Rafael Correa Rocha
Laboratory of Immune-regulation, Institute of Health Research, Madrid, Spain.
Title: HIV infection of human regulatory T cells (Treg) downregulates Foxp3 expression and produces a loss of the suppressive capacity of these cells
Biography
Biography: Rafael Correa Rocha
Abstract
Regulatory T cells (Treg) play an important role in infections modulating host immune responses and avoiding over-reactive immunity. Immune hyperactivation associated with HIV infection lead to a marked erosion and deregulation of immune system, and by that, the role of Treg in HIV-infected patients is critical because their implication preventing this hyperactivation. The findings about the role of Treg in HIV infection are controversial, and considering that Treg are susceptible of being infected by HIV, there are not data about the effect of HIV infection on Treg phenotype and function.We demonstrated by first time that HIV infection of Treg markedly disturb the phenotype of these cells downregulating the expression of Foxp3 and CD25, which is followed by a loss of their suppressive capacity. We also demonstrated that the balance between Treg and effector cells is broken in HIV patients by a direct effect of the virus on Treg, and finally we have also described that HIV-infected patients have a marked deficit and impaired function of Treg that would be related with the incidence of Immune hyperactivation in these patients.