The impact of maternal anti-retroviral therapy on cytokine profile in the uninfected neonates

The number of HIV-infected young women has been increasing since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. The objective of the present study was to investigate the impact of anti-retroviral treatment (ART) of HIV1-infected pregnant women (PW) on cytokine profile of uninfected neonates. Our results demonstrated that higher levels of IL-1 beta and TNF-alpha associated with lower IL-10 production were detected in the plasma obtained from neonates born from ART-treated PW. Furthermore, the production of TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma was also significantly higher in polyclonally-activated T cells from those neonates. This elevated pro-inflammatory pattern detected by these activated-T cells was not associated to HIV-1 antigens sensitization. Finally, ART-exposed neonates showed to be born with lower weight, and it was inversely correlated with maternal peripheral TNF-a level. In summary, the data presented here suggest a significant disturbance in cytokine network of HIV-1-uninfected neonates exposed to potent anti-retroviral schemes during pregnancy. (C) 2013 American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.