Altered circulating NK cell subsets in patients with hantavirus pulmonary syndrome caused by Andes virus infection

MARINA GARCIA; AYELEN IGLESIAS; VERÓNICA LANDONI; CARLA BELLOMO; A BRUNO; MT CÓRDOBA; MC SASIAIN; P PADULA; VALERIA MARTINEZ; PABLO SCHIELOH

Congreso; IV Lasid Meeting, LXII SAI, II French Argentinean Immunology Meeting; 2015

Background: Natural Killer cells (NK) play an important role in combating viral infections. Several studies report phenotypical NK alterations during human chronic viral infections but few studies have been done in acute viral infections and there are no reports in relation with Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS). Therefore we studied circulating NK from HPS patients infected with Andes virus (ANDV) to seek for alterations that may be functionally relevant.Methods: ANDV+ patients (n=17), healthy subjects (HS, n=13) and seronegative patients with acute respiratory symptoms (ARS, n=14) were enrolled. Their stabilized blood samples (TransfixTM) were stained and analyzed by flow cytometry. In vitro assays were performed to evaluate down-regulation of CD16 expression in normal NK, by exposing them to ANDV+ patient sera (n=15) in complex with viral antigens (i.e: immune complexes).Results: Interestingly, among NK subsets of ANDV+ patients we saw decreased CD56dim/CD16hi and increased CD56negNK with respect to HS (p