High serum level of soluble CD30 in acute primary HIV‐1 infection
CD30 has been suggested to play a role in HIV infection. In this study the serum concentration of soluble CD30 (sCD30) was determined by an ELISA essay on samples collected from patients with acute primary HIV‐1 infection during the acute phase (n = 17) and after seroconversion (n = 13). sCD30 during acute infection was consistently elevated (137.58 ± 120.33 versus 6.4 ± 5.4 U/ml (mean ± s.d.) in normal controls; P < 0.0001) and decreased after seroconversion (49.1 ± 66.17 U/ml; P = 0.0018 compared with acute infection). This trend mirrored the disappearance of detectable levels of HIV antigen in the blood, resulting in a direct correlation between sCD30 and HIVAg values (P = 0.002). These data suggest that the high levels of sCD30 observed during the peak concentration of HIVAg in acute primary HIV infection might reflect the high rate of viral replication.