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We have shown that long-term intake of Korean red ginseng (KRG) delays disease progression in HIV-1 infected patients. In the present study to investigate whether this slow progression was associated with protective human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles as well as with KRG-intake, we have performed clinical analysis of 31 HIV-1 infected patients who have been living for more than 10 years without any antiretroviral therapy. Average amount of KRG-intake over 130±16 months was 4,797±4,921 g and the annual decrease in CD4 T cell (AD) was 30±29/㎕. We observed significant correlations among amount of KRG-intake, AD (r = -0.53, P < 0.01), and plasma HIV-1 RNA copy (r = -0.35, P < 0.05), along with a significant correlation between KRG-intake and HLA score (r = 0.49, P < 0.01), whereas there was no significant correlation between HLA score and AD or viral load. When the 31 patients were divided into 2 groups based on the amount of KRG-intake, the AD (14/㎕) in the 16 patients who had taken higher amounts ofKRG was significantly less than that (49/㎕) in the 15 patients with a little or no KRG-intake (P < 0.01). These data indicate that KRG-intake significantly slows CD4 T cell depletion in HIV-1 infected patients.
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