AUTHOR=Zou Shi , Tan Yuting , Xiang Yanni , Liu Yang , Zhu Qi , Wu Songjie , Guo Wei , Luo Mingqi , Shen Ling , Liang Ke 

TITLE=The Role of CD4+CD8+ T Cells in HIV Infection With Tuberculosis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.895179

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2022.895179

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is an important opportunistic infection in acquired immunodeficiency diseases (AIDS). Although CD4+CD8+ double positive (DP) T cells frequency has been observed to be increased in pathological conditions, their role (phenotypic and functional) is poorly described, especially in HIV infection with TB (HIV/TB co-infection).
Methods: The percentage, phenotypic and functional properties of peripheral blood DP T cells in patients with HIV/TB co-infection were analyzed in comparison to uninfected controls and patients with HIV mono-infection or TB by direct intracellular cytokine staining (ICS).
Results: Total and CD4lowCD8high DP T cells increased significantly either in patients with HIV mono-infection or patients with TB, especially in patients with HIV/TB co-infection. The percentage of DP T cells expressing CCR5 in patients with HIV/TB co-infection were significantly higher than that in healthy controls. Lower percentage of DP T cells secreting TNF-α and higher percentage of DP T cells secreting granzyme A were observed in patients with HIV mono-infection and HIV/TB co-infection than that in healthy controls and patients with TB, respectively. In addition, DP T cells expressed more cytolytic markers (granzyme A and perforin) than CD4+ T cells but similar to CD8+ T cells in patients with HIV/TB co-infection.
Conclusions: Our data suggested that HIV/TB co-infection resulted in a marked increase of DP T cells, especially the CD4lowCD8high subpopulation. DP T cells may susceptible to HIV/TB co-infection, and have the same cytotoxic function as CD8+ T cells.