Impact of HIV and Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Co-Infections on Antioxidant Status in Nigeria

Severe Oxidative stress has been reported in Tuberculosis infected individuals as a result of tissue inflammation, poor nutrition and poor immunity and this stress becomes more severe in those co-infected with HIV. Therefore the present study was designed to assess the antioxidant status of HIV infected participants with or without tuberculosis co-infections and in HIV seronegative participants infected with tuberculosis. 193 participants were randomly recruited for the study and grouped into: (i) Symptomatic HIV infected participants with tuberculosis co-infections (n = 67) (ii) symptomatic HIV infected participants without tuberculosis (n = 45) (iii) HIV seronegative participants with Tuberculosis (n = 52) and (IV) HIV seronegative control participants without tuberculosis (n = 29). Blood samples collected from the participants were used for HIV screening, CD4+T cell count, glutathione reductase activity, glutathione peroxidase activity, Total Antioxidant Status and albumin estimations. The results showed that glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase and Total Antioxidant Status were significantly lowered in both HIV infected participants with or without tuberculosis and HIV seronegative participants with tuberculosis (P<0.01), compared (in each case) with HIV seronegative participants without tuberculosis. The CD4+T cell count were significantly low in HIV infected participants with tuberculosis co-infections and HIV infected group without tuberculosis when compared with HIV seronegative participants with or without tuberculosis. However the CD4+T cell count in HIV infected participants with tuberculosis was not significantly different when compared with HIV infected participants without tuberculosis. The serum albumin were lowered in HIV infected participants with tuberculosis and tuberculosis infected participants (P<0.01 in each case). Correlation studies amongst groups showed significant correlation between CD4+T cell count and antioxidants in both HIV and tuberculosis co-infected participants and in HIV infected participants without tuberculosis (P<0.01 in each case). Serum albumin correlated positively with the antioxidants in both HIV infected participants and those co-infected with tuberculosis. There was no significant correlation between CD4+T cell count and the antioxidants in HIV seronegative participants with or without tuberculosis. The study observed alterations in the levels of glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase, total antioxidant status and albumin in tuberculosis infected participants and in HIV infected participants with and without tuberculosis. This could be as a result of greater utilization of antioxidants subsequent to increased oxidative stress. These findings also further support a link between oxidative stress, tuberculosis and HIV infection.