Time course of plasma viral load in PHI patients between the pre-inclusion visit (∼d-7) and inclusion of the study (d0).

<p>Values for patients who experienced a decline of at least 0.3 log in their viral load (arbitrary threshold) during this period are shown in red, and those from patients whose viral load remained stable are in blue.</p

ADCC responses in HIV-1 Viremic and Controller (HIC) patients.

<p>The whisker plots represent the distribution of Log₁₀ ADCC Ab titers among the 40 viremic and the 67 HIC patients. ADCC activity was detected according to our previously described ADCC-GranToxiLux (GTL) procedure <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0074855#pone.0074855-Pollara1" target="_blank">[13]</a>.</p

Scatterplot with overlaid linear prediction plot between the log₁₀ ADCC titers and (A) the log₁₀ RNA HIV-1 viral load (r = 0.37 and p = 0.03 in B57-, r = 0.43 and p = 0.02 in B57+), (B) the number of HIV-specific CD8 T cells (r = 0.21 and p = 0.31 in B57-, r = 0.44 and p = 0.02 in B57+), or (C) the ability of CD8 T cell to control viral replication quantified by the log₁₀ p24 decrease (r = 0.02 and p = 0.93 in B57-, r = 0.60 and p = 0.0008 in B57+), respectively in HLA B57+ (red) and HLA B57- controllers (blue).

<p>Scatterplot with overlaid linear prediction plot between the log₁₀ ADCC titers and (A) the log₁₀ RNA HIV-1 viral load (r = 0.37 and p = 0.03 in B57-, r = 0.43 and p = 0.02 in B57+), (B) the number of HIV-specific CD8 T cells (r = 0.21 and p = 0.31 in B57-, r = 0.44 and p = 0.02 in B57+), or (C) the ability of CD8 T cell to control viral replication quantified by the log₁₀ p24 decrease (r = 0.02 and p = 0.93 in B57-, r = 0.60 and p = 0.0008 in B57+), respectively in HLA B57+ (red) and HLA B57- controllers (blue).</p

Characteristics of HIV controllers and viremic untreated patients.

*<p>quantified with ultrasensitive test.</p

The whisker plots represent the distribution of Log₁₀ ADCC Ab titers among the viremic and the HIC patients, separated according to B57 status.

<p>The whisker plots represent the distribution of Log₁₀ ADCC Ab titers among the viremic and the HIC patients, separated according to B57 status.</p

Similar HIV-specific T cell responses in PHI-patients and HIC.

<p><b>A.</b> PHI patients: frequency of CD4+ T-cells producing at least one cytokine (IFN-γ, MIP-1β or IL-2) in response to HIV-p24 stimulation, as determined by ICS (left); percentage of patients with a positive CD4+ T-cell response (centre); and frequency of HIV-specific CD4+ T-cells producing one, two or three cytokines (right) <b>B.</b> same experiments with CD8+ T-cells challenged with MHC-matched optimal HIV-1 peptides. <b>C.</b> Comparative frequency of IFNγ- (left) and IL2 (right)-producing CD4+ T-cells in PHI patients and HIC. D. <i>Idem</i> for CD8+ T-cells. Each symbol represents one individual. Medians are shown as horizontal lines.</p

Characteristics of groups of patients included in the study.

1<p>PHI, Primary HIV Infection;</p>2<p>HIC: HIV controllers;</p>3<p>NA: not applicable.</p

Univariate and multivariate bootstrap linear regression analysis of the role of age, sex, HLA B57, Delay since diagnosis, and the CD4 T cell counts or HIV-1 RNA levels in log₁₀ ADCC in the 67 HIV-infected patients enrolled in the ANRS CO18 cohort.

<p>The multivariate analysis included all variables.</p>*<p>per one year increase; ** per a 1 log copies/mL increase, ***per a 100-CD4 increase;. Weak responders were compared to Strong responders; females were compared to males, HLA B57 positive patients to HLA B57 negative patients, White patients were compared with others, HLA B27 positive patients to HLA B27 negative patients. **** The number of HIV-specific CD8 T cells was not included in the multivariate analysis because there was a strong link with the Weak/Strong Responders status: all the Weak Responders had SFC below the median (less than 1960 SFC).</p

High antigen sensitivity is associated with a high frequency of CD38⁻/HLA-DR⁺ cells in HIC.

<p>The antigen sensitivity of HIV-specific CD8⁺ T cells was measured in ELISpot assays with serial limiting dilutions of antigenic peptides (from 10⁻⁵ to 10⁻¹¹ M) and was expressed as the log molar concentration of peptide yielding 50% of the maximum response (EC_50%). Correlations between the proportion of CD38⁻/HLA-DR⁺ (A) or CD38⁺/HLA-DR⁺ (B) and the antigen sensitivity of HIV-specific CD8⁺ T cells from HIC. Correlations were evaluated using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. The Spearman r correlation and the Pearson correlation curve are indicated for significant correlations (n = 47).</p

Predicted trajectories of mean √CD4 cell counts since HIV diagnosis according to blip status during the period of HIV control (81 HIV controllers, 1668 CD4 measurements).

<p>Predicted trajectories of mean √CD4 cell counts since HIV diagnosis according to blip status during the period of HIV control (81 HIV controllers, 1668 CD4 measurements).</p