CD56dim NK Cell is an Important Factor in T Cell Depletion of cART-Treated AIDS Patients

Feng Qian; Song Hu; Yueping Zhu; Yinling Wang; Jin Liu; Jialu Qiao; Xiji Shu; Yong Gao; Binlian Sun; Chuanwu Zhu

doi:10.2147/IJGM.S356771

CD56^dim NK Cell is an Important Factor in T Cell Depletion of cART-Treated AIDS Patients

Int J Gen Med. 2022 May 3:15:4575-4583. doi: 10.2147/IJGM.S356771. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Feng Qian^#^{1

2

3}, Song Hu^#⁴, Yueping Zhu^{2

3}, Yinling Wang^{2

3}, Jin Liu^{2

3}, Jialu Qiao⁴, Xiji Shu⁴, Yong Gao⁵, Binlian Sun⁴, Chuanwu Zhu^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Infectious Diseases, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215004, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Infectious Diseases, The Affiliated Infectious Disease Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215131, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Infectious Diseases, The Fifth People's Hospital of Suzhou, Suzhou, 215131, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Wuhan Institute of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, Jianghan University, Wuhan, 430056, People's Republic of China.
⁵ The First Affiliated Hospital, Department of Life Science and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230001, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate factors involved in T-cell depletion in combination antiretroviral therapy (cART)-treated human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1)-positive patients.

Patients and methods: 29 HIV-1-positive patients were enrolled. The CD4+, CD8+ T cell subsets and CD56^dim NK cells were detected by flow cytometry. The concentrations of cytokines were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Extraction, amplification, and viral load quantification of specimens were performed using the Roche Cobas Ampliprep/Cobas TaqMan HIV-1 test.

Results: Compared with IR group, the total number of red blood cells (RBCs) and lymphocytes (LCs) in INR group was significantly reduced, and there was a significant positive correlation between the number of RBCs and that of LCs. The overall production rates of T cells-related cytokines were lower in INR group. However, the cell-surface expression of programmed death-1 (PD-1) on CD4+ T and CD8+ T cells were markedly elevated in INR group. Moreover, it was found that the proportion and the killing ability of CD56^dim NK cells significantly increased in INR patients, and significantly correlated with apoptosis of T lymphocytes.

Conclusion: A poor immune reconstitution in HIV-positive patients might result from multiple factors, including bone marrow suppression, high PD-1 expression on the surface of CD4+ T cells, and over-activation of T and NK cells. Besides, the activity of NK cells and RBCs count might be important auxiliary indicators for immune reconstitution and provided a reliable guidance for developing strategies to improve immune reconstitution.

Keywords: AIDS; CD56dim NK cells; T-cells; antiretroviral therapy; immune reconstitution.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No: BK20181178) and Clinical Key Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Special Project of Suzhou Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission (No: LCZX201717).