently detected in CVS from patients viremic for HIV RNA in plasma but was unusual in aviremic patients (75% versus 16%, and mean = 5921 copies/ml versus 2696 copies/ml, respectively, P < 0.001). Levels of HIV-1 RNA were positively correlated in CVS and plasma (ρ = 0.7, P < 0.001). CVS contains low T lymphocytes quantities (mean = 120 CD4+ cells/ml and 133 CD8+ cells/ml) and CVS-derived CD4+ T cells are mostly memory and activated lymphocytes (CD45RA-, HLA-DR+, CD38+, CD69+). Those cells were strikingly different from blood CD4+ T cells with a phenotype exhibiting a mucosal profile with higher expression of CD103 combined with lower expression of CCR7. Cell-associated HIV-1 RNA was detectable in only 3/51 CVS including 2 from viremic patients, whereas 28/51 plasma cell-culture supernatants were positive. Levels of cell-associated HIV-1 RNA were higher in blood samples of viremic individuals than in undetectable subjects (P = 0.01).