Defects in blood dendritic cell subsets in HIV-1 subtype c infected Indians.
OBJECTIVE
DCs trigger both innate and adaptive immune responses to control HIV infection and represent a viral reservoir acting as target and HIV carriers for infection of permissive CD4(+) T-cells. DCs thus form a very attractive study subject to further our existing knowledge of HIV induced immunopathogenesis due to its diverse and crucial role in HIV infection establishment, viral dissemination, immune evasion, viral persistence, etc. We aimed to characterize the effect of HIV infection on myeloid and plasmacytoid dendritic cell subsets in a group of HIV-1 subtype C infected treated or untreated Indian individuals.


METHODS
Blood DC subset numbers and immunophenotype were studied for 79 HIV infected subjects at various stages of disease and compared with 13 HIV-uninfected controls. Comparisons were also made between groups of subjects based on their CD4(+) T cell counts and also experience of antiretrovirals.


RESULTS
Significant decreases were observed in blood DC counts and the two DC subsets in HIV infected individuals. Subjects with lowest CD4(+) T cell counts also had a drastically reduced DC subset pool which correlated positively with plasma viraemia and negatively with CD4(+) T cell counts. DC subsets from HIV infected subjects showed higher expression of co-stimulatory molecules CD40 and CD86, and HIV-1 co-receptors CXCR4 and CCR5 which correlated positively with HIV-1 plasma viraemia. The alterations in blood DCs were partly resolved in ART receiving study subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
Correlation between DC subset activation state and viraemia supports the role of DC activation on viral replication and CD4(+) T cell depletion.
Mojumdar
Kamalika
K
Departments of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, India.
Vajpayee
Madhu
M
Chauhan
Neeraj Kumar
NK
Mendiratta
Sanjay
S
Wig
Naveet
N
D000328:Adult; D051940:B7-2 Antigen / Q000378:metabolism; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology; D019013:CD40 Antigens / Q000378:metabolism; D002452:Cell Count; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D015497:HIV-1; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019713:Receptors, CCR5 / Q000378:metabolism; D019718:Receptors, CXCR4 / Q000378:metabolism; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014766:Viremia / Q000097:blood*
D051940:B7-2 Antigen; D019013:CD40 Antigens; C527276:CXCR4 protein, human; D019713:Receptors, CCR5; D019718:Receptors, CXCR4