14th International AIDS Conference


Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

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Study of complement system in HIV-infected children.

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. A10075)

Yu CL, Negra MD, Grumach AS, Kirschfink M, Ferriani VP, Queiroz W
Instituto de Infectologia Emilio Ribas, Sao Paulo, Brazil

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the complement system in HIV infected children, in different stages of infection.

METHODS: The study included 127 perinatally HIV infected children, age from 11 to134 months (mean=59,2 mo); 62 were male and 65 female. The patients were classified according to the CDC clinical and immunological criteria of 1994. The assessment of the complement system included the classical (CH50), alternative (APH50) and lectine(MBP) pathways, as well as fragment of activation- C3d. Other tests for evaluation of the immune system were lymphocyte subpopulations (CD4 and CD8 subsets) and immunoglobulin titers (IgA, IgG and IgM). For statistical analysis of data the ANOM, DUNCAN and ANOVA test were used.

RESULTS: The most frequent infectious processes were bacterial pneumonia, otitis media and diarrheal illness; the Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia was the most frequent opportunistic infection. Tuberculosis was found in 31,5% of the children, regardless of the immunological classification. Cardiomiopathy was the unique clinical presentation with correlation with the immunological status. Hypergammaglobulinemia was observed in almost all children, regardless of the immunological classification. Among the patients of the clinical category N, we observed a smaller number of children who presented IgM titers above the superior limit of normality when compared with others categories. No statistical difference in classical, alternative and lectine pathway was observed among the different categories, despite the observation of increased mean values of CH50, APH50 and MBP found in patients classified in most advanced stages of HIV disease; similar result was observed in C3d values.

CONCLUSION: In this study the activation of the complement system was present in all stages of HIV infection, suggesting an important role in the developing immune system of these children.

Keywords: AEGIS, HIV, HIV Infections, Complement, HIV Seropositivity, Pneumonia, Pneumocystis, HIV Antibodies, HIV Antigens, HIV Seronegativity, Complement Activation, Complement Pathway, Classical, Child, Human, Female, Male, pathogenicity, immunologyKWDaegis,hiv,hivinfections,complement,hivseropositivity,pneumonia,pneumocystis,hivantibodies,hivantigens,hivseronegativity,complementactivation,complementpathway,classical,child,human,female,male,pathogenicity,immunology

020707
A10075

Copyright © 2002 - International AIDS Society (IAS). Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the IAS.