scholarly journals Decrease of T-cells exhaustion markers programmed cell death-1 and T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing protein 3 and plasma IL-10 levels after successful treatment of chronic hepatitis C

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylwia Osuch ◽  
Tomasz Laskus ◽  
Hanna Berak ◽  
Karol Perlejewski ◽  
Karin J. Metzner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
Cell Death ◽  
Chronic Hepatitis ◽  
Hepatitis C ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Liver Fibrosis ◽  
Programmed Cell Death ◽  
Chronic Hepatitis C ◽  
Programmed Cell Death 1 ◽  
Advanced Liver Fibrosis

Abstract During chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, both CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells become functionally exhausted, which is reflected by increased expression of programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing protein 3 (Tim-3), and elevated anti-inflammatory interleukin 10 (IL-10) plasma levels. We studied 76 DAA-treated HCV-positive patients and 18 non-infected controls. Flow cytometry measured pretreatment frequencies of CD4+PD-1+, CD4+PD-1+Tim-3+ and CD8+PD-1+Tim-3+ T-cells and IL-10 levels measured by ELISA were significantly higher and CD4+PD-1−Tim-3− and CD8+PD-1−Tim-3− T-cells were significantly lower in patients than in controls. Treatment resulted in significant decrease of CD4+Tim-3+, CD8+Tim-3+, CD4+PD-1+Tim-3+ and CD8+PD-1+Tim-3+ T-cell frequencies as well as IL-10 levels and increase in CD4+PD-1−Tim-3− and CD8+PD-1−Tim-3− T-cells. There were no significant changes in the frequencies of CD4+PD-1+ T-cells, while CD8+PD-1+ T-cells increased. Patients with advanced liver fibrosis had higher PD-1 and lower Tim-3 expression on CD4+T-cells and treatment had little or no effect on the exhaustion markers. HCV-specific CD8+T-cells frequency has declined significantly after treatment, but their PD-1 and Tim-3 expression did not change. Successful treatment of chronic hepatitis C with DAA is associated with reversal of immune exhaustion phenotype, but this effect is absent in patients with advanced liver fibrosis.

scholarly journals Observed Changes in Natural Killer and T cell Phenotypes with Evaluation of Immune Outcome in a Longitudinal Cohort Following Sofosbuvir-Based Therapy for Chronic Hepatitis C Infection

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J Stevenson ◽  
Youssef Barbour ◽  
Brian J McMahon ◽  
Lisa Townshend-Bulson ◽  
Annette M Hewitt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
Chronic Hepatitis ◽  
Hepatitis C ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Natural Killer ◽  
Chronic Hepatitis C ◽  
Nk Cell ◽  
Cell Subset ◽  
T Cell Subsets ◽  
Immune Marker

Abstract Background Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection diminishes immune function through cell exhaustion and repertoire alteration. Direct acting antiviral (DAA)-based therapy can restore immune cell subset function and reduce exhaustion states. However, the extent of immune modulation following DAA-based therapy and the role that clinical and demographic factors play remain unknown. Methods We examined natural killer (NK) cell, CD4+, and CD8+ T cell subsets along with activation and exhaustion phenotypes across an observational study of sofosbuvir-based treatment for chronic HCV infection. Additionally, we examined the ability of clinical variables and duration of infection to predict 12 weeks of sustained virologic response (SVR12) immune marker outcomes. Results We show that sofosbuvir-based therapy restores NK cell subset distributions and reduces chronic activation by SVR12. Likewise, T cell subsets, including HCV-specific CD8+ T cells, show reductions in chronic exhaustion markers by SVR12. Immunosuppressive CD4+ regulatory T cells decrease at 4-weeks treatment and SVR12. We observe the magnitude and direction of change in immune marker values from pretreatment to SVR12 varies greatly among participants. Although we observed associations between the estimated date of infection, HCV diagnosis date, and extent of immune marker outcome at SVR12, our regression analyses did not indicate any factors as strong SVR12 outcome predictors. Conclusion Our study lends further evidence of immune changes following sofosbuvir-based therapy. Further investigation beyond SVR12 and into factors that may predict posttreatment outcome is warranted.

scholarly journals Compartmentalization of T lymphocytes to the site of disease: intrahepatic CD4+ T cells specific for the protein NS4 of hepatitis C virus in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

1993 ◽  
Vol 178 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
M A Minutello ◽  
P Pileri ◽  
D Unutmaz ◽  
S Censini ◽  
G Kuo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
Chronic Hepatitis ◽  
Hepatitis C ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Chronic Hepatitis C ◽  
Cd4 T Cells ◽  
T Cell Clones ◽  
Cell Clones ◽  
Liver Biopsies ◽  
T Cell Lines

The adult liver is an organ without constitutive lymphoid components. Therefore, any intrahepatic T cell found in chronic hepatitis should have migrated to the liver after infection and inflammation. Because of the little information available on the differences between intrahepatic and peripheral T cells, we used recombinant proteins of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) to establish specific T cell lines and clones from liver biopsies of patients with chronic hepatitis C and compared them with those present in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). We found that the protein nonstructural 4 (NS4) was able to stimulate CD4+ T cells isolated from liver biopsies, whereas with all the other HCV proteins we consistently failed to establish liver-derived T cell lines from 16 biopsies. We then compared NS4-specific T cell clones obtained on the same day from PBMC and liver of the same patient. We found that the 22 PBMC-derived T cell clones represent, at least, six distinct clonal populations that differ in major histocompatibility complex restriction and response to superantigens, whereas the 27 liver-derived T cell clones appear all identical, as further confirmed by cloning and sequencing of the T cell receptor (TCR) variable and hypervariable regions. Remarkably, none of the PBMC-derived clones has a TCR identical to the liver-derived clone, and even with polymerase chain reaction oligotyping we did not find the liver-derived clonotypic TCR transcript in the PBMC, indicating a preferential intrahepatic localization of these T cells. Functionally, the liver-derived T cells provided help for polyclonal immunoglobulin (Ig)A production by B cells in vitro that is 10-fold more effective than that provided by the PBMC-derived clones, whereas there is no difference in the help provided for IgM and IgG production. Altogether these results demonstrate that the protein NS4 is highly immunogenic for intrahepatic CD4+ T cells primed by HCV in vivo, and that there can be compartmentalization of some NS4-specific CD4+ T cells to the liver of patients with chronic hepatitis C.

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