A High Frequency of HIV-Specific Circulating Follicular Helper T Cells Is Associated with Preserved Memory B Cell Responses in HIV Controllers

• Published in: mBio 2018-05, Vol.9 (3)
• Main Authors: Claireaux, M, Galperin, M, Benati, D, Nouël, A, Mukhopadhyay, M, Klingler, J, de Truchis, P, Zucman, D, Hendou, S, Boufassa, F, Moog, C, Lambotte, O, Chakrabarti, L A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: B lymphocytes; B-Lymphocytes - immunology; Cohort Studies; HIV Antibodies - immunology; HIV controllers; HIV Infections - virology; HIV-1 - physiology; human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; MHC-II tetramers; T follicular helper; T lymphocytes; T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer - immunology; Viral Load
• ISSN: 2161-2129; 2150-7511
• DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00317-18

Follicular helper T cells (Tfh) play an essential role in the affinity maturation of the antibody response by providing help to B cells. To determine whether this CD4 T cell subset may contribute to the spontaneous control of HIV infection, we analyzed the phenotype and function of circulating Tfh (cTfh) in patients from the ANRS CO21 CODEX cohort who naturally controlled HIV-1 replication to undetectable levels and compared them to treated patients with similarly low viral loads. HIV-specific cTfh (Tet ), detected by Gag-major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II) tetramer labeling in the CD45RA CXCR5 CD4 T cell population, proved more frequent in the controller group ( = 0.002). The frequency of PD-1 expression in Tet cTfh was increased in both groups (median, >75%) compared to total cTfh (