Correlation of CD4 ⁺ T-Cell Counts Estimated by an Immunocapture Technique (Capcellia) with Viral Loads in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Seropositive Individuals

Abstract

As antiretroviral therapy becomes more affordable, valid, reliable, and inexpensive laboratory tests are also needed to monitor the progression of disease in people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The CD4؉ T-cell counts estimated by Capcellia, an immunocapture method, and flow cytometry were compared and were correlated with HIV type 1 (HIV-1) load. There was a significant negative correlation between the HIV-1 load and CD4 ؉ T-cell counts estimated by flow cytometry (r ‫؍‬ ؊0.63, P ‫؍‬ <0.001) as well as between the HIV-1 load and CD4؉ T-cell counts estimated by Capcellia (r ‫؍‬ ؊0.61, P ‫؍‬ <0.001). Capcellia is a cost-effective, user-friendly assay that correlated well with HIV-1 load determinations for individuals both with and without treatment.

A Microchip CD4 Counting Method for HIV Monitoring in Resource-Poor Settings

“…Single-purpose flow cytometers have been designed solely for counting CD4 cells, such as the Becton Dickinson FACSCount, the Partec CyFlow, and desktop instruments from Guava and PointCare Technologies. Although these newer versions make flow cytometry more affordable in some settings, reagent costs remain high, and the instruments remain expensive and in most cases, technically complex [7–13]. Low-cost microbead separation of CD4 cells from other blood cells, followed by standard manual cell counting techniques using a light microscope, offers significantly lower reagent costs than flow cytometry.…”

“…Low-cost microbead separation of CD4 cells from other blood cells, followed by standard manual cell counting techniques using a light microscope, offers significantly lower reagent costs than flow cytometry. These methods, however, are low throughput and extremely labor intensive, and appear to be less accurate than traditional flow cytometry; thus, they have not been widely adopted [13–18]. …”

HLA Class II Antigens and Their Interactive Effect on Perinatal Mother-To-Child HIV-1 Transmission

“…Due to sample storage conditions in Kenya and the absence of reliable viral load testing methods during the period of study, we do not have viral load information for these women. However, studies showed that CD4+ count and the percentage of CD4+ T cells of the patients infected with HIV-1 are negatively correlated to the viral load [ 26 , 27 ] and analysis of the correlation of log viral load with CD4+ T cell counts and the percent of CD4+ T cells in a group of drug naïve Kenyan women also showed a linear correlation (Multiple R:0.921, R 2 : 0.848), the similar CD4+ counts for both groups of women in the absence of anti-retroviral treatment (>500) indicate that they were healthy and with comparable viral load at the time of this study. Furthermore, CD4+ and CD8+ T cell counts stratified by different HLA class II phenotypes (data not shown) associated with different outcomes showed no significant difference during the time of this study.…”

Advances in CD4 cell enumeration in resource-poor countries

“…This assay requires a skilled technician and is labor-intensive. It previously compared well with other assays [33,34], but more recent results in Africa were disappointing [31 ,35].…”