Plasma Cytokine Levels As Predictors of Global and Domain-Specific Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Associated Neurocognitive Impairment in Treatment-Naive Individuals.

Central nervous system dysfunction, associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, remains a significant clinical concern, affecting at least 50% of infected people. Imbalances in cytokine expression levels have been linked to HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate plasma cytokine levels as predictor neurocognitive impairment in HIV infection using a multiplex profiling kit. Stepwise regression model was used to identify cytokine biomarkers of overall and domain-specific cognitive performance. Higher interleukin (IL)-2 ( = 0.04;  = 0.001) and eotaxin ( = 0.01;  = 0.017) were predictors of global neurocognitive, whereas higher IL-5 ( = 0.005;  = 0.007) was negative predictor of global cognitive deficit. IL-2 was a negative predictor of most cognitive domain functions, including recall ( = 0.24;  = 0.005), recognition ( = 0.04;  = 0.026), mental control ( = 0.38;  = 0.005), symbol search ( = -0.55;  = 0.001), and digital symbol ( = -0.79;  = 0.019). IL-6 was associated with 3 impaired domains, mental processing ( = -0.468;  = 0.027), recognition ( = -0.044;  = 0.012), and learning ( = 0.02668;  = 0.020) These results show that plasma cytokines/chemokines may serve as markers of neurocognitive impairment in HIV infection.