The term immune reconstitution has been used to describe the recovery of immune function following effective HIV
therapy. Early reports on the outcomes of potent antiviral therapy document a rise
in CD4 T-cell count, which initially was assumed to indicate an increase in overall
immune responsiveness. Subsequently, it was documented that increases in CD4 count
also included an increase in naive T-cell subsets and a renewed responsiveness to
recall antigens. As explored in this article, the clinical and basic immunologic changes
that represent immune reconstitution span a variety of functions and outcomes. This
article reviews the outcomes of effective treatment on immune function and the repair
of immune organs and addresses new therapies that aim to enhance HIV-specific immunity.
Overall, the onset of long-term suppression of viral replication with antiviral therapy
has opened a new field of interventions that clearly rests on the ability of the immune
system to recover from damage caused by viral replication.
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Article info
Footnotes
☆This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants HL62060 and AI45318 to DW; and Philadelphia Foundation (Robert I. Jacobs Fund), M. Stengel-Miller, H.S. Miller Jr., AIDS funds from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and National Institutes of Health grants AI47760, AI44304, and AI34412 to LJM.
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© 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
