Increased IFN responses drive myeloid cell activation in people living with HIV-1.

People living with HIV and who initiated antiretroviral therapy (PLH) at the chronic stage of the infection are generally exposed to persistent inflammation. We here assessed the impact of the interferon (IFN)/JAK-STAT pathway on myeloid cells from PLH and the potential of a JAK1/2 inhibitor, Baricitinib, to prevent IFN-driven myeloid cell activation. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 16 chronically infected and virologically suppressed PLH were compared to 15 healthy uninfected individuals (UI) before and after exposure to type 1 IFN, type 2 IFN, and Baricitinib.

Higher plasma concentrations of von Willebrand factor in women than in men during both the acute and chronic phases of HIV infection.

Objectives: Chronic HIV infection is associated with increased cardiovascular risk, presumably due to the impact of chronic inflammation and immune activation on the vascular endothelium. We explored endothelial activation markers in people living with HIV (PWH) chronically under antiretroviral therapy (ART) or with spontaneous viral control.

Design: Studies on 50 samples collected from HIV controllers (HIC), 50 ART-treated participants (ART) (median duration of infection: 8 years) enrolled in cohort studies and 50 uninfected individuals.

Rituximab Impairs B Cell Response But Not T Cell Response to COVID-19 Vaccine in Autoimmune Diseases.

Objective: Antibody response to the messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine has been shown to be diminished in rituximab (RTX)-treated patients. We undertook this study to compare humoral and T cell responses between healthy controls, patients with autoimmune diseases treated with RTX, and those treated with other immunosuppressants, all of whom had been vaccinated with 2 doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

Methods: We performed anti-spike IgG and neutralization assays just before and 28 days after the second BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine dose.

Response to COVID-19 mRNA vaccination in multiple myeloma is conserved but impaired compared to controls.

Patients with multiple myeloma are at high risk of severe forms of COVID-19. Despite data showing diminished response to vaccine, the era of highly efficient mRNA vaccine might be a gamechanger. We sought to examine response to mRNA vaccine between healthy controls (n = 28) and multiple myeloma (MM) patients (n = 27).

CXCR3 and CXCR5 are highly expressed in HIV-1-specific CD8 central memory T cells from infected patients.

New ways of characterizing CD8 memory T cell responses in chronic infections are based on the measurement of chemokine receptor expression (CXCR3, CXCR5, and CX3CR1). We applied these novel phenotyping strategies to chronic HIV infection by comparing healthy donors (HDs), HIV-infected patients receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), and spontaneous HIV controllers (HICs). In all groups, the memory cells exhibited high proportion of CXCR3 cells.

The proportion of CD57+ cells among effector CD8+ T cells is lower in HIV controllers compared with antiretroviral therapy-treated patients.

Background: HIV infection has often been linked to faster immune ageing. We sought to determine whether or not treatment-naive spontaneous HIV-1 controllers (HICs) and ART-exposed patients differ with regard to the expression of cell senescence markers.

Methods: Eighty-eight chronically infected HICs and ART-exposed patients (median time since infection: 15 years) with an undetectable plasma HIV RNA load (at least for the previous 2 years) were included.