Relationship between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection and periodontitis.

Abstract

The revolution of ART made HIV-1 infection a chronic controllable disease, reduced HIV-1 mortality rate, and dramatically increased life expectancy of HIV-1-infected patients. In this scenario, periodontitis assumes an important role in the HIV-1 infection status for activating systemic inflammation favoring viral replication and influencing HIV-1 status, and also acting as a possible reservoir of HIV-1. All these issues still need to be clarified and validated, and have important clinical implications that certainly will benefit the diagnosis and management of chronic periodontitis in HIV-1-infected patients. Then, the aim of this study is to determine factors that can be involved in the relationship of periodontitis and HIV-1 infection, including those related to microbial population, biomarkers involved on the inflammatory response against the microorganism, and role of gingival tissues as a reservoir of HIV-1. It consists of a quasi-experiment study in which HIV-1 patients and non-HIV-1 patients with and without chronic periodontitis will be included. All HIV-1 infected patients should be under regular HAART, and for the reservoir study, to present non-detectable viral load. Clinical periodontal parameters, oral microbial population and biomarkers in saliva, gingival crevicular fluid and plasma will be determined before, 30 and 90 days after the periodontal treatment. Additionally, we intend to determine the immunophenotypic profile and viral RNA and DNA of the gingival tissue of patients with and without periodontitis. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the School of Dentistry of Ribeirão Preto (CAAE: 50004415.1.0000.5419), and all patients need to provide written informed consent. (AU)