Abstract
HIV transmission via genital and colorectal mucosa are the most common routes of dissemination. Here, we explored the effects of free and complement-opsonized HIV on colorectal tissue. Initially, there was higher antiviral responses in the free HIV compared to complement-opsonized virus. The mucosal transcriptional response at 24h revealed the involvement of activated T cells, which was mirrored in cellular responses observed at 96h in isolated mucosal T cells. Further, HIV exposure led to skewing of T cell phenotypes predominantly to inflammatory CD4+ T cells, i.e. Th17 and Th1Th17 subsets. Of note, HIV exposure created an environment that altered the CD8+ T cell phenotype, e.g. expression of regulatory factors, especially when the virions were opsonized with complement factors. Our findings suggest that HIV-opsonization alters the activation and signaling pathways in the colorectal mucosa, which promotes viral establishment by creating an environment that stimulates mucosal T cell activation and inflammatory Th cells.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Vetenskapsrådet (Project grant)
- Marie Larsson
Läkare emot AIDS (Project grant)
- Marie Larsson
Forsknings-ALF (Project grant)
- Marie Larsson
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 was approved by the Linköping University Ethical Review Board (Ethical permit EPN M206-06). The subjects were informed about the study at the clinic and verbal consents were obtained and documented from all participating subjects, as approved by the Linköping University Ethical Review Board. The study included both male and female adult subjects who were 18 years or older.
Reviewing Editor
- Nicola L Harris, Monash University, Australia
Publication history
- Received: April 15, 2020
- Accepted: September 2, 2020
- Accepted Manuscript published: September 2, 2020 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: September 15, 2020 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2020, Bhattacharya 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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