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Objectives: To analyze HIV replication and immune functionchanges among Chinese patients with HIV/ARC/AIDS andtheir association with disease progression.Methods: T cell subsets, plasma cytokine concentrations andviral loads from 42 HIV+ individuals, and 13 ARC/AIDSpatients, and 10 controls were analyzed by flow cytometry(FCM), quantitative ELISA and reversetranscription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR),respectively.Results: CD4 cell counts and plasma IL-2 in HIV/AIDSpatients were significantly less than in normal control subjects(P＜0.001). The plasma concentrations sIL-2R, TNF-α, andNeopterin increased significantly with decreasing CD4 cellcounts. Plasma IL-2 among AIDS/ARC patients was also lessthan in HIV+ patients (P＜0.01). CD4 cell counts, the ratio ofCD4 to CD8 and plasma IL-2 levels decreased significantlywith infection duration. CD4 cell counts declined an averageof 43/ml per year. In contrast, the concentration of plasmasIL-2R, sTNFR-I, and Neopterin increased an average of9.03pg/ml, 8.69pg/ml, 2.11ng/ml per year, respectively.Furthermore, a significant reverse linear correlation wasobserved between CD4 cell count, CD4/CD8 ratio, and CD3,CD4 and CD8 counts with plasma levels of sTNFR-I,Neopterin, and HIV RNA load. A positive linear correlationwas noted between plasma sIL-2R levels and changes ofplasma IL-6 level (P＜0.001), IL-10 (P＜0.001), TNF-α(P＜0.001),sTNFR-I (P＜0.005), and Neopterin (P＜0.002) and betweenIL-6 and TNF-α(P＜0.001), Neopterin and IL-10 (P＜0.05),sTNFR-I (P＜0.001), plasma viral load and sTNFR-I (P＜0.001),and Neopterin (P＜0.002).Conclusion: These findings suggest a close relationshipbetween IL-6 and TNF-αimmune activation, HIV replicationand disease progression in primary HIV infections and AIDSpatients. Declining CD4 cells and plasma IL-2, and increasingviral load, sIL-2R, TNF-α, sTNFR-I, and Neopterin might beconsidered as important predictors of the progression of HIVinfection to AIDS.