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Korean Red Ginseng Slows Depletion of CD4 T Cells in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1-Infected Patients

Department of Microbiology,¹ Preventive Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul 138-040, Korea,³ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory Vaccine Center, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322,² Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 137-701, Korea⁴

Received 27 December 2004/ Returned for modification 13 January 2005/ Accepted 7 February 2005

We have previously showed that long-term intake of Korean red ginseng (KRG) delayed disease progression in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected patients. In the present study, to investigate whether this slow progression was affected by KRG intake alone or in combination with HLA factor, we analyzed clinical data in 68 HIV-1-infected patients who lived for more than 5 years without antiretroviral therapy. The average KRG intake over 111.9 ± 31.3 months was 4,082 ± 3,928 g, and annual decrease in CD4 T cells was 35.0 ± 28.7/µl. Data analysis showed that there are significant inverse correlations between the HLA prognostic score (0.29 ± 1.19) and annual decrease in CD4 T cells (r = –0.347; P < 0.01) as well as between the amount of KRG intake and annual decrease in CD4 T cells (r = –0.379; P < 0.01). In addition, KRG intake significantly slowed the decrease in CD4 T cells even when influence of HLA class I was statistically eliminated (repeated-measure analysis of variance; P < 0.05). We also observed significant correlation between KRG intake and a decrease in serum-soluble CD8 antigen level (r = 0.62; P < 0.001). In conclusion, these data show that KRG intake independently and significantly affected the slow depletion of CD4 T cells irrespective of HLA class I.