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Young Adults with Perinatally-Acquired HIV from Argentina Present Increased Naïve T-Cell Profile and Lower Intact Proviral HIV-DNA: Distinctive Strategies Needed for HIV Cure?
15 Pages Posted: 5 Mar 2024
More...Abstract
Background: Perinatal transmission of HIV still constitutes a global health problem. Data on young adults who acquired HIV perinatally (p-YA) is scarce. We aimed to characterize the immune functionality and phenotype and the viral reservoir composition in a cohort of p-YA from Argentina.
Methods: Immune memory/effector phenotype, exhaustion, activation, PTK-7 and Ki-67 expression were evaluated by flow cytometry on NK and T-cells from 18 p-YA, 14 young adults with non-perinatally acquired HIV matched by age with p-YA and 15 adults with non-perinatally acquired HIV, matched by time from HIV diagnosis with p-YA, enrolled in Argentina. Total, intact and defective proviral (TP, IP and DP) HIV-DNA were measured in CD4 T-cells (CD4TC) by IPDA. Soluble markers were determined by ELISA.
Findings: p-YA presented higher expression of PD-1, lower levels of CD38+ CD4TC and further up levels of naïve T-cells than control groups. Also, lower levels of IP HIV-DNA according to absolute CD4TC counts and IP HIV-DNA/%naïve CD4TC were found in p-YA.
Interpretation: The higher naïve CD4TC frequency in p-YA cannot be explained by elevated thymic-activity nor a higher proliferation rate in the present. This disbalance could have been generated early in life and persisted during adulthood. Naïve CD4TC may not serve as a main viral reservoir in p-YA. Also, the lower PD-1+ CD4TC counts suggests that p-YA did not present higher levels of exhaustion. These findings suggest that acquiring HIV perinatally may imply different challenges for reaching a cure.
Funding: This work was supported by Bunge & Born Foundation (Grant 2018).
Declaration of Interest: All authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Ethical Approval: The study has been reviewed and approved by the “Comité de Ética en Investigación” from the hospital “Dr. JA Fernandez” (11/22/2018, Buenos Aires, Argentina). All participants signed an informed consent prior to sample collection. Participants data was encoded and deidentified to protect their confidentiality.
Keywords: HIV, perinatal transmission, immune phenotype, reservoir, naïve cells
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation