Individuals who exhibit long-term HIV suppression and CD4 T-cell preservation without antiretroviral therapy are of great interest for HIV research. There is currently no robust method for rapid identification of these “HIV controller” subjects; however, HLA-B*57 (human leukocyte antigen (major histocompatibility complex), class I, B*57) genotype exhibits modest sensitivity for this phenotype. Complement C3b and C4b can influence HIV infection and replication, but studies have not examined their possible link to HIV controller status. We analyzed HLA-B*57 genotype and complement levels in HIV-positive patients receiving suppressive antiretroviral therapy, untreated HIV controllers, and HIV-negative subjects to identify factors associated with HIV controller status. Our results revealed that the plasma levels of three C4b-derived peptides and complement factor I outperformed all other assayed biomarkers for HIV controller identification, although we could not analyze the predictive value of biomarker combinations with the current sample size. We believe this rapid screening approach may prove useful for improved identification of HIV controllers.

中文翻译：

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血浆血浆补体因子I和C4b肽水平与HIV抑制相关

表现出长期HIV抑制和CD4 T细胞保存而未使用抗逆转录病毒疗法的个体对HIV研究非常感兴趣。当前尚没有可靠的方法可以快速识别这些“ HIV控制者”受试者。但是，HLA-B * 57（人类白细胞抗原（主要组织相容性复合物），I类，B * 57）基因型对该表型表现出中等敏感性。补体C3b和C4b可以影响HIV的感染和复制，但是研究尚未检查它们与HIV控制者状态的可能联系。我们分析了接受抑制性抗逆转录病毒治疗的HIV阳性患者，未经治疗的HIV控制者和HIV阴性受试者的HLA-B * 57基因型和补体水平，以确定与HIV控制者状态相关的因素。我们的研究结果表明，尽管我们无法用当前样本量分析生物标志物组合的预测价值，但三种C4b衍生肽和补体因子I的血浆水平优于所有其他测定的生物标志物，可用于HIV控制器识别。我们认为，这种快速筛查方法可能被证明有助于改进对HIV控制者的识别。