Affiliations 

  • 1 Infection and Inflammation, Department of Biotechnology, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, India
  • 2 Laboratory Centre, Xiamen University Malaysia, Sepang, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Microbiology, Government Theni Medical College and Hospital, Theni, India
  • 4 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Division of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
  • 5 State Public Health Laboratory, Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, DMS Campus, Teynampet, India
  • 6 Centre for Infectious Diseases, Saveetha Medical College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Chennai, India
  • 7 Division of Molecular Medicine and Virology, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
Viral Immunol, 2024 Jun;37(5):240-250.
PMID: 38808464 DOI: 10.1089/vim.2024.0007

Abstract

Human pegivirus (HPgV) appears to alter the prognosis of HIV disease by modulating T cell homeostasis, chemokine/cytokine production, and T cell activation. In this study, we evaluated if HPgV had any 'favorable' impact on the quantity and quality of T cells in HIV-infected individuals. T cell subsets such as CD4lo, CD4hi, and CD8+ T cells, CD4+ MAIT cells, CD8+ MAIT cells, follicular helper T (TFH) cells, and follicular cytotoxic T (TFC) cells were characterized based on the expression of markers associated with immune activation (CD69, ICOS), proliferation (ki67), cytokine production (TNF-α, IFN-γ), and exhaustion (PD-1). HIV+HPgV+ individuals had lower transaminase SGOT (liver) and GGT (biliary) in the plasma than those who were HPgV-. HIV/HPgV coinfection was significantly associated with increased absolute CD4+ T cell counts. HIV+HPgV+ and HIV+HPgV- individuals had highly activated T cell subsets with high expression of CD69 and ICOS on bulk CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, CD4+ MAIT cells, CD8+ MAIT cells, and CXCR5+CD4+ T cells and CXCR5+CD8+ T cells compared with healthy controls. Irrespective of immune activation markers, these cells also displayed higher levels of PD-1 on CD4+ T and CD8+ T cells . Exploring effector functionality based on mitogen stimulation demonstrated increased cytokine production by CD4+ MAIT and CD8+ MAIT cells. Decrease in absolute CD4+ T cell counts correlated positively with intracellular IFN-γ levels by CD4lo T cells, whereas increase of the same correlated negatively with TNF-α in the CD4lo T cells of HIV+HPgV+ individuals. HIV/HPgV coinfected individuals display functional CD4+ and CD8+ MAIT, TFH, and TFC cells irrespective of PD-1 expression.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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