Circulating Monocyte-Like Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cells and CD16 Positive Monocytes Correlate With Immunological Responsiveness of Tuberculosis Patients

AMIANO, NICOLÁS O.; PELLEGRINI, JOAQUÍN M.; MORELLI, MARÍA P.; MARTINENA, CAMILA; ROLANDELLI, AGUSTÍN; CASTELLO, FLORENCIA A.; CASCO, NICOLÁS; CIALLELLA, LORENA M.; DE CASADO, GRACIELA C.; ARMITANO, RITA; STUPKA, JUAN; GALLEGO, CLAUDIO; PALMERO, DOMINGO J.; GARCÍA, VERÓNICA E.; TATEOSIAN, NANCY L.

Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Frontiers

Lugar: Lausanne; Año: 2022 vol. 12

Alterations of myeloid cell populations have been reported in patients with tuberculosis (TB). In this work, we studied the relationship between myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) and monocytes subsets with the immunological responsiveness of TB patients. Individuals with active TB were classified as low responders (LR-TB) or high responders (HR-TB) according to their T cell responses against a cell lysate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb-Ag). Thus, LR-TB, individuals with severe disease, display a weaker immune response to Mtb compare to HR-TB, subjects with strong immunity against the bacteria. We observed that LR-TB presented higher percentages of CD16 positive monocytes as compared to HR-TB and healthy donors. Moreover, monocyte-like (M-MDSC) and polymorphonuclear-like (PMN-MDSC) MDSC were increased in patients and the proportion of M-MDSC inversely correlated with IFN-γ levels released after Mtb-Ag stimulation in HR-TB. We also found that LR-TB displayed the highest percentages of circulating M-MDSC. These results demonstrate that CD16 positive monocytes and M-MDSC frequencies could be used as another immunological classification parameter. Interestingly, in LR-TB, frequencies of CD16 positive monocytes and M-MDSC were restored after only three weeks of anti-TB treatment. Together, our findings show a link between the immunological status of TB patients and the levels of different circulating myeloid cell populations.