TY - JOUR TI - HIV-specific regulatory T cells are associated with higher CD4 cell counts in primary infection AU - Kared, Hassen AU - Lelièvre, Jean-Daniel AU - Donkova-Petrini, Vladimira AU - Aouba, Albertine AU - Melica, Giovanna AU - Balbo, Michèle AU - Weiss, Laurence AU - Lévy, Yves T2 - AIDS (London, England) AB - OBJECTIVE: Expansion of regulatory T (Treg) cells has been described in chronically HIV-infected individuals. We investigated whether HIV-suppressive Treg could be detected during primary HIV infection (PHI). METHODS: Seventeen patients diagnosed early after PHI (median: 13 days; 1-55) were studied. Median CD4 cell count was 480 cells/microl (33-1306) and plasma HIV RNA levels ranged between 3.3 and 5.7 log10 copies/ml. Suppressive capacity of blood purified CD4CD25 was evaluated in a coculture assay. Fox-p3, IL-2 and IL-10 were quantified by reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR and intracellular staining of ex vivo and activated CD4+CD25 T cells. RESULTS: The frequency of CD4CD127CD25 T cells among CD4 T cells was lower in patients with PHI compared with chronic patients (n = 19). They exhibited a phenotype of memory T cells and expressed constitutively FoxP3. Similar to chronic patients, Treg from patients with PHI inhibited the proliferation of purified tuberculin (PPD) and HIV p24 activated CD4CD25 T cells. CD4CD25 T cells from patients with PHI responded specifically to p24 stimulation by expressing IL-10. In untreated patients with PHI, the frequency as well as HIV-specific activity of Treg decreased during a 24-month follow-up. A positive correlation between percentages of Treg and both CD4 cell counts and the magnitude of p24-specific suppressive activity at diagnosis of PHI was found. CONCLUSION: Our data showed that HIV drives Treg, as PHI and these cells persist throughout the course of the infection. A correlation between the frequency of Treg and CD4 T-cell counts suggest that these cells may impact on the immune activation set point at PHI diagnosis. DA - 2008/11/30/ PY - 2008 DO - 10.1097/QAD.0b013e328319edc0 DP - NCBI PubMed VL - 22 IS - 18 SP - 2451 EP - 2460 J2 - AIDS LA - eng SN - 1473-5571 KW - CD4 Lymphocyte Count KW - Cell Proliferation KW - Female KW - Flow Cytometry KW - HIV Infections KW - HIV-1 KW - Humans KW - Interleukin-10 KW - Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit KW - Male KW - Phenotype KW - Prospective Studies KW - RNA, Viral KW - Suppressor Factors, Immunologic KW - T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory KW - Viral Load ER -