Abstract
It is important to highlight that infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may trigger chronic inflammation in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), impacting to the key immune cells such B and T lymphocytes, leading to development of autoantibodies which might be potential to developed autoimmune phenomenon. This study represent the first investigation in Sudan designed to evaluate and determine the prevalence of Antinuclear autoantibody (ANA) among people living with HIV/AIDS by systematically charaterizing ANA staining patterns; distribution, frequency and their correlation with estimated endpoint titers and interplay of age -sex specific ANA patterns in the context of HIV infection post antiretroviral therapy era. Using Serum samples of one hundred and sixteen (116) HIV-infected patients admitted to two major Voluntary Testing and Counseling (VTC), of the HIV clinical centers at the Military Hospital and Bahri Hospital in Khartoum, Sudan, have been assessed for ANA screening. A total of 116 HIV confirmed cases, were screened for ANA autoantibodies using HEp-2 cell indirect immunofluorescent technique. out of 116 85/116 (73.3%) were showed positivity for ANA. the proportion of ANA positivity among the male group was higher than the female group, 49/65 (75.4%) and 36/51 (70.6%), respectively, but there are no significant statistical differences (p = 0.7). Interestingly, a high proportion of positivity for ANA were found in the older subject groups (aged 42-56 years and > 57 years), with rates of 80% for each. Furthermore, our study also showed that the predominant ANA patterns were nuclear fine-speckled (AC-4, 56.5%) followed by cytoplasmic fine granules (AC-20, 24.7%). This study suggests that HIV might induced chronic inflammation and trigger the production of autoantibodies with variable specificities, needing further studies to better understand the role of HIV-driven chronic inflammation in shaping autoimmune serological profiles in these patients.