Project description:Increased morbidity and fetal growth restriction are reported in uninfected children born to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)–infected women treated with antiretroviral (ARV) therapy. Viruses and/or pharmacological interventions such as ARVs can induce metabolic stress, skewing the cell’s immune response and restricting (cell) growth. Novel metabolomic techniques provided the opportunity to investigate the impact of fetal HIV-1 and combination ARV therapy (cART) exposure on the infants’ immune metabolome. Peroxidized lipids, generated by reactive oxygen species, were increased in cART/HIV-1–exposed infants, indicating altered mitochondrial functioning. The lipid metabolism was further dysregulated with increased triglyceride species and a subsequent decrease in phospholipids in cART/HIV-1–exposed infants compared to control infants. Proinflammatory immune mediators, lysophospholipids as well as cytokines such as CXCL10 and CCL3, were increased whereas anti-inflammatory metabolites from the cytochrome P450 pathway were reduced in cART/HIV-1–exposed infants. Taken together, these data demonstrate that the fetal metabolism is impacted by maternal factors (cART and HIV-1) and skews physiological immune responses toward inflammation in the newborn infant.
Project description:The transplacental transfer of maternal IgG to the developing fetus is critical for infant protection against infectious pathogens in the first year of life. However, factors that modulate the transplacental transfer efficiency of maternal IgG that could be harnessed for maternal vaccine design remain largely undefined. HIV-infected women have impaired placental IgG transfer, yet the mechanism underlying this impaired transfer is unknown, presenting an opportunity to explore factors that contribute to the efficiency of placental IgG transfer. We measured the transplacental transfer efficiency of maternal HIV and other pathogen-specific IgG in historical U.S. (n=120) and Malawian (n=47) cohorts of HIV-infected mothers and their HIV58 exposed uninfected and HIV-infected infants. We then examined the role of maternal HIV disease progression, infant factors, placental Fc receptor expression, and IgG Fc region subclass and glycan signatures and their association with transplacental transfer efficiency of maternal antigen-specific IgG. We established 3 distinct phenotypes of placental IgG transfer efficiency in HIV-infected women, including: 1) efficient transfer of the majority of antigen-specific IgG populations; 2) generally poor IgG transfer phenotype that was strongly associated with maternal CD4+ T cell counts, hypergammaglobulinemia, and frequently yielded non-protective levels of vaccine-specific IgG; and 3) variable transfer of IgG across distinct antigen specificities. Interestingly, maternal IgG characteristics, such as binding to placentally expressed Fc receptors FcgRIIa and FcgRIIIa, IgG subclass frequency, and Fc region glycan profiles were associated with placental IgG transfer efficiency. These maternal IgG transplacental transfer determinants were distinct among different antigen-specific IgG populations. Our findings suggest that in HIV-infected women, both maternal disease progression and Fc region characteristics modulate the selective placental transfer of distinct IgG subpopulations, with implications for both the health of HIV-exposed uninfected infants and maternal vaccine design.
Project description:In perinatal HIV infection, early ART initiation is recommended but questions remain regarding infant immune responses to HIV and impact of HIV on immune development. Using single cell transcriptional and phenotypic analysis we evaluated the T cell compartment at pre-ART initiation of infants with perinatally acquired HIV from Maputo, Mozambique (TARA cohort). CD8+ T cell maturation subsets exhibited altered distribution in HIV exposed infected (HEI) infants relative to control infants (HIV exposed uninfected) with reduced naïve, increased effectors, higher frequencies of activated T cells, and lower frequencies of cells with markers of self-renewal. Additionally, a cluster of CD8+ T cells identified in HEI displayed gene profiles consistent with cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and showed evidence for hyper expansion. Longitudinal phenotypic analysis revealed accelerated maturation of CD8+ T cells was maintained in HEI despite viral control. The results point to a HIV directed immune response that is likely to influence reservoir establishment.
Project description:While preventing vertical HIV transmission has been very successful, the increasing number of HIV-exposed uninfected infants (iHEU) experience an elevated risk to infections compared to HIV-unexposed and uninfected infants (iHUU). Immune developmental differences between iHEU and iHUU remains poorly understood and here we present a longitudinal multimodal analysis of infant immune ontogeny that highlights the impact of HIV/ARV exposure. Using mass cytometry, we show alterations and differences in the emergence of NK cell populations and T cell memory differentiation between iHEU and iHUU. Specific NK cells observed at birth were also predictive of acellular pertussis and rotavirus vaccine-induced IgG and IgA responses, respectively, at 3 and 9 months of life. T cell receptor Vβ clonotypic diversity was significantly and persistently lower in iHEU preceding the expansion of T cell memory. Our findings show that HIV/ARV exposure disrupts innate and adaptive immunity from birth which may underlie relative vulnerability to infections.
Project description:Influenza virus transmission between mothers and nursing-infants has not been investigated although mothers and infants often develop severe disease. Ferrets are considered the most appropriate model for influenza studies. We investigated influenza transmission in infant and nursing-mother ferrets. Influenza infected infants transmitted virus to mother mammary glands leading to live virus excretion in milk and influenza virus positive mammary gland epithelial cells. Global gene expression analysis showed down-regulation of milk production and induction of breast involution and oncogenesis pathways. Our results provide insight into influenza transmission between mothers and infants which may impact fields of infectious disease, maternal/infant health and neoplasm etiology. Total RNA was obtained from nursing mother ferret mammary glands at days 3/4 and 6/7 post-intranasal kit infection with 10^5 EID50 A/California/07/2009 (H1N1). Total RNA was also collected from uninfected control nursing mother mammary gland tissues (n = 3). Changes in gene expression relative to uninfected tissue controls were then investigated.
Project description:Influenza virus transmission between mothers and nursing-infants has not been investigated although mothers and infants often develop severe disease. Ferrets are considered the most appropriate model for influenza studies. We investigated influenza transmission in infant and nursing-mother ferrets. Influenza infected infants transmitted virus to mother mammary glands leading to live virus excretion in milk and influenza virus positive mammary gland epithelial cells. Global gene expression analysis showed down-regulation of milk production and induction of breast involution and oncogenesis pathways. Our results provide insight into influenza transmission between mothers and infants which may impact fields of infectious disease, maternal/infant health and neoplasm etiology. Total RNA was obtained from ferret lungs at days 3 and 6 post-intranasal infection with 10^5 EID50 A/California/07/2009 (H1N1) (n = 3/time-point). Total RNA was also collected from uninfected control lung tissues (n = 3). Changes in gene expression relative to uninfected tissue controls were then investigated.
Project description:“Dysbiosis" of the maternal gut microbiome, in response to environmental challenges such as infection, altered diet and stress during pregnancy, has been increasingly associated with abnormalities in offspring brain function and behavior. However, whether the maternal gut microbiome regulates neurodevelopment in the absence of environmental challenge remains unclear. In addition, whether the maternal microbiome exerts such influences during critical periods of embryonic brain development is poorly understood. Here we investigate how depletion, and selective reconstitution, of the maternal gut microbiome influences fetal neurodevelopment in mice. Embryos from antibiotic-treated and germ-free dams exhibit widespread transcriptomic alterations in the fetal brain relative to conventionally-colonized controls, with reduced expression of several genes involved in axonogenesis. In addition, embryos from microbiome-depleted mothers exhibit deficient thalamocortical axons and impaired thalamic axon outgrowth in response to cell-extrinsic guidance cues and growth factors. Consistent with the importance of fetal thalamocortical axonogenesis for shaping neural circuits for sensory processing, restricted depletion of the maternal microbiome from pre-conception through mid-gestation yields offspring that exhibit tactile hyposensitivity in select sensorimotor behavioral tasks. Gnotobiotic colonization of antibiotic-treated dams with a limited consortium of spore-forming bacteria indigenous to the gut microbiome prevents abnormalities in fetal brain gene expression, fetal thalamocortical axonogenesis and adult tactile sensory behavior associated with maternal microbiome depletion. Metabolomic profiling reveals that the maternal microbiota regulates levels of numerous small molecules in the maternal serum as well as the brains of fetal offspring. Select microbiota-dependent metabolites – trimethylamine N-oxide, 5-aminovalerate, imidazole propionate, and hippurate – sufficiently promote axon outgrowth from fetal thalamic explants. Moreover, maternal supplementation with the metabolites during early gestation abrogates deficiencies in fetal thalamocortical axons and prevents abnormalities in tactile sensory behavior in offspring from microbiome-depleted dams. Altogether, these findings reveal that the maternal gut microbiome promotes fetal thalamocortical axonogenesis and select tactile sensory behaviors in mice, likely by signaling of microbially modulated metabolites to neurons in the developing brain.
Project description:Genome wide DNA methylation profiling of umbilical cord blood DNA samples using the Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC array (approximately 850,000 CpGs). Samples included cord blood samples from infants born to women with (exposed) and without (control) infection with Trypanosoma cruzi parasites, to test for a potential epigenetic effect of in utero exposure to maternal infection.
Project description:<p>Humans interact with countless microorganisms in multiple environments. The Lung HIV Microbiome Project (LHMP) characterized the microbiome of the lung and respiratory tract. This effort provided initial data to develop further hypotheses addressing differences between HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected individuals. The project involved multiple studies, either single center or multiple-center studies. The research design of each study varies with the objective of that study.</p> <p>The Lung HIV Microbiome Project (LHMP) worked collaboratively to ensure the clinical and scientific integrity and success of this project. The LHMP characterized the microbiome of the lung alone or in combination with the oropharyngeal cavities in HIV-infected individuals and HIV-uninfected controls using molecular techniques to identify bacteria.</p> <p>Knowledge of the lung microbiome and that of other components of the respiratory tract in healthy and diseased states may lead to the identification of predictors of disease progression and therapeutic targets for translation into better preventive and treatment strategies.</p> <p>Study datasets and biospecimens are available for request from <a href="https://biolincc.nhlbi.nih.gov/studies/lhmp/" target="_blank">https://biolincc.nhlbi.nih.gov/studies/lhmp/</a>.</p>
Project description:Despite the use of current antiretroviral therapy (ART) in HIV-1 infected mothers, approximately 5% of new HIV-1 infections still occur in breastfed infants annually. Human Milk (HM) exosomes are highly enriched in maternal microRNAs (miRNAs) and after ingestion and subsequent absorption play an important role in neonatal innate and adaptive immunity. Although, HM exosomes derived from healthy donors are known to inhibit HIV-1 transmission; the effect of HIV-1 on HM exosomal miRNA signatures remains unknown. In the present study, for the first time HM derived exosomal miRNA profiles were determined in HIV-1 infected women.