HIV-1 TAT: A potential diagnostic and disease progression biomarker of HIV/AIDS

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) constitutes a national threat to Indonesia from many perspectives because the number of new cases there is increasing faster than in any of the other countries in Asia. Susceptibility to opportunistic infection leads to high morbidity and mortality rates, especially because HAART is not widely distributed. A diagnosis of AIDS is often confirmed only after the patient is severely immunocompromised. HIV-1 TAT is a HIV regulatory protein which plays an important role in viral replication. Extracellular TAT has been associated with many pathological conditions related to AIDS. To detect the presence of TAT in plasma as a means of assessing its potency as a diagnostic and progression marker of HIV/AIDS. An analytic observational study was conducted on 80 HIV(+) patients and 30 control patients in Soetomo Hospital. The diagnosis of HIV was confirmed by reference to medical records. A CD4+ count was effected by flowcytometry, while the HIV-1 TAT plasma level was measured by means of ELISA. The correlation between the CD4+ count and HIV-1 TAT plasma level was analyzed by Pearson. HIV-1 TAT presented only in HIV(+) patients. Increased HIV-1 TAT plasma level correlates to a decreased CD4+ count (r=-0.912; p=0.000, p<0.049). HIV-1 TAT is a potential diagnostic biomarker indicating the degree of disease progression of HIV/AIDS.