Figure 6.

The CD8⁺ T Cell Response to HIV⁺ Non-activated CD4⁺ T Cells Participates in HIV Control

(A–D) CD8⁺ T cell responses from HIV controller (red) or progressor (blue) patients (all HLA-B^∗27 or B^∗57, and n = 10 patients for both groups) in the context of whole non-activated PBMCs were measured by (A) CD107a expression, (B) intracellular IFN-γ expression, (C) intracellular MIP-1β expression, and (D) intracellular TNF-α expression after 2 h of HIV infection and 5 h of incubation. Results are shown following background subtraction. Statistical differences were assessed using PRISM software and an unpaired t test. ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01, and ns, not statistically significant.

(E) CD8⁺ T cell response to Gag pool peptides (final concentration 1 μg/mL/peptide) was measured for each patient by intracellular IFN-γ staining. A representative experiment is shown for an HIV progressor (top) and for an HIV controller (bottom).

(F) The CD8⁺ T cell response to HIV⁺ non-activated CD4⁺ T cells expressed relative to the Gag pool peptide response.

(G) The HIV DNA reservoir was measured by droplet PCR, and the Spearman correlation between the log₁₀ of Gag copies/10⁶ non-activated CD4⁺ T cells and the CD8⁺ T cell IFN-γ response is shown for all of the patients (left, n = 12 patients) and by sub-groups (right, n = 6 patients for each group).

See also Table 1 and Figures S5 and S6.