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. 2006;20(3):80-6.
doi: 10.1002/jcla.20105.

Impact of opportunistic Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection on the phenotype of peripheral blood T cells of AIDS patients

Germán Bernal-Fernández  1 , Carlos Hermida, Patricia Espinosa-Cueto, Ana Cristina Cubilla-Tejeda, Jesús Fidel Salazar-González, Librado Ortiz-Ortiz, Rosario Leyva-Meza, Hugo Diaz-Silvestre, Raul Mancilla
Affiliations

Impact of opportunistic Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection on the phenotype of peripheral blood T cells of AIDS patients

Germán Bernal-Fernández et al. J Clin Lab Anal. 2006.

Abstract

While the detrimental consequences of opportunistic tuberculosis (TB) in the course and outcome of HIV-1 infection are well studied, little information about the impact of the mycobacterial infection on the phenotype of T lymphocytes is available. In this study we analyzed by cytofluorimetry the peripheral blood T cell phenotype of 13 patients with AIDS, 23 HIV-1 negative patients with active pulmonary TB, nine HIV-1/Mycobacterium tuberculosis coinfected individuals, and 21 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. CD4+ T cells were equally depleted in AIDS and coinfection (P<0.001). The findings suggest a rescuing effect of the added mycobacterial infection. CD3 T cell loss was not observed in coinfection, whereas it was severe in AIDS (P<0.001). Similar (albeit less striking) effects were observed with other markers (CD45RA, CD45RO, and CD27) that were diminished in CD4+ T cells of AIDS patients. Apparent detrimental effects of the added mycobacterial infection were the increased expression of the proapoptotic molecule CD95 on CD4+ T cells, and decreased expression of the major costimulatory molecule CD28 on CD8+ T cells. In this work we show that M. tuberculosis infection modifies the T cell phenotype of the HIV-1 infected individual.

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