Summary
Persistent systemic inflammation in persons with HIV (PWH) is accompanied by an increased risk of metabolic disease. Yet, changes in the innate and adaptive immune system in PWH who develop metabolic disease remain poorly defined. Using unbiased approaches, we show that PWH with prediabetes/diabetes have a significantly higher proportion of circulating CD14 + monocytes complexed to T cells. The complexed CD3 + T cells and CD14 + monocytes demonstrate functional immune synapses, increased expression of proinflammatory cytokines, and greater glucose utilization. Furthermore, these complexes harbor more latent HIV DNA compared to CD14 + monocytes or CD4 + T cells. Our results demonstrate that circulating CD3 + CD14 + T cell-monocyte pairs represent functional dynamic cellular interactions that likely contribute to inflammation and, in light of their increased proportion, may have a role in metabolic disease pathogenesis. These findings provide an incentive for future studies to investigate T cell-monocyte immune complexes as mechanistic in HIV cure and diseases of aging.
Highlights
Persons with HIV and diabetes have increased circulating CD3 + CD14 + T cell-monocyte complexes.
CD3 + CD14 + T cell-monocytes are a heterogenous group of functional and dynamic complexes.
We can detect HIV in T cell-monocyte complexes.
The proportion of CD3 + CD14 + T cell-monocyte complexes is positively associated with blood glucose levels and negatively with plasma IL-10 and CD4 + T regulatory cells.
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