CD4 and systemic lupus erythematosus: According to Fox RA and Isenberg DA, the production of autoantibodies may be protective against HIV.15 There are multiple cases of patients with pre-existing SLE in whom the disease went into remission after advanced HIV infection.15–18 Some of these patients experienced a flare of the symptoms after the retroviral therapy, which might or not be associated with the increasing number of CD4+ lymphocytes and immune reconstitution.18 In patients developing SLE many years after HAART, such an association cannot be asserted.19