Mkindi Catherine Gerald, Marandu Elias Antony, Masawa Ngisi, Bani Farida, Nyuri Amina, Byakuzana Theonestina, Klimkait Thomas, Ding Song, Pantaleo Giuseppe, Battegay Manuel, Orlova-Fink Nina, Weisser-Rohacek Maja, Daubenberger Claudia
Department of Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Clinical Immunology, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstr. 57, 4002, Basel, Switzerland.
University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
BMC Res Notes. 2019 Sep 6;12(1):561. doi: 10.1186/s13104-019-4600-x.
HIV-1 rapidly establishes a persistent infection that can be contained under life-long antiretroviral therapy (ART) but not cured. One major viral reservoir is the peripheral lymph node (LN) follicles. Studying the impact of novel HIV-1 treatment and vaccination approaches on cells residing in germinal centers is essential for rapid progress towards HIV-1 prevention and cure.
We enrolled 9 asymptomatic adult volunteers with a newly diagnosed HIV-1 infection and CD4 T cell counts ≥ 350/ml. The patients underwent venous blood collection and inguinal lymph node excision surgery in parallel. Mononuclear cells were extracted from blood and tissues simultaneously. Participants were followed up regularly for 2 weeks until complete healing of the surgical wounds. All participants completed the lymph node excision surgery without clinical complications. Among the 9 volunteers, one elite controller was identified. The number of mononuclear cells recovered from lymph nodes ranged from 68 to 206 million and correlated positively with lymph node size. This is the first study to show that lymph node biopsy is a safe procedure and can be undertaken with local experts in rural settings. It provides a foundation for detailed immune response investigations during future clinical trials.
人类免疫缺陷病毒1型（HIV-1）能迅速建立持续性感染，这种感染在终身抗逆转录病毒疗法（ART）下可得到控制，但无法治愈。一个主要的病毒储存库是外周淋巴结（LN）滤泡。研究新型HIV-1治疗和疫苗接种方法对生发中心细胞的影响，对于在HIV-1预防和治愈方面取得快速进展至关重要。
我们招募了9名新诊断为HIV-1感染且CD4 T细胞计数≥350/ml的无症状成年志愿者。患者同时接受静脉采血和腹股沟淋巴结切除手术。单核细胞从血液和组织中同时提取。对参与者进行了为期2周的定期随访，直至手术伤口完全愈合。所有参与者均完成了淋巴结切除手术，无临床并发症。在这9名志愿者中，识别出一名精英控制者。从淋巴结中回收的单核细胞数量在6800万至2.06亿之间，且与淋巴结大小呈正相关。这是第一项表明淋巴结活检是一种安全的操作，并且可以在农村地区由当地专家进行的研究。它为未来临床试验期间详细的免疫反应研究奠定了基础。
