Presence and function of EBV-specific CD8⁺ T cells and EBV load in 2 HIV-1 infected LTA individuals and 1 HIV-1 infected individual progressing to AIDS-OI.

On the x-axis, follow-up is indicated in months after HIV-1⁺ entry in the study. The arrows indicate the time of AIDS diagnosis (OI) and start of HAART. (A) Longitudinal analysis of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T-lymphocyte numbers. (●) indicates CD4; (○), CD8. (B) Longitudinal analysis of EBV-specific CD8⁺ T lymphocytes as assessed by tetramer staining as a composite of all tested tetramers (solid line) and IFN-γ Elispot assay (dashed line), as described in “Patients, materials, and methods.” (●) indicates tetramer; (○), IFN-γ. (C) Longitudinal analysis of EBV load, expressed as the number of virus copies per 10⁶ PBMCs (solid line), in comparison with the number of functional EBV-specific CD8⁺ T lymphocytes per 10⁶ CD8⁺ T cells (dashed line). (●) indicates EBV load; (○), IFN-γ.