Does rapid HIV disease progression prior to combination antiretroviral therapy hinder optimal CD4+ T-cell recovery once HIV-1 suppression is achieved? AIDS
Jarrin et al. on behalf of CASCADE compared trends in CD4+ T-cell recovery and the proportion achieving optimal restoration counts between rapid and nonrapid progressors after viral suppression following combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) initiation. They found that rapid progressors experienced a faster CD4+ T-cell increase in first month compared to nonrapid progressors. In contrast, rapid progressors less likely achieved counts of at least 500 cells/µl at months 12 and 36 but not at month 60. These differences disappeared after adjusting for baseline CD4+ T-cell count.
The study-findings underscore the current recommendation that cART should be started as soon as possible after HIV-1 diagnosis regardless of the CD4+ T-cell count.