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Polyclonal B cell differentiation and loss of gastrointestinal tract germinal centers in the earliest stages of HIV-1 infection
Levesque, M. C., Moody, M. A., Hwang, K.-K., Marshall, D. J., Whitesides, J. F., Amos, J. D., Gurley, T. C., Allgood, S., Haynes, B. B., Vandergrift, N. A., Plonk, S., Parker, D. C., Cohen, M. S., Tomaras, G. D., Goepfert, P. A., Shaw, G. M., Schmitz, J. E., Eron, J. J., Shaheen, N. J., ... Haynes, B. F. (2009). Polyclonal B cell differentiation and loss of gastrointestinal tract germinal centers in the earliest stages of HIV-1 infection. PLoS Medicine, 6(7), e1000107. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000107
BACKGROUND: The antibody response to HIV-1 does not appear in the plasma until approximately 2-5 weeks after transmission, and neutralizing antibodies to autologous HIV-1 generally do not become detectable until 12 weeks or more after transmission. Moreover, levels of HIV-1-specific antibodies decline on antiretroviral treatment. The mechanisms of this delay in the appearance of anti-HIV-1 antibodies and of their subsequent rapid decline are not known. While the effect of HIV-1 on depletion of gut CD4(+) T cells in acute HIV-1 infection is well described, we studied blood and tissue B cells soon after infection to determine the effect of early HIV-1 on these cells.
METHODS AND FINDINGS: In human participants, we analyzed B cells in blood as early as 17 days after HIV-1 infection, and in terminal ileum inductive and effector microenvironments beginning at 47 days after infection. We found that HIV-1 infection rapidly induced polyclonal activation and terminal differentiation of B cells in blood and in gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) B cells. The specificities of antibodies produced by GALT memory B cells in acute HIV-1 infection (AHI) included not only HIV-1-specific antibodies, but also influenza-specific and autoreactive antibodies, indicating very early onset of HIV-1-induced polyclonal B cell activation. Follicular damage or germinal center loss in terminal ileum Peyer's patches was seen with 88% of follicles exhibiting B or T cell apoptosis and follicular lysis.
CONCLUSIONS: Early induction of polyclonal B cell differentiation, coupled with follicular damage and germinal center loss soon after HIV-1 infection, may explain both the high rate of decline in HIV-1-induced antibody responses and the delay in plasma antibody responses to HIV-1. Please see later in the article for Editors' Summary.
