Naive T lymphocytes and recent thymic emigrants are associated with HIV-1 disease history in French adolescents and young adults infected in the perinatal period: The ANRS-EP38-IMMIP study

Abstract

Background. Children born at the start of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic and infected during the perinatal period are now young adults living with the virus. Naive T-lymphocyte restoration is essential for the maintenance of a diverse T-cell receptor repertoire and for immunity to pathogens.Methods. The ANRS-EP38-IMMIP study included 93 patients infected with HIV type 1 (HIV-1) during the perinatal period. Naive CD4 (CD4N) and CD8 (CD8N) T lymphocytes and CD4 recent thymic emigrants (CD4 RTE) were quantified in the peripheral blood by flow cytometry. Wilcoxon tests, Pearson correlation coefficients, and linear regressions were used to study their associations with HIV disease parameters.Results. Median CD4N, CD8N, and CD4RTE percentages were 56% (interquartile range [IQR], 44-64), 31% (IQR, 22-44), and 79% (IQR, 74-83), respectively. The three T-lymphocyte subsets were positively correlated with CD4 T-cell count. Patients aviremic at the time of the study tended to have a lower CD4N percentage (55% vs 58%; P =. 10), a significantly higher CD8N percentage (39% vs 22%; P