AUTHOR=Aguilar-Jimenez Wbeimar , Saulle Irma , Trabattoni Daria , Vichi Francesca , Lo Caputo Sergio , Mazzotta Francesco , Rugeles Maria T. , Clerici Mario , Biasin Mara TITLE=High Expression of Antiviral and Vitamin D Pathway Genes Are a Natural Characteristic of a Small Cohort of HIV-1-Exposed Seronegative Individuals JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=8 YEAR=2017 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2017.00136 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2017.00136 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=
Natural resistance to HIV-1 infection is influenced by genetics, viral-exposure, and endogenous immunomodulators such as vitamin D (VitD), being a multifactorial phenomenon that characterizes HIV-1-exposed seronegative individuals (HESNs). We compared mRNA expression of 10 antivirals, 5 immunoregulators, and 3 VitD pathway genes by qRT-PCR in cells of a small cohort of 11 HESNs, 16 healthy-controls (HCs), and 11 seropositives (SPs) at baseline, in response to calcidiol (VitD precursor) and/or aldithriol-2-(AT2)-inactivated HIV-1. In addition, the expression of TIM-3 on T and NK cells of six HCs after calcidiol and calcitriol (active VitD) treatments was evaluated by flow cytometry. Calcidiol increased the mRNA expression of