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- Title
Abundance of Early Functional HIV-Specific CD8<sup>+</sup> T Cells Does Not Predict AIDS-Free Survival Time.
- Authors
Schellens, Ingrid M. M.; Borghans, José A. M.; Jansen, Christine A.; Cuyper, Iris M. De; Geskus, Ronald B.; van Baarle, Debbie; Miedema, Frank
- Abstract
Background: T-cell immunity is thought to play an important role in controlling HIV infection, and is a main target for HIV vaccine development. HIV-specific central memory CD8+ and CD4+ T cells producing IFNc and IL-2 have been associated with control of viremia and are therefore hypothesized to be truly protective and determine subsequent clinical outcome. However, the cause-effect relationship between HIV-specific cellular immunity and disease progression is unknown. We investigated in a large prospective cohort study involving 96 individuals of the Amsterdam Cohort Studies with a known date of seroconversion whether the presence of cytokine-producing HIV-specific CD8+ T cells early in infection was associated with AIDS-free survival time. Methods and Findings: The number and percentage of IFNc and IL-2 producing CD8+ T cells was measured after in vitro stimulation with an overlapping Gag-peptide pool in T cells sampled approximately one year after seroconversion. Kaplan- Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazard models showed that frequencies of cytokine-producing Gag-specific CD8+ T cells (IFNc, IL-2 or both) shortly after seroconversion were neither associated with time to AIDS nor with the rate of CD4+ T-cell decline. Conclusions: These data show that high numbers of functional HIV-specific CD8+ T cells can be found early in HIV infection, irrespective of subsequent clinical outcome. The fact that both progressors and long-term non-progressors have abundant T cell immunity of the specificity associated with low viral load shortly after seroconversion suggests that the more rapid loss of T cell immunity observed in progressors may be a consequence rather than a cause of disease progression.
- Subjects
T cells; HIV prevention; AIDS vaccines; VIREMIA; CELLULAR immunity; DISEASE progression; SEROCONVERSION; CYTOKINES; SURVIVAL analysis (Biometry)
- Publication
PLoS ONE, 2008, Vol 3, Issue 7, p1
- ISSN
1932-6203
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0002745