Permissiveness of CD4+ T cells to Respiratory Syncytial Virus infection

RAIDEN, SILVINA; SANANEZ, INÉS; REMES-LENICOV, FEDERICO; PANDOLFI, JULIETA; CEBALLOS, ANA; GEFFNER, JORGE; ARRUVITO, LOURDES

Bariloche

Simposio; 10th International RSV symposium; 2016

Although human airway epithelial cells are the main target of RSV, it also infects other immune cells, such as, macrophages and B cells. We have recently reported that severe RSV infection induces a dramatic reduction in the frequency of peripheral blood FOXP3+CD4+ regulatory T cells in severely RSV-infected young children. Here, we analyzed the permissiveness of human CD4+ T cells to RSV infection.Aims: 1- To analyze the susceptibility of CD4+ T cells from healthy cord blood (CB) or children donors to RSV infection. 2- To determine whether RSV infection modulates CD4+ T cell function. 3- To determine the expression of RSV proteins in peripheral blood CD4+T cells of RSV-infected infants and their correlation with clinical disease severity score. Conclusions: CD4+ T cells are susceptible to RSV infection, which compromises their ability to produce IL-2 and to proliferate. Moreover, RSV antigens are detected in CD4+ T cells of children with severe RSV infection, and a positive correlation was found between the frequency of RSV+ CD4+ T cells in peripheral blood and clinical score severity. We hypothesize that RSV infection of CD4+ T cells might explain, at least in part, the unability of the host to mount an effective memory response against RSV infection.