Figure 2. THC, but not CBD, suppresses IFNα secretion by pDC from healthy and HIV⁺ donors and pDC from HIV⁺ donors are more sensitive to THC mediated suppression than pDC from healthy donors.

Isolated human PBMCs were treated with either Vehicle control (VC; 0.026% Ethanol) or cannabinoid (THC or CBD) at 1, 5, 10, or 15 µM for 30 min, stimulated with CpG-ODN at 15µg/ml for 5 hrs, and utilized for the IFNα capture assay by Miltenyi Biotec. A) pDC population identified as CD303⁺/123⁺ cells. B) Example of IFNα⁺ pDCs with 10µM of THC and CBD. C) General profile of CpG-ODN induced IFNα in healthy (N=7) and HIV⁺ (N=6) donors. There was no statistical difference in the number of IFNα⁺ pDC in background (VC) or stimulated (CpG) when comparing between healthy and HIV⁺ donors. D) IFNα⁺ pDC in healthy donors normalized to 0µM THC + CpG group. E) IFNα⁺ pDC in HIV⁺ donors normalized to 0µM THC + CpG group. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences in the number of IFNα⁺ pDCs compared to 0 THC with CpG group (1-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s Posttest). F) Inhibition curves comparing percent of IFNα⁺ pDC in healthy and HIV⁺ donors. Asterisks induce statistically significant (2-Way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s multiple comparison’s posttest).