Fig 5. HIV-specific CD4⁺ T-cell responses were amplified by IL-2 treatment and inversely correlate with VL after treatment interruption.

(A) Example of gating strategy used for detecting antigen-specific CD4⁺CD25⁺CD134⁺ cells after in vitro stimulation with p24 or none (OX40 assay), at wk0, wk16 and wk36. (B and D) Representation of HIV- and CMV- specific CD4⁺CD25⁺CD134⁺ percentages in patients at wk0, wk16 and wk36 using the gating strategy shown in (A). (C and E) Correlations between %CD4⁺CD25⁺CD134⁺ and viral load at resuming ART, at wk36 for p24 and CMV, respectively. Correlations were calculated using spearman correlation coefficients (Prism 5.0, version 5.0d). P values were considered significant when < 0.05.