HIV-1 persistence in CD4+ T cells with stem cell-like properties.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Buzon MJ
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3959167 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
HIV-1 persistence in CD4+ T cells with stem cell-like properties.
Buzon Maria J MJ Sun Hong H Li Chun C Shaw Amy A Seiss Katherine K Ouyang Zhengyu Z Martin-Gayo Enrique E Leng Jin J Henrich Timothy J TJ Li Jonathan Z JZ Pereyra Florencia F Zurakowski Ryan R Walker Bruce D BD Rosenberg Eric S ES Yu Xu G XG Lichterfeld Mathias M
Nature medicine 20140112 2
Cellular HIV-1 reservoirs that persist despite antiretroviral treatment are incompletely defined. We show that during suppressive antiretroviral therapy, CD4(+) T memory stem cells (TSCM cells) harbor high per-cell levels of HIV-1 DNA and make increasing contributions to the total viral CD4(+) T cell reservoir over time. Moreover, we conducted phylogenetic studies that suggested long-term persistence of viral quasispecies in CD4(+) TSCM cells. Thus, HIV-1 may exploit the stem cell characteristic ...[more]
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Project description:BACKGROUND:Identifying where human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) persists in people living with HIV and receiving antiretroviral therapy is critical to develop cure strategies. We assessed the relationship of HIV persistence to expression of chemokine receptors and their chemokines in blood (n = 48) and in rectal (n = 20) and lymph node (LN; n = 8) tissue collected from people living with HIV who were receiving suppressive antiretroviral therapy. METHODS:Cell-associated integrated HIV DNA, unspliced HIV RNA, and chemokine messenger RNA were quantified by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Chemokine receptor expression on CD4+ T cells was determined using flow cytometry. RESULTS:Integrated HIV DNA levels in CD4+ T cells, CCR6+CXCR3+ memory CD4+ T-cell frequency, and CCL20 expression (ligand for CCR6) were highest in rectal tissue, where HIV-infected CCR6+ T cells accounted for nearly all infected cells (median, 89.7%). Conversely in LN tissue, CCR6+ T cells were infrequent, and there was a statistically significant association of cell-associated HIV DNA and RNA with CCL19, CCL21, and CXCL13 chemokines. CONCLUSIONS:HIV-infected CCR6+ CD4+ T cells accounted for the majority of infected cells in rectal tissue. The different relationships between HIV persistence and T-cell subsets and chemokines in rectal and LN tissue suggest that different tissue-specific strategies may be required to eliminate HIV persistence and that assessment of biomarkers for HIV persistence may not be generalizable between blood and other tissues.
| S-EPMC7026892 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The precise role of CD4 T cell turnover in maintaining HIV persistence during antiretroviral therapy (ART) has not yet been well characterized. In resting CD4 T cell subpopulations from 24 HIV-infected ART-suppressed and 6 HIV-uninfected individuals, we directly measured cellular turnover by heavy water labeling, HIV reservoir size by integrated HIV-DNA (intDNA) and cell-associated HIV-RNA (caRNA), and HIV reservoir clonality by proviral integration site sequencing. Compared to HIV-negatives, ART-suppressed individuals had similar fractional replacement rates in all subpopulations, but lower absolute proliferation rates of all subpopulations other than effector memory (TEM) cells, and lower plasma IL-7 levels (p = 0.0004). Median CD4 T cell half-lives decreased with cell differentiation from naïve to TEM cells (3 years to 3 months, p<0.001). TEM had the fastest replacement rates, were most highly enriched for intDNA and caRNA, and contained the most clonal proviral expansion. Clonal proviruses detected in less mature subpopulations were more expanded in TEM, suggesting that they were maintained through cell differentiation. Earlier ART initiation was associated with lower levels of intDNA, caRNA and fractional replacement rates. In conclusion, circulating integrated HIV proviruses appear to be maintained both by slow turnover of immature CD4 subpopulations, and by clonal expansion as well as cell differentiation into effector cells with faster replacement rates.
| S-EPMC7846027 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The ability to persist long term in latently infected CD4 T cells represents a characteristic feature of HIV-1 infection and the predominant barrier to efforts aiming at viral eradication and cure. Yet, increasing evidence suggests that only small subsets of CD4 T cells with specific developmental and maturational profiles are able to effectively support HIV-1 long-term persistence. Here, we analyzed how the functional polarization of CD4 T cells shapes and structures the reservoirs of HIV-1-infected cells. We found that CD4 T cells enriched for a Th1/17 polarization had elevated susceptibilities to HIV-1 infection in ex vivo assays, harbored high levels of HIV-1 DNA in persons treated with antiretroviral therapy, and made a disproportionately increased contribution to the viral reservoir relative to their contribution to the CD4 T memory cell pool. Moreover, HIV-1 DNA levels in Th1/17 cells remained stable over many years of antiretroviral therapy, resulting in a progressively increasing contribution of these cells to the viral reservoir, and phylogenetic studies suggested preferential long-term persistence of identical viral sequences during prolonged antiretroviral treatment in this cell compartment. Together, these data suggest that Th1/17 CD4 T cells represent a preferred site for HIV-1 DNA long-term persistence in patients receiving antiretroviral therapy.Current antiretroviral therapy is very effective in suppressing active HIV-1 replication but does not fully eliminate virally infected cells. The ability of HIV-1 to persist long term despite suppressive antiretroviral combination therapy represents a perplexing aspect of HIV-1 disease pathogenesis, since most HIV-1 target cells are activated, short-lived CD4 T cells. This study suggests that CD4 T helper cells with Th1/17 polarization have a preferential role as a long-term reservoir for HIV-1 infection during antiretroviral therapy, possibly because these cells may imitate some of the functional properties traditionally attributed to stem cells, such as the ability to persist for extremely long periods of time and to repopulate their own pool size through homeostatic self-renewal. These observations support the hypothesis that HIV-1 persistence is driven by small subsets of long-lasting stem cell-like CD4 T cells that may represent particularly promising targets for clinical strategies aiming at HIV-1 eradication and cure.
| S-EPMC4645661 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Despite the advent of effective antiretroviral therapy (ART), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to pose major challenges, with extensive pathogenesis during acute and chronic infection prior to ART initiation and continued persistence in a reservoir of infected CD4 T cells during long-term ART. CD101 has recently been characterized to play an important role in CD4 Treg potency. Using the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) model of HIV infection in rhesus macaques, we characterized the role and kinetics of CD101+ CD4 T cells in longitudinal SIV infection. Phenotypic analyses and single-cell RNAseq profiling revealed that CD101 marked CD4 Tregs with high immunosuppressive potential, distinct from CD101- Tregs, and these cells also were ideal target cells for HIV/SIV infection, with higher expression of CCR5 and α4β7 in the gut mucosa. Notably, during acute SIV infection, CD101+ CD4 T cells were preferentially depleted across all CD4 subsets when compared with their CD101- counterpart, with a pronounced reduction within the Treg compartment, as well as significant depletion in mucosal tissue. Depletion of CD101+ CD4 was associated with increased viral burden in plasma and gut and elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines. While restored during long-term ART, the reconstituted CD101+ CD4 T cells display a phenotypic profile with high expression of inhibitory receptors (including PD-1 and CTLA-4), immunsuppressive cytokine production, and high levels of Ki-67, consistent with potential for homeostatic proliferation. Both the depletion of CD101+ cells and phenotypic profile of these cells found in the SIV model were confirmed in people with HIV on ART. Overall, these data suggest an important role for CD101-expressing CD4 T cells at all stages of HIV/SIV infection and a potential rationale for targeting CD101 to limit HIV pathogenesis and persistence, particularly at mucosal sites.
| S-EPMC9348691 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Persistence of HIV in people living with HIV (PWH) on suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been linked to physiological mechanisms of CD4+ T cells. Here, in the same 37 male PWH on ART we measure longitudinal kinetics of HIV DNA and cell turnover rates in five CD4 cell subsets: naïve (TN), stem-cell- (TSCM), central- (TCM), transitional- (TTM), and effector-memory (TEM). HIV decreases in TTM and TEM but not in less-differentiated subsets. Cell turnover is ~10 times faster than HIV clearance in memory subsets, implying that cellular proliferation consistently creates HIV DNA. The optimal mathematical model for these integrated data sets posits HIV DNA also passages between CD4 cell subsets via cellular differentiation. Estimates are heterogeneous, but in an average participant's year ~10 (in TN and TSCM) and ~104 (in TCM, TTM, TEM) proviruses are generated by proliferation while ~103 proviruses passage via cell differentiation (per million CD4). In simulations, therapies blocking proliferation and/or enhancing differentiation could reduce HIV DNA by 1-2 logs over 3 years. In summary, HIV exploits cellular proliferation and differentiation to persist during ART but clears faster in more proliferative/differentiated CD4 cell subsets and the same physiological mechanisms sustaining HIV might be temporarily modified to reduce it.
| S-EPMC10545742 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Despite the effective antiretroviral treatment (ART) of HIV-infected individuals, HIV persists in a small pool. Central memory CD4+ T cells (Tcm) make a major contribution to HIV persistence. We found that unlike HLA-DR, CD38 is highly expressed on the Tcm of HIV-infected subjects receiving ART for?>?5 years. It has been reported that the half-life of total and episomal HIV DNA in the CD4+CD38+ T cell subset, exhibits lower decay rates at 12 weeks of ART. Whether CD38 contributes to HIV latency in HIV-infected individuals receiving long-term ART is yet to be addressed. METHODS:Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from the whole blood of HIV-infected subjects receiving suppressive ART. The immunophenotyping, proliferation and apoptosis of CD4+ T cell subpopulations were detected by flow cytometry, and the level of CD38 mRNA and total HIV DNA were measured using real-time PCR and digital droplet PCR, respectively. A negative binomial regression model was used to determine the correlation between CD4+CD38+ Tcm and total HIV DNA in CD4+ T cells. RESULTS:CD38 was highly expressed on CD4+ Tcm cells from HIV infected individuals on long-term ART. Comparing with HLA-DR-Tcm and CD4+HLA-DR+ T cells, CD4+CD38+ Tcm cells displayed lower levels of activation (CD25 and CD69) and higher levels of CD127 expression. The proportion of CD38+ Tcm, but not CD38- Tcm cells can predict the total HIV DNA in the CD4+ T cells and the CD38+ Tcm subset harbored higher total HIV DNA copy numbers than the CD38- Tcm subset. After transfected with CD38 si-RNA in CD4+ T cells, the proliferation of CD4+ T cells was inhibited. CONCLUSION:The current date indicates that CD4+CD38+ Tcm cells contribute to HIV persistence in HIV-infected individuals on long-term ART. Our study provides a potential target to resolve HIV persistence.
| S-EPMC7038621 | biostudies-literature
Project description:To date, most assays for measuring the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) reservoir do not include memory CD4+ T-cells expressing the activation marker, human leukocyte antigen-antigen D related (HLA-DR). However, little is known concerning the role these cells play in maintaining persistent HIV-1 during effective antiretroviral therapy (ART). To address this issue, we examined, cellular activation/exhaustion markers (Ki67, CCR5, PD-1, Lag-3 and Tim-3) and viral gag-pol DNA sequences within HLA-DR- and HLA-DR+ memory CD4+ T-cell subsets longitudinally from the peripheral blood of six participants over 3 to ?15 years of effective therapy. HLA-DR expression was readily detected during the study period in all participants. The average expression levels of CCR5, PD-1 and Tim-3 were higher on the HLA-DR+ T-cell subset whereas the average of LAG-3 expression was higher on their HLA-DR- counterpart. The proportion of HIV-infected cells increased within the HLA-DR+ subset by an average of 18% per year of ART whereas the frequency of infected HLA-DR- T-cells slightly decreased over time (5% per year). We observed that 20-33% of HIV-DNA sequences from the early time points were genetically identical to viral sequences from the last time point within the same cell subset during ART. This indicates that a fraction of proviruses persists within HLA-DR+ and HLA-DR- T-cell subsets during prolonged ART. Our HIV-DNA sequence analyses also revealed that cells transitioned between the HLA-DR+ and HLA-DR- phenotypes. The Ki67 expression, a marker for cellular proliferation, and the combined markers of Ki67/PD-1 averaged 19-fold and 22-fold higher on the HLA-DR+ T-cell subset compared to their HLA-DR- counterpart. Moreover, cellular proliferation, as reflected by the proportion of genetically identical HIV-DNA sequences, increased within both T-cell subsets over the study period; however, this increase was greater within the HLA-DR+ T-cells. Our research revealed that cellular transition and proliferation contribute to the persistence of HIV in HLA-DR+ and HLA-DR- T-cell subsets during prolonged therapy. As such, the HIV reservoir expands during effective ART when both the HLA-DR+ and HLA-DR- cell subsets are included, and therapeutic interventions aimed at reducing the HIV-1 reservoir should target HLA-DR+ and HLA-DR- T-cells.
| S-EPMC6775493 | biostudies-literature
Project description:HIV latent infection can be established in vitro by treating resting CD4 T cells with chemokines that bind to chemokine receptors (CKR), CCR7, CXCR3, and CCR6, highly expressed on T cells.To determine if CKR identify CD4 T cells enriched for HIV in HIV-infected individuals receiving suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART).A cross-sectional study of CKR expression and HIV persistence in blood from HIV-infected individuals on suppressive ART for more than 3 years (n?=?48). A subset of 20 individuals underwent leukapheresis and sorting of specific CD4 T-cell subsets.We used flow cytometry to quantify CCR5, CCR6, CXCR3, and CXCR5 expression on CD4 T cells. HIV persistence was quantified using real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction to detect total, integrated HIV DNA, 2-long terminal repeat circles and cell-associated unspliced (CA-US) HIV RNA in total CD4 T cells from blood or sorted T-cell subsets. Associations between CKR and HIV persistence in CD4 T cells in blood were determined using regression models and adjusted for current and nadir CD4 T-cell counts.The frequency of cells harbouring integrated HIV DNA was inversely associated with current CD4 T-cell count and positively associated with CCR5+ CD4 T cells, CXCR3+CCR6+ and CXCR3+CCR6- expression on total memory CD4 T cells (P?<?0.001, 0.048, 0.015, and 0.016, respectively). CXCR3+CCR6+ CM CD4 T cells contained the highest amount of integrated HIV DNA and lowest ratio of CA-US HIV RNA to DNA compared to all T-cell subsets examined.CXCR3 and CCR6 coexpression defines a subset of CD4 T cells that are preferentially enriched for HIV DNA in HIV-infected individuals on ART.
| S-EPMC4889535 | biostudies-other
Project description:Despite long-term antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV-1 persists within a reservoir of CD4+ T cells that contribute to viral rebound if treatment is interrupted. Identifying the cellular populations that contribute to the HIV-1 reservoir and understanding the mechanisms of viral persistence are necessary to achieve an effective cure. In this regard, through Full-Length Individual Proviral Sequencing, we observed that the HIV-1 proviral landscape was different and changed with time on ART across naive and memory CD4+ T cell subsets isolated from 24 participants. We found that the proportion of genetically intact HIV-1 proviruses was higher and persisted over time in effector memory CD4+ T cells when compared with naive, central, and transitional memory CD4+ T cells. Interestingly, we found that escape mutations remained stable over time within effector memory T cells during therapy. Finally, we provided evidence that Nef plays a role in the persistence of genetically intact HIV-1. These findings posit effector memory T cells as a key component of the HIV-1 reservoir and suggest Nef as an attractive therapeutic target.
| S-EPMC8970682 | biostudies-literature
Project description:HIV persists in a small pool of latently infected cells despite antiretroviral therapy (ART). Identifying cellular markers expressed at the surface of these cells may lead to novel therapeutic strategies to reduce the size of the HIV reservoir. We hypothesized that CD4+ T cells expressing immune checkpoint molecules would be enriched in HIV-infected cells in individuals receiving suppressive ART. Expression levels of 7 immune checkpoint molecules (PD-1, CTLA-4, LAG-3, TIGIT, TIM-3, CD160 and 2B4) as well as 4 markers of HIV persistence (integrated and total HIV DNA, 2-LTR circles and cell-associated unspliced HIV RNA) were measured in PBMCs from 48 virally suppressed individuals. Using negative binomial regression models, we identified PD-1, TIGIT and LAG-3 as immune checkpoint molecules positively associated with the frequency of CD4+ T cells harboring integrated HIV DNA. The frequency of CD4+ T cells co-expressing PD-1, TIGIT and LAG-3 independently predicted the frequency of cells harboring integrated HIV DNA. Quantification of HIV genomes in highly purified cell subsets from blood further revealed that expressions of PD-1, TIGIT and LAG-3 were associated with HIV-infected cells in distinct memory CD4+ T cell subsets. CD4+ T cells co-expressing the three markers were highly enriched for integrated viral genomes (median of 8.2 fold compared to total CD4+ T cells). Importantly, most cells carrying inducible HIV genomes expressed at least one of these markers (median contribution of cells expressing LAG-3, PD-1 or TIGIT to the inducible reservoir = 76%). Our data provide evidence that CD4+ T cells expressing PD-1, TIGIT and LAG-3 alone or in combination are enriched for persistent HIV during ART and suggest that immune checkpoint blockers directed against these receptors may represent valuable tools to target latently infected cells in virally suppressed individuals.
| S-EPMC4944956 | biostudies-literature