Interleukin-37 expression is increased in chronic HIV-1-infected individuals and is associated with inflammation and the size of the total viral reservoir

Abstract

Interleukin-37 (IL-37) is a recently identified cytokine with potent antiinflammatory and immunosuppressive functions. The objective of this study was to compare levels of IL-37 mRNA in immunological subgroups of chronic human immunodeficiency virus- 1 (HIV-1)-infected individuals and noninfected controls, to determine IL-37’s association with biomarkers of inflammation and reservoir size. This was a cross-sectional study. The HIV-1-infected patients were categorized in three subgroups depending on their combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) treatment status and CD4+ T-cell count. Quantitative RT-PCR was used for the detection of IL-37 mRNA and HIV-1 DNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Biomarkers in plasma were quantified by enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), whereas T-cell activation was determined by flow cytometry. Lastly, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulations of patients PBMCs were carried out to determine differences in IL-37 mRNA response between the subgroups. Sixty HIV-1-infected patients and 20 noninfected controls were included in the study. Steady-state IL-37 mRNA levels in PBMCs were significantly higher in HIV-1-infected individuals compared with noninfected controls: 2.4-fold (p ≤ 0.01) cART-naïve subjects; 3.9-fold (p ≤ 0.0001) inadequate immunological responders; and 4.0-fold (p ≤ 0.0001) in immunological responders compared with noninfected controls. Additionally, levels of the monocyte inflammatory marker sCD14 correlated with IL-37 mRNA (p = 0.03), whereas there was no association with T-cell activation. Finally, we observed a significant correlation between total viral HIV-1 DNA and IL- 37 mRNA in PBMCs (p < 0.0001). Collectively, our data shows that the level of IL-37 mRNA is affected by chronic HIV-1-infection. A relationship with the activation of the monocyte compartment is suggested by the correlation with sCD14 and, interestingly, IL-37 could be related to the size of the total viral HIV-1 reservoir.