Comparison of transcriptional profiles of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from HIV-infected pateints and uninfected control group

We examined the gene expression profiles in ex vivo human CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from untreated HIV-infected individuals at different clinical stages and rates of disease progression. Profiles of pure CD4+ and CD8+ T cells subsets from HIV-infected nonprogressors who controlled viremia were indistinguishable from HIV-uninfected individuals. Similarly, no gene clusters could distinguish T cells from individuals with early from chronic progressive HIV infection, whereas differences were observed between uninfected or nonprogressors versus early or chronic progressors. In early/chronic HIV infection, three characteristic gene expression signatures were observed: (1) CD4+ and CD8+ T cells showed increased expression of interferon stimulated genes (ISGs). However, some ISGs including CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11, and the IL15R in both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and the anti-HIV ISG APOBEC3G in CD4+ T cells, were not upregulated. (2) CD4+ and CD8+ T cells showed a cluster similar to that observed in thymocytes, and (3) more genes were differentially regulated in CD8+ T cells than in CD4+ T cells, including a cluster of genes downregulated exclusively in CD8+ T cells. In conclusion, HIV infection induces a persistent T cell transcriptional profile, early in infection, characterized by a dramatic but potentially aberrant interferon response, and a profile suggesting an active thymic output.

40

Hyrcza MD, Kovacs C, Loutfy M, Halpenny R, Heisler L, Yang S, Wilkins O, Ostrowski M, Der SD