Untreated HIV-1 infection and low CD4+ T cell counts and their effect on endemic human coronavirus (re)infection

Ferdyansyah Sechan; Anne W M van den Hurk; T Sonia Boender; Maria Prins; Amy Matser; Margreet Bakker; Neeltje A Kootstra; Lia van der Hoek

doi:10.1371/journal.pgph.0004610

Untreated HIV-1 infection and low CD4+ T cell counts and their effect on endemic human coronavirus (re)infection

Ferdyansyah Sechan
, Anne W M van den Hurk
, T Sonia Boender
, Maria Prins
, Amy Matser
, Margreet Bakker
, Neeltje A Kootstra
, Lia van der Hoek

Health Sciences

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

People living with HIV-1 (PLWH) treated with combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) have similar incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to people without HIV-1 (PWoH). Yet, roughly 25% PLWH worldwide are currently not accessing cART. The influence of CD4+ T cell depletion on human coronavirus (HCoV) (re)infection risk, including SARS-CoV-2, is largely unknown. In this research, we investigated the incidence of infection by the four endemic HCoVs (HCoV-NL63, HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, and HCoV-HKU1), to inform on future reinfections by SARS-CoV-2. We compared the HCoV infection incidence rate between PLWH (n = 24) and PWoH (n = 25) who were followed up in 1984-1993; i.e., before cART became generally available in high income countries. Both populations were followed up at 6-month intervals for 7 or 8 years. We also compared the HCoV infection incidence rate among PLWH with and without immune deficiency, defined as CD4+ T cell count < 350 cell/mm3 and > 350 cell/mm3 respectively. We found that the antibody levels for all HCoVs were significantly lower in PLWH than PWoH across all timepoints. However, we observed no significant difference on HCoV infection incidence rate between PLWH and PWoH. We also observed no difference in HCoV infection incidence rate among PLWH with and without immune deficiency. We conclude that PLWH not on cART may not be at increased risk of HCoV reinfections.

Original language	English
Article number	e0004610
Pages (from-to)	1-12
Number of pages	12
Journal	PLOS Global Public Health
Volume	5
Issue number	6
Early online date	18 Jun 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0004610
Publication status	Published - Jun 2025

Bibliographical note

Copyright: © 2025 Sechan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions “HONOURs” (grant agreement no. 721367 to LvdH). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We gratefully acknowledge the Amsterdam Cohort Studies (ACS) on HIV infection, a collaboration between the Public Health Service of Amsterdam, the Amsterdam UMC, Medical Center Jan van Goyen, and the HIV Focus Center of the DC-Clinics. It is part of the Netherlands HIV Monitoring Foundation and financially supported by the Center for Infectious Disease Control of the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. We sincerely thank all ACS participants for their contribution, as well as the ACS study staff, data managers, and laboratory technicians. We specifically thank Maaike Soors d’Ancona for providing the socio-demographic and behavioral data of our study population. Funding: This work was supported by a grant from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions “HONOURs” We gratefully acknowledge the Amsterdam Cohort Studies (ACS) on HIV infection, a collaboration between the Public Health Service of Amsterdam, the Amsterdam UMC, Medical Center Jan van Goyen, and the HIV Focus Center of the DC-Clinics. It is part of the Netherlands HIV Monitoring Foundation and financially supported by the Center for Infectious Disease Control of the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. We sincerely thank all ACS participants for their contribution, as well as the ACS study staff, data managers, and laboratory technicians. We specifically thank Maaike Soors d’Ancona for providing the socio-demographic and behavioral data of our study population. (grant agreement no. 721367 to LvdH). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Funders	Funder number
Stichting HIV Monitoring
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
Netherlands HIV Monitoring Foundation
Public Health Service of Amsterdam
Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment
Maaike Soors d’Ancona
Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu
HIV Focus Center of the DC-Clinics
H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions	721367

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title = "Untreated HIV-1 infection and low CD4+ T cell counts and their effect on endemic human coronavirus (re)infection",

abstract = "People living with HIV-1 (PLWH) treated with combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) have similar incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to people without HIV-1 (PWoH). Yet, roughly 25\% PLWH worldwide are currently not accessing cART. The influence of CD4+ T cell depletion on human coronavirus (HCoV) (re)infection risk, including SARS-CoV-2, is largely unknown. In this research, we investigated the incidence of infection by the four endemic HCoVs (HCoV-NL63, HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, and HCoV-HKU1), to inform on future reinfections by SARS-CoV-2. We compared the HCoV infection incidence rate between PLWH (n = 24) and PWoH (n = 25) who were followed up in 1984-1993; i.e., before cART became generally available in high income countries. Both populations were followed up at 6-month intervals for 7 or 8 years. We also compared the HCoV infection incidence rate among PLWH with and without immune deficiency, defined as CD4+ T cell count < 350 cell/mm3 and > 350 cell/mm3 respectively. We found that the antibody levels for all HCoVs were significantly lower in PLWH than PWoH across all timepoints. However, we observed no significant difference on HCoV infection incidence rate between PLWH and PWoH. We also observed no difference in HCoV infection incidence rate among PLWH with and without immune deficiency. We conclude that PLWH not on cART may not be at increased risk of HCoV reinfections.",

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AU - Prins, Maria

AU - Matser, Amy

AU - Bakker, Margreet

AU - Kootstra, Neeltje A

AU - van der Hoek, Lia

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Untreated HIV-1 infection and low CD4+ T cell counts and their effect on endemic human coronavirus (re)infection

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