Journal
JOURNAL OF VIRAL HEPATITIS
Volume 19, Issue 4, Pages 283-294Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2893.2011.01549.x
Keywords
CD154; CD4 T cells; hepatitis C virus; interferon-; T cell response
Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Science and Education [SAF2006-03681]
- Spanish Ministry of Health [PI061244, PI10/01505]
- Fundacio Marato TV3 [TV3 052310]
- FIPSE [36623/06]
- Fundacio Privada Catalana de l'Hemofilia
- Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Madrid, Spain)
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. Hepatitis C virus (HCV)-specific T cell responses are essential for HCV control, and chronic infection is characterized by functionally altered antigen-specific T cells. It has been proposed that the early inactivation of specific CD4+ T cell responses may be involved in establishment of HCV persistence. We have investigated whether HCV-specific CD4+ T cells dysfunction can be reversed in vitro. Nonstructural protein 3 (NS3) and core-specific CD4+ T cells from eight chronically infected and eight spontaneously resolved HCV individuals were selected through transient CD154 (CD40 ligand) expression, and their functional profile (IFN-?, IL-2, TNF-a, IL-10 and IL-4 production by enzyme-linked immunospot assay, cytometric bead array and intracellular cytokine staining, and proliferation by carboxy-fluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester dilution assay) was determined both ex vivo and after in vitro expansion of sorted CD154-expressing cells in the absence of specific antigen in IL-7/IL-15-supplemented medium. Ex vivo bulk CD4+ T cells from chronic patients expressed CD154 in most cases, albeit at lower frequencies than those of resolved patients (0.11%vs 0.41%; P = 0.01), when stimulated with NS3, but not core, although they had a markedly impaired capacity to produce IL-2 and IFN-?. Antigen-free in vitro expansion of NS3-specific CD154+ cells from chronic patients restored IFN-? and IL-2 production and proliferation to levels similar to those of patients with spontaneously resolved infection. Hence, NS3-specific CD4+ T cell response can be rescued in most chronic HCV patients by in vitro expansion in the absence of HCV-specific antigen. These results might provide a rationale for adoptive immunotherapy.
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