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Preparation and Use of HIV-1 Infected Primary CD4+ T-Cells as Target Cells in Natural Killer Cell Cytotoxic Assays
Published on: March 14, 2011
An anti-CD45RO immunotoxin kills HIV-latently infected cells from individuals on HAART with little effect on CD8
J Saavedra-Lozano1, Y Cao, J Callison
1Cancer Immunobiology Center, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA.
CD4+ CD45RO+ T cells are the major latent viral reservoir in HIV-infected individuals and hence a major obstacle in curing the disease. An anti-CD45RO immunotoxin (IT) can decrease the number of both productively and latently infected CD4+ T cells obtained from HIV-infected individuals with detectable viremia. In this study, we determined whether this IT could also kill latently infected replication-competent CD4+ T cells obtained from infected individuals without detectable plasma viremia. Our results demonstrate that ex vivo treatment with the anti-CD45RO IT significantly reduced the frequency of these cells. In contrast, the IT had only a modest effect on the cytomegalovirus-specific memory responses of CD8+ T cells. These results suggest that purging latent cells from infected individuals on highly active antiretroviral therapy with the anti-CD45RO IT might reduce the HIV latent reservoir without seriously compromising CD8+ T cell memory responses.
CD4+ CD45RO+ T cells are the major latent viral reservoir in HIV-infected individuals and hence a major obstacle in curing the disease. An anti-CD45RO immunotoxin (IT) can decrease the number of both productively and latently infected CD4+ T cells obtained from HIV-infected individuals with detectable viremia. In this study, we determined whether this IT could also kill latently infected replication-competent CD4+ T cells obtained from infected individuals without detectable plasma viremia. Our results demonstrate that ex vivo treatment with the anti-CD45RO IT significantly reduced the frequency of these cells. In contrast, the IT had only a modest effect on the cytomegalovirus-specific memory responses of CD8+ T cells. These results suggest that purging latent cells from infected individuals on highly active antiretroviral therapy with the anti-CD45RO IT might reduce the HIV latent reservoir without seriously compromising CD8+ T cell memory responses.
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