Pentraxin 3 as an Immune Recovery Marker in HIV Infection After Combination Antiretroviral Therapy

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection causes chronic inflammation in affected individuals. Chronic inflammation may hinder immunological recovery. Treatment with combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) is insufficient to reduce inflammation. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is an inflammatory marker associated with cardiovascular disease, malignancy, and acute infection. This study evaluated the usefulness of serum PTX3 levels in measuring inflammation levels, which may be associated with the probability of immune recovery in people living with HIV (PLH). In this single-center prospective study, we measured serum PTX3 levels in PLH treated with cART. Clinical information on HIV status, type of cART administered, and CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell counts at the initial diagnosis of HIV and at study enrollment was obtained from each participant. PLH were divided into good and poor responder groups according to their CD4(+) T cell counts at enrollment. A total of 198 PLH were enrolled in this study. A total of 175 and 23 participants were assigned to the good and poor responder groups, respectively. The poor responder group exhibited higher PTX3 levels (0.53 ng/mL vs. 1.26 ng/mL, p = .032). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that low body mass index [odds ratio (OR) = 0.8, p = .010], low initial CD4(+) T cell counts at diagnosis (OR = 0.994, p = .001), and high PTX3 levels (OR = 1.545, p = .006) are clinical factors that were significantly associated with poor immune recovery in PLH. According to the Youden index, PTX3 levels >1.25 ng/mL are associated with poor immune recovery. PLH should be clinically, virologically, and immunologically evaluated. Serum PTX level is a useful inflammatory marker associated with immune recovery in PLH treated with cART.