Gag-specific cytotoxic responses to HIV type 1 are associated with a decreased risk of progression to AIDS-related complex or AIDS.

The duration of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection prior to the development of AIDS is variable, and for most patients the exact time of infection is not known. A group of 38 HIV-1-infected subjects was tested while asymptomatic for comparative cytotoxic lymphocyte responses to the Gag and envelope antigens of HIV-1. Twenty of the 38 patients had no detectable primary cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response to Gag, and this was associated with a relative risk of 1.89 for progression to ARC or AIDS during the subsequent 3 to 40 months of observation when compared with patients who had Gag-specific CTL activity at the beginning of the observation period. In contrast, no significant association was observed between envelope-specific cytotoxic activity and disease progression. Other patient characteristics, including CD4+ T lymphocyte counts and antibody levels to the p24gag protein, measured at the start of observation, did not correlate with disease progression during the observation period. This suggests that the anti-Gag CTL response may be protective during HIV-1 infection.

[Criteria of detection and treatment of rejection crises following human cardiac transplantation in a series of 10 cases]. / Critères de détection et traitement des crises de rejet après transplantation cardiaque humaine sur une série de 10 cas

Analysis of a series of 10 cardiac transplantations confirmed that the reject phenomena have a paroxysmal course, the diagnosis of which is different according to the time occurence of the reject crises, whether early (acute early rejection) or late (late acute rejection or chronic rejection). Because of the early diagnosis based on the follow-up of the electrocardiogram, of coagulation, of the graft flow, overcome eight rejection crises on the 3 patients with middle-term survival.