Abossie Ashenafi, Petros Beyene
Medical Laboratory Technology Team, Arba Minch College of Health Sciences, P. O. Box 155, Arba Minch, Ethiopia.
Department of Microbial, Cellular and Molecular Biology, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box. 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
BMC Res Notes. 2015 Sep 28;8:483. doi: 10.1186/s13104-015-1461-9.
Helminths/HIV co-infections are very common in developing countries, especially in Africa. The effect of overlapping distribution of HIV and helminths becomes important because concomitant infection may exacerbate disease outcome of HIV infection. The study aimed at determining the effect of deworming on the immune status of helminth/HIV coinfected Pre-ART HIV patients attending three health institutions in Southern Ethiopia.
97 HIV-positive Pre-ART individuals were observed into 2 groups on the basis of helminth co-infection and no infection. Out of these, 66 study participants were helminths/HIV co-infected and the remaining 31 study participants were helminths (-)/HIV (+) control. Helminth/HIV co-infected participants CD4+ T-cell count was done at baseline, after 15 weeks and 6 months after antihelminthics treatment. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.
Ascaris lumbricoides was the highest prevalent soil transmitted helminths in Pre-ART individuals in this study. CD4+ T-cell count in the Ascaris lumricoides/HIV co-infected was significantly higher (P = 0.05) and (P < 0.05) after 15 weeks and 6 months post-antihelminthics treatment respectively. Also, after antihelminthic therapy, the CD4+ T-cell count significantly increased (P < 0.005) in all treated helminth infections.
The study showed that treatment of ascariasis had a significant effect on CD4+ T-cell count increase in the treated Pre-ART Ascaris lumbricoides/HIV co-infected individuals; whereas the same positive effect was not evident for other intestinal helminth parasites detected in the study. In conclusion, this finding on Ascaris lumbricoides-specific nature of immune interaction in helminth/HIV co-infection may partly explain the inconsistent reports on the role of intestinal helminths on progression of HIV infection to AIDS. Therefore, a well-designed longitudinal study on helminth species-specific HIV/helminth co-infection will be needed to fully establish the possible benefits of deworming in intestinal helminth/HIV co-infection.
蠕虫/艾滋病毒合并感染在发展中国家非常普遍，尤其是在非洲。艾滋病毒和蠕虫重叠分布的影响变得很重要，因为合并感染可能会加剧艾滋病毒感染的疾病后果。该研究旨在确定驱虫对埃塞俄比亚南部三家医疗机构中接受抗逆转录病毒治疗前的蠕虫/艾滋病毒合并感染患者免疫状态的影响。
根据蠕虫合并感染和未感染情况，将97名艾滋病毒阳性的抗逆转录病毒治疗前个体分为两组。其中，66名研究参与者为蠕虫/艾滋病毒合并感染，其余31名研究参与者为蠕虫（-）/艾滋病毒（+）对照组。对蠕虫/艾滋病毒合并感染的参与者在基线时、抗蠕虫治疗15周后和6个月后进行CD4 + T细胞计数。使用SPSS 16版对数据进行分析。
在本研究中，蛔虫是抗逆转录病毒治疗前个体中最常见的土壤传播蠕虫。蛔虫/艾滋病毒合并感染组在抗蠕虫治疗15周和6个月后的CD4 + T细胞计数分别显著升高（P = 0.05）和（P < 0.05）。此外，抗蠕虫治疗后，所有接受治疗的蠕虫感染患者的CD4 + T细胞计数均显著增加（P < 0.005）。
该研究表明，治疗蛔虫感染对接受抗逆转录病毒治疗前的蛔虫/艾滋病毒合并感染个体的CD4 + T细胞计数增加有显著影响；而在该研究中检测到的其他肠道蠕虫寄生虫则未表现出同样的积极效果。总之，这一关于蠕虫/艾滋病毒合并感染中蛔虫特异性免疫相互作用性质的发现，可能部分解释了关于肠道蠕虫在艾滋病毒感染进展为艾滋病过程中作用的报告不一致的原因。因此，需要进行一项精心设计的关于蠕虫物种特异性艾滋病毒/蠕虫合并感染的纵向研究，以充分确定驱虫在肠道蠕虫/艾滋病毒合并感染中的潜在益处。
