Lipid Peroxidation Correlates with HIVmRNA in Serodiscordant Heterosexual HIVpartners of Nigerian Origin

We recruited 59 individuals of known HIV serostatus after informed consent however, 44 were serodiscordant heterosexual partners [serodiscordant seronegative (SSN group) and serodiscordant seropositive (SSP group)] while 15 were seronegative healthy individuals (SNH). In the case–control study we choose to determine Malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration as a marker of lipid peroxidation index (oxidative stress) spectrophotometrically and quantify HIV mRNA by Real Time-nucleic acid sequence based amplification assay (RT-NASBA). Here our result show for the first time a high concentration of lipid peroxidation product (MDA, 116.6%) with a significant (P < 0.05) increase in HIV serodiscordant seropositive subjects over their seronegative partners. However, Spearman rank correlation statistics of SSP group showed a positive correlation value (P < 0.01, r = 0.89) between MDA and mRNA and a negative correlation between MDA and T-cell ratio (P < 0.01, r = 0.96).The study may strongly indicate a possible lipid peroxidation product threshold for predicting HIV infection and progression in serodiscordant heterosexual partners.