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Review
. 2020 Dec 15:11:596631.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.596631. eCollection 2020.

Sharing CD4+ T Cell Loss: When COVID-19 and HIV Collide on Immune System

Xiaorong Peng  1   2   3 , Jing Ouyang  4 , Stéphane Isnard  1   2   5 , John Lin  1   2 , Brandon Fombuena  1   2 , Biao Zhu  3 , Jean-Pierre Routy  1   2   6
Affiliations
Review

Sharing CD4+ T Cell Loss: When COVID-19 and HIV Collide on Immune System

Xiaorong Peng et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

COVID-19 is a distinctive infection characterized by elevated inter-human transmission and presenting from absence of symptoms to severe cytokine storm that can lead to dismal prognosis. Like for HIV, lymphopenia and drastic reduction of CD4+ T cell counts in COVID-19 patients have been linked with poor clinical outcome. As CD4+ T cells play a critical role in orchestrating responses against viral infections, important lessons can be drawn by comparing T cell response in COVID-19 and in HIV infection and by studying HIV-infected patients who became infected by SARS-CoV-2. We critically reviewed host characteristics and hyper-inflammatory response in these two viral infections to have a better insight on the large difference in clinical outcome in persons being infected by SARS-CoV-2. The better understanding of mechanism of T cell dysfunction will contribute to the development of targeted therapy against severe COVID-19 and will help to rationally design vaccine involving T cell response for the long-term control of viral infection.

Keywords: CD4 exhaustion; COVID-19; HIV; cytokine storm; leaky gut.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
CD4+ lymphocyte count during acute infection in people living with HIV (PLWH) and coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19).
Figure 2
Figure 2
The changes of different peripheral blood cell types in HIV and severe coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). In COVID-19 and HIV infection, total count of natural killer cells, B cells, CD4+ T cells, regulatory T cells, memory T and B cells decrease, whereas the count of follicular helper cells increase. These common changes between HIV and COVID-19 were shown in the central circle. However, distinct changes were shown in total count of macrophage, CD8+ T cells, Th17 cells and naive T cells between people living with HIV (PLWH) and severe COVID-19. (The red arrow indicates a decrease in the number of cells; the blue arrow indicates an increase in the number of cells).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Potential mechanism and consequence of CD4+ lymphopenia in people living with HIV (PLWH) and coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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