Project description:The role of aromatic gut-derived bacterial metabolites (GDBMs) in shaping immune cell metabolism and function remains poorly explored. Using ex vivo metabolomic profiling of paired plasma and CD4+ T-cells from people living with HIV-1 (PLWH), we identified a network of aromatic GDBMs whose cell-associated abundance, rather than systemic levels, was linked to broad alterations in CD4+ T-cell metabolic and functional states. Among these metabolites, p-cresol sulfate (PCS) emerged as a mechanistic prototype investigated in depth. Ex vivo flow cytometry and single-cell RNA sequencing of CD4+ T-cells stratified by cell-associated PCS levels revealed dose-dependent enrichment of transcriptional programs associated with impaired differentiation capacity, regulatory-like identity, and cellular senescence. Consistently, in vitro transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of PCS-exposed CD4+ T cells demonstrated induction of cell-cycle arrest, mitochondrial dysfunction, and senescence-associated programs, including upregulation of p16 and p21. Integration of these immunometabolic features with measurements of HIV-1 reservoir size in PLWH revealed that CD4+ T-cell states defined by cell-associated GDBMs track with intact proviral DNA levels in vivo. Together, these findings define a microbiome-derived axis that reshapes CD4+ T-cell metabolism and fate and promotes immune aging-associated states in PLWH. Our data suggest that cell-associated GDBMs may foster immunometabolic CD4+ T-cell states previously linked to long-term HIV-1 reservoir persistence in vivo.
Project description:CCR5 is the main HIV co-receptor. We aimed to (1) compare CCR5 expression on immune cells between people living with HIV (PLHIV) using combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) and HIV-uninfected controls, (2) relate CCR5 expression to viral reservoir size and (3) assess detereminants of CCR5 expression. Percentages of CCR5 positive cells (%) and CCR5 mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) assessed by flow cytometry in monocytes and lymphocyte subsets were correlated to host factors, HIV-1 cell-associated (CA)-RNA and CA-DNA, plasma inflammation markers and metabolites.
Project description:The role of aromatic gut-derived bacterial metabolites (GDBMs) in shaping immune cell metabolism and function remains poorly explored. Using ex vivo metabolomic profiling of paired plasma and CD4⁺ T-cells from people living with HIV-1 (PLWH), we identified a network of aromatic GDBMs whose cell-associated abundance, rather than systemic levels, was linked to broad alterations in CD4⁺ T-cell metabolic and functional states. Among these metabolites, p- cresol sulfate (PCS) emerged as a mechanistic prototype investigated in depth. Ex vivo flow cytometry and single-cell RNA sequencing of CD4⁺ T-cells stratified by cell-associated PCS levels revealed dose-dependent enrichment of transcriptional programs associated with impaired differentiation capacity, regulatory-like identity, and cellular senescence. Consistently, in vitro transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of PCS-exposed CD4⁺ T cells demonstrated induction of cell-cycle arrest, mitochondrial dysfunction, and senescence-associated programs, including upregulation of p16 and p21. Integration of these immunometabolic features with measurements of HIV-1 reservoir size in PLWH revealed that CD4⁺ T-cell states defined by cell-associated GDBMs track with intact proviral DNA levels in vivo. Together, these findings define a microbiome-derived axis that reshapes CD4⁺ T-cell metabolism and fate and promotes immune aging–associated states in PLWH. Our data suggest that cell-associated GDBMs may foster immunometabolic CD4⁺ T-cell states previously linked to long-term HIV-1 reservoir persistence in vivo.
Project description:The role of aromatic gut-derived bacterial metabolites (GDBMs) in shaping immune cell metabolism and function remains poorly explored. Using ex vivo metabolomic profiling of paired plasma and CD4⁺ T-cells from people living with HIV-1 (PLWH), we identified a network of aromatic GDBMs whose cell-associated abundance, rather than systemic levels, was linked to broad alterations in CD4⁺ T-cell metabolic and functional states. Among these metabolites, p- cresol sulfate (PCS) emerged as a mechanistic prototype investigated in depth. Ex vivo flow cytometry and single-cell RNA sequencing of CD4⁺ T-cells stratified by cell-associated PCS levels revealed dose-dependent enrichment of transcriptional programs associated with impaired differentiation capacity, regulatory-like identity, and cellular senescence. Consistently, in vitro transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of PCS-exposed CD4⁺ T cells demonstrated induction of cell-cycle arrest, mitochondrial dysfunction, and senescence-associated programs, including upregulation of p16 and p21. Integration of these immunometabolic features with measurements of HIV-1 reservoir size in PLWH revealed that CD4⁺ T-cell states defined by cell-associated GDBMs track with intact proviral DNA levels in vivo. Together, these findings define a microbiome-derived axis that reshapes CD4⁺ T-cell metabolism and fate and promotes immune aging–associated states in PLWH. Our data suggest that cell-associated GDBMs may foster immunometabolic CD4⁺ T-cell states previously linked to long-term HIV-1 reservoir persistence in vivo.
Project description:The study examined proviral and neighboring gene transcription at sites of intact latent HIV-1 integration in cultured T cells obtained directly from people living with HIV, as well as engineered primary T cells and cell lines and showed that the site of integration has a dominant effect on the transcriptional activity of intact HIV-1 proviruses in the latent reservoir
Project description:Understanding the complexity of the long-lived HIV reservoir during antiretroviral therapy (ART) remains a major impediment for HIV cure research. To address this, we developed single-cell viral ASAPseq to precisely define the unperturbed peripheral blood HIV-infected memory CD4+ T cell reservoir from antiretroviral treated people living with HIV (ART-PLWH) via the presence of integrated accessible proviral DNA in concert with epigenetic and cell surface protein profiling. We identified profound reservoir heterogeneity within and between ART-PLWH, characterized by novel and known surface markers within total and individual memory CD4+ T cell subsets. We further uncovered novel epigenetic profiles and transcription factor motifs enriched in HIV-infected cells that suggest infected cells with accessible provirus, irrespective of reservoir distribution, are poised for reactivation during ART treatment. Together, our findings reveal the extensive inter- and intrapersonal cellular heterogeneity of the HIV reservoir, and establish an initial multiomic atlas to develop targeted reservoir elimination strategies.
Project description:The latent reservoir of HIV persists for decades in people living with HIV (PWH) on antiretroviral therapy (ART). To determine if persistence arises from the natural dynamics of memory CD4+ T cells harboring HIV, we compared the clonal dynamics of HIV proviruses to that of memory CD4+ T cell receptors (TCRβ) from the same PWH and from HIV-seronegative people. We show that clonal dominance of HIV proviruses and antigen-specific CD4+ T cells are similar but that the field’s understanding of the persistence of the less clonally dominant reservoir is significantly limited by undersampling. We demonstrate that increasing reservoir clonality over time and differential decay of intact and defective proviruses cannot be explained by mCD4+ T cell kinetics alone. Finally, we develop a stochastic model of TCRβ and proviruses that recapitulates experimental observations and suggests that HIV-specific negative selection mediates approximately 6% of intact and 2% of defective proviral clearance. Thus, HIV persistence is mostly, but not entirely, driven by natural mCD4+ T cell kinetics.
Project description:The study examined proviral and neighboring gene transcription at sites of intact latent HIV-1 integration in cultured T cells obtained directly from people living with HIV, as well as engineered primary T cells and cell lines and showed that the site of integration has a dominant effect on the transcriptional activity of intact HIV-1 proviruses in the latent reservoir
Project description:Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), is the most common coinfection among people living with HIV-1. This coinfection alters the efficacy of the immune response against both HIV-1 and Mtb, and is associated with accelerated HIV-1 disease progression and reduced survival. Enhanced HIV-1 replication in macrophages induced by Mtb coinfection may contribute to the worsened clinical outcomes observed in HIV-1/TB coinfected individuals. However, the impact of the HIV-1/TB coinfection on HIV-1 replication and latency in CD4+ T cells remains poorly studied. In this study, we used the acellular fraction of tuberculous pleural effusion (TB-PE) as a proxy for the microenvironment generated by Mtb infection. Using this physiologically relevant fluid, we investigated whether viral replication and HIV-1 latency in CD4+ T cells are affected by a TB-associated microenvironment. Interestingly, our results revealed that TB-PE shaped the transcriptional profile of CD4+ T cells impairing T cell receptor-dependent cell activation and decreased HIV-1 replication. Moreover, this immunosuppressive TB microenvironment promoted viral latency and inhibited HIV-1 reactivation in CD4+ T cells from people living with HIV-1. This study indicates that the immune response induced by TB may contribute to the persistence of the viral reservoir by silencing HIV-1 expression in individuals coinfected with both pathogens, allowing the virus to persist undetected by the immune system and increasing the size of the HIV-1 latent reservoir in cells at the site of the coinfection.
Project description:Pregnant people living with HIV (PLWH) experience a disparate risk of chronic non-AIDS-related morbidities (NAMs) during pregnancy compared to people without HIV infection. Extracellular vesicles (EV) are fundamental to both HIV pathogenesis and maternal-placental-fetal systemic intercellular networking. However, there is limited research addressing the intersection of EV cargo and HIV during pregnancy. In this study, plasma-derived EV small RNA (smRNA) in pregnant PLWH as compared to pregnant people living without HIV (PLWoH) was examined through low-input RNA sequencing (Illumina PE150). Differential expression analysis identified significant alterations of EV circRNA levels for pregnant PLWH as compared to pregnant PLWoH. Novel interactome networks (circRNA-miRNA-gene and circRNA-protein) were generated from these differentially expressed EV circRNAs. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed physiological pathways influential to HIV reservoir establishment, latency, replication, immune activation, immunosenescence, as well as maternal-placental-fetal immune cross talk. These findings suggest that EV circRNA-mediated regulatory mechanisms may contribute to HIV persistence, inflammation, and immune modulation in pregnancy.