Increased degranulation of immune cells is associated with higher cervical viral load in HIV-infected women

The Role of Innate Immunity in Natural Elite Controllers of HIV-1 Infection

The natural process of human immunodeficiency virus type 1(HIV-1) infection is characterized by high viral load, immune cell exhaustion, and immunodeficiency, which eventually leads to the stage of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and opportunistic infections. Rapidly progressing HIV-1 individuals often die of AIDS several years after infection without treatment. The promotion of ART greatly prolongs the survival time of HIV-infected persons. However, some patients have incomplete immune function reconstruction after ART due to latent storage of HIV-infected cells. Therefore, how to achieve a functional cure has always been the focus and hot spot of global AIDS research. Fortunately, the emergence of ECs/LTNPs who can control virus replication naturally has ignited new hope for realizing a functional cure for AIDS. Recently, a special category of infected individuals has attracted attention that can delay the progression of the disease more rigorously than the natural progression of HIV-1 infection described above. These patients are characterized by years of HIV-1 infection, long-term asymptomatic status, and normal CD4+T cell count without ART, classified as HIV-infected long-term nonprogressors (LTNPs) and elite controllers (ECs). Numerous studies have shown that the host and virus jointly determine the progression of HIV-1 infection, in which the level of innate immunity activation plays an important role. As the first line of defense against pathogen invasion, innate immunity is also a bridge to induce adaptive immunity. Compared with natural progressors, innate immunity plays an antiviral role in HIV-1 infection by inducing or activating many innate immune-related factors in the natural ECs. Learning the regulation of ECs immunity, especially the innate immunity in different characteristics, and thus studying the mechanism of the control of disease progression naturally, will contribute to the realization of the functional cure of AIDS. Therefore, this review will explore the relationship between innate immunity and disease progression in ECs of HIV-1 infection from the aspects of innate immune cells, signaling pathways, cytokines, which is helpful to provide new targets and theoretical references for the functional cure, prevention and control of AIDS, and development of a vaccine.

Inhibition of miR-155 Promotes TGF-β Mediated Suppression of HIV Release in the Cervical Epithelial Cells

TGF-β has been shown to play a differential role in either restricting or aiding HIV infection in different cell types, however its role in the cervical cells is hitherto undefined. Among females, more than 80% of infections occur through heterosexual contact where cervicovaginal mucosa plays a critical role, however the early events during the establishment of infection at female genital mucosa are poorly understood. We earlier showed that increased TGF-β level has been associated with cervical viral shedding in the HIV infected women, however a causal relationship could not be examined. Therefore, here we first established an in vitro cell-associated model of HIV infection in the cervical epithelial cells (ME-180) and demonstrated that TGF-β plays an important role as a negative regulator of HIV release in the infected cervical epithelial cells. Inhibition of miR-155 upregulated TGF-β signaling and mRNA expression of host restriction factors such as APOBEC-3G, IFI-16 and IFITM-3, while decreased the HIV release in ME-180 cells. To conclude, this is the first study to decipher the complex interplay between TGF-β, miR-155 and HIV release in the cervical epithelial cells. Collectively, our data suggest the plausible role of TGF-β in promoting HIV latency in cervical epithelial cells which needs further investigations.