Identification of HIV-reservoir cells with reduced susceptibility to antibody-dependent immune response
Abstract
HIV establishes a persistent infection in heterogeneous cell reservoirs, which can be maintained by different mechanisms including cellular proliferation, and represent the main obstacle to curing the infection. The expression of the Fcγ receptor CD32 has been identified as a marker of the active cell reservoirs in people on antiretroviral therapy, but if its expression has any role in conferring advantage for viral persistence is unknown. Here, we report that HIV-infected cells expressing CD32 have reduced susceptibility to natural killer (NK) antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity (ADCC) by a mechanism compatible with the suboptimal binding of HIV-specific antibodies. Infected CD32 cells have increased proliferative capacity in the presence of immune complexes, and are more resistant to strategies directed to potentiate NK function. Remarkably, reactivation of the latent reservoir from antiretroviral-treated people living with HIV increases the pool of infected CD32 cells, which are largely resistant to the ADCC immune mechanism. Thus, we report the existence of reservoir cells that evade part of the NK immune response through the expression of CD32.
Data availability
The authors declare that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and its supplementary information files. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Author details
Funding
Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation (SAF2015-67334-R)
- Maria Buzon
Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation (RTI2018-101082-B)
- Maria Buzon
Fundació La Marató TV3 (201805-10FMTV3)
- Maria Buzon
Fundació La Marató TV3 (201814-10FMTV3)
- Meritxell Genescà
Spanish Health Institute Carlos III (CP17/00179)
- Maria Buzon
Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation (BES-2016-076382)
- Antonio Astorga-Gamaza
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: This study involves human samples. PBMCs from PLWH were obtained from the HIV unit of the Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona, Spain. Study protocols were approved by the corresponding Ethical Committees (Institutional Review Board numbers PR(AG)270/2015 and PR(AG)39/2016). PBMCs from healthy donors were obtained from the Blood and Tissue Bank, Barcelona, Spain. All subjects recruited to this study were adults who provided written informed consent. Samples were completely anonymous and untraceable and were prospectively collected and cryopreserved in the Biobank (register number C.0003590).
Copyright
© 2022, Astorga-Gamaza et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Further reading
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- Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Teichoic acids (TA) are linear phospho-saccharidic polymers and important constituents of the cell envelope of Gram-positive bacteria, either bound to the peptidoglycan as wall teichoic acids (WTA) or to the membrane as lipoteichoic acids (LTA). The composition of TA varies greatly but the presence of both WTA and LTA is highly conserved, hinting at an underlying fundamental function that is distinct from their specific roles in diverse organisms. We report the observation of a periplasmic space in Streptococcus pneumoniae by cryo-electron microscopy of vitreous sections. The thickness and appearance of this region change upon deletion of genes involved in the attachment of TA, supporting their role in the maintenance of a periplasmic space in Gram-positive bacteria as a possible universal function. Consequences of these mutations were further examined by super-resolved microscopy, following metabolic labeling and fluorophore coupling by click chemistry. This novel labeling method also enabled in-gel analysis of cell fractions. With this approach, we were able to titrate the actual amount of TA per cell and to determine the ratio of WTA to LTA. In addition, we followed the change of TA length during growth phases, and discovered that a mutant devoid of LTA accumulates the membrane-bound polymerized TA precursor.
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- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
The persistence of latent viral reservoirs remains the major obstacle to eradicating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). We herein found that ICP34.5 can act as an antagonistic factor for the reactivation of HIV latency by herpes simplex virus type I (HSV-1), and thus recombinant HSV-1 with ICP34.5 deletion could more effectively reactivate HIV latency than its wild-type counterpart. Mechanistically, HSV-ΔICP34.5 promoted the phosphorylation of HSF1 by decreasing the recruitment of protein phosphatase 1 (PP1α), thus effectively binding to the HIV LTR to reactivate the latent reservoirs. In addition, HSV-ΔICP34.5 enhanced the phosphorylation of IKKα/β through the degradation of IκBα, leading to p65 accumulation in the nucleus to elicit NF-κB pathway-dependent reactivation of HIV latency. Then, we constructed the recombinant HSV-ΔICP34.5 expressing simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) env, gag, or the fusion antigen sPD1-SIVgag as a therapeutic vaccine, aiming to achieve a functional cure by simultaneously reactivating viral latency and eliciting antigen-specific immune responses. Results showed that these constructs effectively elicited SIV-specific immune responses, reactivated SIV latency, and delayed viral rebound after the interruption of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in chronically SIV-infected rhesus macaques. Collectively, these findings provide insights into the rational design of HSV-vectored therapeutic strategies for pursuing an HIV functional cure.