Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Prolonged experimental CD4+ T-cell depletion does not cause disease progression in SIV-infected African green monkeys

2023; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 14; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/s41467-023-36379-2

2041-1723

Quentin Le Hingrat, Paola Sette, Cuiling Xu, Andrew R. Rahmberg, Lilas Tarnus, Haritha Annapureddy, Adam J. Kleinman, Egidio Brocca‐Cofano, Ranjit Sivanandham, Sindhuja Sivanandham, Tianyu He, Daniel Capreri, Dongzhu Ma, Jacob D. Estes, Jason M. Brenchley, Cristian Apetrei, Ivona Pandrea,

HIV-related health complications and treatments

Abstract CD4 + T-cell depletion is a hallmark of HIV infection, leading to impairment of cellular immunity and opportunistic infections, but its contribution to SIV/HIV-associated gut dysfunction is unknown. Chronically SIV-infected African Green Monkeys (AGMs) partially recover mucosal CD4 + T-cells, maintain gut integrity and do not progress to AIDS. Here we assess the impact of prolonged, antibody-mediated CD4 + T-cell depletion on gut integrity and natural history of SIV infection in AGMs. All circulating CD4 + T-cells and >90% of mucosal CD4 + T-cells are depleted. Plasma viral loads and cell-associated viral RNA in tissues are lower in CD4 + -cell-depleted animals. CD4 + -cell-depleted AGMs maintain gut integrity, control immune activation and do not progress to AIDS. We thus conclude that CD4 + T-cell depletion is not a determinant of SIV-related gut dysfunction, when gastrointestinal tract epithelial damage and inflammation are absent, suggesting that disease progression and resistance to AIDS are independent of CD4 + T-cell restoration in SIVagm-infected AGMs.