Association of T cell receptor diversity of CD4+ T lymphocytes with viral load in individuals with HIV-1 infection / 中华微生物学和免疫学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To assess the impact of the virus on the complementary determining region 3 (CDR3) length diversity of T cell receptor(TCR) Vβ repertoires of CD4+ T lymphocytes and to explore its association with viral load in individuals with HIV-1 infection. Methods The TCR repertoire was examined using spectratyping of CDR3 length diversity within CD4+ T cells in HIV infected and healthy adults. Separation of CD4+ T cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells ( PBMCs) was carried out by using immunomagnetic beads coated with anti-CD4 antibody. Total RNAs from the purified CD4 + T lymphocytes were isolated and used to perform nested-PCR amplifications in CDR3 of 22 TCR gene families. CDR3 diversity and its association with viral load in individuals with HIV-1 infection were analyzed. Results An average diversity for all CDR3 profiles in CD4+ T cells from 25 HIV-infected individuals was significantly different as compared to 10 age-matched healthy donors (P＜0.05) with the HIV-infected individuals losing diversity in the CDR3 profiles. There was positive correlation between changes in TCR CDR3 diversity and viral load (r = 0. 494, P ＜ 0. 05). The changes in CDR3 length diversity of Vβ families in HIV-infected individuals, particular in Vβ8, Vβ22, Vβ23 were statistically different from the healthy controls. Conclusion HIV-1 infection might induce the loss of TCR Vp repertoire diversity and disrupt the CDR3 Gaussian distributions within CD4 + T cells. There should be positive correlation between changes in TCR CDR3 diversity and the viral load in HIV-1 infected patients.