Follicular regulatory T cells eliminate HIV-1-infected follicular helper T cells in an IL-2 concentration dependent manner.

ABSTRACT: Follicular helper CD4⁺ T cells (TFH) are highly permissive to HIV and major foci of virus expression in both untreated and treated infection. Follicular regulatory CD4⁺ T cells (TFR) limit TFH numbers and function in vitro and in vivo. We evaluated the hypothesis that TFR suppress HIV replication in TFH using a well-established model of ex vivo HIV infection that employs tonsil cells from HIV uninfected individuals spinoculated with CXCR4- and CCR5-tropic HIV-GFP reporter viruses. Both CXCR4 and CCR5-tropic HIV replication were reduced in TFH cultured with TFR as compared to controls. Blocking antibodies to CD39, CTLA-4, IL-10, and TGF-beta failed to reverse suppression of HIV replication by TFR, and there were no sex differences in TFR suppressive activ

SUBMITTER: Ollerton MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9676968 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature