[Treatment of HIV infections with antiretroviral drugs and recombinant interleukin-2].

The clinical effect of combination antiretroviral therapy against HIV-infection is indisputable, but the current treatment does not produce complete immuno-restitution. Many HIV-positive patients change treatment, because of side effects and virological failure. Owing to the limited number of treatment combinations, supplementary treatment is greatly needed. Intermittent subcutaneous rIL-2 treatment plus antiretroviral combination therapy results in a selective and long-lasting induction of CD4+ cells in 70-80% of HIV-patients and lowers the amount of replication competent virus in blood and lymph nodes. The expanded cell population consists of both naive cells and memory cells with the ability to respond to antigenic stimulation. It is not known whether the rise in the number of CD4+ cells reflects a better clinical outcome. This question is currently under investigation in two global phase III trials, namely the SILCAAT and the ESPRIT studies.