Abstract:
Introduction and Objective: Among HIV infected donors, the natural history of HIV infection is different and HIV load is the one of factors resulting in the different clinical outcome. We have been characterized HIV infected donors into 2 groups: controllers (HIV loads< 2,000 copies/ml) and noncontrollers (HIV loads > 2,000 copies/ml). In our previous study, we found that controllers who naturally control HIV infection have the higher number of HIV-gag p24 specific T cells than noncontrollers significantly. Thus, we hypothesized that these polyfunctional T cells can effectively suppress HIV replication leading to the low level of HIV loads in controllers. 3 Methods: The functional quality of T cells was detected using intracellular cytokine staining assay. HIV isolates were isolated from HIV infected donors and then superinfected with autologous CD4+ T cells. The different functional quality of HIV-gag p24 specific T cell lines and bulk CDS+ T cells were used as effectors in their autologous HIV suppression assay. HIV suppression was assessed using HIV-gag p24 ELISA assay. Results: In our study, controllers were significantly higher in the absolute number of full 5 functions, HIV-gag p24 specific T cells than noncontrollers. Moreover, in vitro HIV suppression assay has been shown that bulk CDS+ T cells from controllers can significantly suppress HIV replication when compared with noncontrollers. And, the HIV-gag p24 specific T cell line from controllers has the ability to suppress HIV replication in in vitro assay, effectively. Conclusion: HIV-gag p24 specific T cell responses from controllers have the superior effect on the suppression of HIV replication in vitro study.
