Similar Immunological Profiles Between Nonprogressing HIV Infection in Children and Nonpathogenic SIV Infection

In the absence of antirretroviral therapy (ART), HIV infection leads to progression to AIDS in most infected individuals. However, there is a small group of HIV-infected patients capable of spontaneously controlling HIV infection, known as the elite controllers (less than 1% of total infected population). These patients maintain undetectable levels of HIV replication, in part, due to a continuously effective HIV specific T cell response. Moreover, in HIV-infected patients with suppressed viremia under ART, a chronic activation of the immune system persist, which can be related to a poor clinical outcome including death, development of co-morbidities, AIDS and non-AIDS defining events. Indeed, several studies highlight that a high level of immune activation rather than HIV replication is the major contributing factor to progression during HIV infection.