IMR Press / FBL / Volume 13 / Issue 5 / DOI: 10.2741/2784

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Nelfinavir monotherapy increases naïve T-cell numbers in HIV-negative healthy young adults
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1 Division of Infectious Diseases, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN 55905
2 Primary Care Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN 55905
3 Department of Surgery and Immunology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN 55905
4 Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN 55905
5 Program in Translational Immunovirology and Biodefense, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN 55905
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2008, 13(5), 1605–1609; https://doi.org/10.2741/2784
Published: 1 January 2008
Abstract

Although patients treated with HIV protease inhibitor (PI) containing regimens manifest increases in naïve T cell number, it is unclear whether this is due to reduction in viral replication or a direct drug effect. We questioned whether Nelfinavir monotherapy directly impacted naïve T-cell number in HIV-negative individuals. HIV-negative volunteers received Nelfinavir, 1250 mg orally, BID for 3 weeks, and T-cell receptor recombination excision circles (TREC) content in peripheral blood were assessed. Whereas TREC copies did not change over 3 weeks in untreated controls, TREC copies/copies CCR5 increased following Nelfinavir monotherapy in 8 patients (p<0.02), and did not change in 7 patients (p=NS). Those patients who responded were younger than those who did not with a median age of 55 years for responders and 71 years for non-responders (p<0.03). The increase in TREC was most pronounced in those patients less than 40-years old (p<0.01). Moreover, the patients who did not increase TREC levels were more likely to have suffered a medical illness previously shown to reduce thymic function. In HIV-negative patients, monotherapy with the HIV PI Nelfinavir for 21 days increases TREC-positive naïve T cell number, particularly in individuals who are healthy and young.

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