African Journal of Laboratory Medicine (Sep 2013)

HIV and Tuberculosis co-infection impacts T-cell activation markers but not the numbers subset of regulatory T-cells in HIV-1 infected patients

  • Moustapha Mbow,
  • Ndèye S.S. Santos,
  • Makhtar Camara,
  • Awa Ba,
  • Aliou Niang,
  • Géraldine Daneau,
  • Djibril Wade,
  • Abdou A. Diallo,
  • Maxim Toupane,
  • Maïmouna Diakhaté,
  • Nafissatou Lèye,
  • Papa A. Diaw,
  • Souleymane Mboup,
  • Luc Kestens,
  • Tandakha N. Dieye

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4102/ajlm.v2i1.76
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 1
pp. e1 – e8

Abstract

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Background: Tuberculosis (TB) has been shown to accelerate the clinical course of HIV infection, but the mechanisms by which this occurs are not well understood. Regulatory T-cells (Tregs)are known to dampen hyperactivation of the immune cells, but it remains unclear whether hyperactivation of T-cells in HIV infection is associated with a decrease of Tregs and what the effect Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) co-infection has on T-cell activation and Tregs. Objectives: In this study, we aim to evaluate whether active TB is associated with the increased expression of T-cell activation markers and reduced number of Treg cells in HIV-1-infected patients. Methods: This study was conducted on 69 subjects consisting of 20 HIV-infected patients,20 HIV and MTB co-infected patients, 19 MTB-infected patients and 10 uninfected control subjects negative for both MTB and HIV. The frequencies of T-cell activation markers (CD38 and HLA-DR) and Treg cells (CD4+CD25+CD127-) were measured by flow cytometry. Results: Significantly higher expression of CD38 and HLA-DR on CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells was found in MTB and HIV co-infected patients compared with HIV-infected patients. However,no significant difference in the percentage of Treg cells was reported between HIV patients with TB and those without. The study also showed a negative correlation between regulatoryT-cells frequency and CD4+ T-cell counts. Conclusion: These results suggest that TB enhances the expression of peripheral T-cell activation markers during HIV infection, whilst having no impact on the percentages of Tregcells.