Search

Human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) infection is associated with heightened inflammation and excess risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and other complications. These pathologies persist despite antiretroviral therapy. In two independent cohorts, we found that innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) were depleted in the blood and gut of people with HIV-1, even with effective antiretroviral therapy. ILC depletion was associated with neutrophil infiltration of the gut lamina propria, type 1 interferon activation, increased microbial translocation and natural killer (NK) cell skewing towards an inflammatory state, with chromatin structure and phenotype typical of WNT transcription factor TCF7-dependent memory T cells. Cytokines that are elevated during acute HIV-1 infection reproduced the ILC and NK cell abnormalities ex vivo. These results show that inflammatory cytokines associated with HIV-1 infection irreversibly disrupt ILCs. This results in loss of gut epithelial integrity, microbial translocation and memory NK cells with heightened inflammatory potential, and explains the chronic inflammation in people with HIV-1.

[CD8.sup.+] T cell responses are necessary for immune control of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). However, the key parameters that dictate antiviral potency remain elusive, conceivably because most studies to date have been restricted to analyses of circulating [CD8.sup.+] T cells. We conducted a detailed clonotypic, functional, and phenotypic survey of SIV-specific [CD8.sup.+] T cells across multiple anatomical sites in chronically infected rhesus macaques with high (>10,000 copies/mL plasma) or low burdens of viral RNA (, Introduction [CD8.sup.+] T cells are required to control human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) but largely fail to protect infected humans and monkeys from eventual progression to [...]

HIV infection results in gastrointestinal (GI) tract damage, microbial translocation, and immune activation, which are not completely ameliorated with suppression of viremia by antiretroviral (ARV) therapy. Furthermore, increased morbidity and mortality of ARV-treated HIV-infected individuals is associated with these dysfunctions. Thus, to enhance GI tract physiology, we treated SIV-infected pigtail macaques with ARVs, probiotics, and prebiotics or with ARVs alone. This synbiotic treatment resulted in increased frequency and functionality of GI tract APCs, enhanced reconstitution and functionality of CD4+ T cells, and reduced fibrosis of lymphoid follicles in the colon. Thus, ARV synbiotic supplementation in HIV-infected individuals may improve GI tract immunity and thereby mitigate inflammatory sequelae, ultimately improving prognosis., Introduction Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment of HIV-infected individuals improves their prognosis; however, ARV-treated individuals still have increased morbidity and mortality compared with uninfected individuals (1). During progressive HIV infection of humans [...]

HIV/SIV disease progression is associated with multifocal damage to the GI tract epithelial barrier that correlates with microbial translocation and persistent pathological immune activation but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Investigating alterations in mucosal immunity during SIV infection, we found that damage to the colonic epithelial barrier was associated with loss of multiple lineages of IL-17-producing lymphocytes, cells that microarray analysis showed express genes important for enterocyte homeostasis, including IL-22. IL-22-producing lymphocytes were also lost after SIV infection. Potentially explaining coordinate loss of these distinct populations, we also observed loss of CD103+ DCs after SIV infection which associated with loss of IL-17 and IL-22-producing lymphocytes. CD103+ DCs expressed genes associated with promotion of IL-17/IL-22+ cells, and co-culture of CD103+ DCs and naïve T-cells led to increased IL17A and RORc expression in differentiating T-cells. These results reveal complex interactions between mucosal immune cell subsets providing potential mechanistic insights into mechanisms of mucosal immune dysregulation during HIV/SIV infection, and offer hints for development of novel therapeutic strategies to address this aspect of AIDS virus pathogenesis.

Among the numerous immunological abnormalities observed in chronically HIV-infected individuals, perturbations in memory CD4 T cells are thought to specifically contribute to disease pathogenesis. Among these, functional imbalance in the frequencies of T-regulatory (Tregs) and Interleukin-17/22 (IL-17/IL-22) producing T-helper cells (Th17/Th22) from mucosal sites, and T-follicular helper cells (Tfh) in lymph nodes, are thought to facilitate specific aspects of disease pathogenesis. However, while preferential infection of Tfh cells is widely believed to create an important viral reservoir in an immunologically privileged site in vivo, whether immunological perturbations among memory CD4 T cell populations are attributable to their relative infectivity by the virus in vivo is unclear. Here we studied peripheral blood and lymphoid tissues from antiretroviral (ARV)-treated and ARV-naïve Asian macaques, and isolated functionally-defined populations of memory CD4 T cells. We then assessed the degree to which these populations were infected by SIV in vivo to determine whether or not particular functionally-identified populations of memory CD4 T cells were preferentially infected by the virus. We found that SIV did not preferentially infect Th17 cells compared to T-helper 1 (Th1) cells, T-helper 2 (Th2) cells, or Tregs. Moreover, Th17 cells contributed proportionately to the total pool of infected cells. Taken together, our data suggest that while Tfh cells are more prone to harbor viral DNA, other functionally-polarized cells are equally infected by the virus in vivo, and that Th17 cells are not preferentially infected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]