Phenotypic T cell alterations occur early in male homosexual HIV-1 infection
HIV infection is characterized by a disturbance in T cell homeostasis, which results in an alteration to T cell subsets. To investigate the impact of HIV infection on CD4+ T cell populations, we performed a cross-sectional analysis of CD4+ T cell populations in male homosexual HIV patients compared to healthy controls. Patients with chronic HIV infection were stratified into ART-receiving and ART-naive patients. The phenotypic characteristics of the CD4+ T cell subsets are presented in Table 2. Within CD4+ T cells, the percentage of TN was lower in the HIV-infected patients (n = 30, 34.10 [12.38~47.73] %) than in the control group (n = 28,43.26 [35.20~52.08] %, p = 0.0209) (Fig.1a). For the TCM, although the difference was not statistically significant, it tended to be more expanded in HIV-infected patients (n = 30, 32.95 [28.13~39.68] %) than in the control group (n = 28, 32.10 [27.67~36.68] %) (Fig.1b). Interestingly, statistically significant frequencies of TEM and TemRA were observed in two groups (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.0061, respectively) (Fig.1c and d). To study the effect of ART on CD4+ T cell subsets, the differences between ART-naive HIV-infected patients and ART-receiving patients were further analyzed. The percentage of TN was expanded to a greater extent in ART-receiving patients (n = 30, 43.35 [38.38~48.13] %, p = 0.0314) when compared to ART-naive patients (n = 30, 34.10 [12.38~47.73] %, p = 0.0314) (Fig.1a). Similarly, there was no difference in the frequencies of TCM between the two groups. While the percentages of TEM and TemRA were significantly reduced in the ART-receiving patients (n = 30, 13.43 [9.40~19.81] % and 0.4 [0.175~0.625] %, respectively) in comparison to ART-naive patients (n = 30, 18.50 [11.93~23.85] % and 1.000 [0.3~1.783] %, p = 0.0157 andp = 0.0274, respectively) (Fig. 1c and d).