Immunotoxin-mediated depletion of Gag-specific CD8+ T cells undermines natural control of SIV.

Antibody-mediated depletion studies have demonstrated that CD8+ T cells are required for effective immune control of SIV. However, this approach is potentially confounded by several factors, including reactive CD4+ T cell proliferation, and provides no information on epitope specificity, a likely determinant of CD8+ T cell efficacy. We circumvented these limitations by selectively depleting CD8+ T cells specific for the Gag epitope CTPYDINQM (CM9) via the administration of immunotoxin-conjugated tetrameric complexes of CM9/Mamu-A*01.

CD20 CAR T cells safely and reversibly ablate B cell follicles in a non-human primate model of HIV persistence.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies have demonstrated immense clinical success for B cell and plasma cell malignancies. We tested their impact on the viral reservoir in a macaque model of HIV persistence, comparing the functions of CD20 CAR T cells between animals infected with simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) and uninfected controls. We focused on the potential of this approach to disrupt B cell follicles (BCFs), exposing infected cells for immune clearance.

Experimental bacterial dysbiosis with consequent immune alterations increase intrarectal SIV acquisition susceptibility.

Variations in the composition of the intestinal bacterial microbiome correlate with acquisition of some sexually transmitted pathogens. To experimentally assess the contribution of intestinal dysbiosis to rectal lentiviral acquisition, we induce dysbiosis in rhesus macaques (RMs) with the antibiotic vancomycin prior to repeated low-dose intrarectal challenge with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) SIVmac239X. Vancomycin administration reduces T helper 17 (T17) and T22 frequencies, increases expression of host bacterial sensors and antibacterial peptides, and increases numbers of transmitted-founder (T/F) variants detected upon SIV acquisition.

Ad26.COV2.S prevents upregulation of SARS-CoV-2 induced pathways of inflammation and thrombosis in hamsters and rhesus macaques.

Syrian golden hamsters exhibit features of severe disease after SARS-CoV-2 WA1/2020 challenge and are therefore useful models of COVID-19 pathogenesis and prevention with vaccines. Recent studies have shown that SARS-CoV-2 infection stimulates type I interferon, myeloid, and inflammatory signatures similar to human disease and that weight loss can be prevented with vaccines. However, the impact of vaccination on transcriptional programs associated with COVID-19 pathogenesis and protective adaptive immune responses is unknown.

Eliminating HIV reservoirs for a cure: the issue is in the tissue.

Purpose Of Review: Advances in antiretroviral therapy have saved numerous lives, converting a diagnosis with human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) from a death sentence into the possibility for a (nearly) normal life in many instances. However, the obligation for lifelong adherence, increased risk of accumulated co-morbidities, and continued lack of uniform availability around the globe underscores the need for an HIV cure. Safe and scalable HIV cure strategies remain elusive, in large part due to the presence of viral reservoirs in which caches of infected cells remain hidden from immune elimination, primarily within tissues.

TCF-1 regulates HIV-specific CD8+ T cell expansion capacity.

Although many HIV cure strategies seek to expand HIV-specific CD8+ T cells to control the virus, all are likely to fail if cellular exhaustion is not prevented. A loss in stem-like memory properties (i.e.

Baricitinib treatment resolves lower-airway macrophage inflammation and neutrophil recruitment in SARS-CoV-2-infected rhesus macaques.

SARS-CoV-2-induced hypercytokinemia and inflammation are critically associated with COVID-19 severity. Baricitinib, a clinically approved JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor, is currently being investigated in COVID-19 clinical trials. Here, we investigated the immunologic and virologic efficacy of baricitinib in a rhesus macaque model of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Feasibility and safety of ultrasound-guided minimally invasive autopsy in COVID-19 patients.

Objectives: To determine the feasibility and safety of ultrasound-guided minimally invasive autopsy in COVID-19 patients.

Methods: 60 patients who expired between 04/22/2020-05/06/2020 due to COVID-19 were considered for inclusion in the study, based on availability of study staff. Minimally invasive ultrasound-guided autopsy was performed with 14G core biopsies through a 13G coaxial needle.

Ad26 vaccine protects against SARS-CoV-2 severe clinical disease in hamsters.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in humans is often a clinically mild illness, but some individuals develop severe pneumonia, respiratory failure and death. Studies of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in hamsters and nonhuman primates have generally reported mild clinical disease, and preclinical SARS-CoV-2 vaccine studies have demonstrated reduction of viral replication in the upper and lower respiratory tracts in nonhuman primates. Here we show that high-dose intranasal SARS-CoV-2 infection in hamsters results in severe clinical disease, including high levels of virus replication in tissues, extensive pneumonia, weight loss and mortality in a subset of animals.

Epigenetic silencing of CD4 expression in nonpathogenic SIV infection in African green monkeys.

African green monkeys (AGMs) are natural hosts of SIV that postthymically downregulate CD4 to maintain a large population of CD4-CD8aa+ virus-resistant cells with Th functionality, which can result in AGMs becoming apparently cured of SIVagm infection. To understand the mechanisms of this process, we performed genome-wide transcriptional analysis on T cells induced to downregulate CD4 in vitro from AGMs and closely related patas monkeys and T cells that maintain CD4 expression from rhesus macaques. In T cells that downregulated CD4, pathway analysis revealed an atypical regulation of the DNA methylation machinery, which was reversible when pharmacologically targeted with 5-aza-2 deoxycytidine.

Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Infection of Rhesus Macaques Results in Delayed Zika Virus Clearance.

Flaviviruses are controlled by adaptive immune responses but are exquisitely sensitive to interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs). How coinfections, particularly simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs), that induce robust ISG signatures influence flavivirus clearance and pathogenesis is unclear. Here, we studied how Zika virus (ZIKV) infection is modulated in SIV-infected nonhuman primates.

Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Infects Functionally Polarized Memory CD4 T Cells Equivalently .

Among the numerous immunological abnormalities observed in chronically human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals, perturbations in memory CD4 T cells are thought to contribute specifically to disease pathogenesis. Among these, functional imbalances in the frequencies of T regulatory cells (Tregs) and interleukin 17 (IL-17)/IL-22-producing Th cells (Th17/Th22) from mucosal sites and T follicular helper (Tfh) cells in lymph nodes are thought to facilitate specific aspects of disease pathogenesis. However, while preferential infection of Tfh cells is widely thought to create an important viral reservoir in an immunologically privileged site , whether immunological perturbations among memory CD4 T cell populations are attributable to their relative infectivity by the virus is unclear.

Experimental microbial dysbiosis does not promote disease progression in SIV-infected macaques.

Intestinal microbial dysbiosis has been described in individuals with an HIV-1 infection and may underlie persistent inflammation in chronic infection, thereby contributing to disease progression. Herein, we induced an HIV-1-like intestinal dysbiosis in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) with vancomycin treatment and assessed the contribution of dysbiosis to SIV disease progression. Dysbiotic and control animals had similar disease progression, indicating that intestinal microbial dysbiosis similar to that observed in individuals with HIV is not sufficient to accelerate untreated lentiviral disease progression.

Development of an Acid-Resistant Salmonella Typhi Ty21a Attenuated Vector For Improved Oral Vaccine Delivery.

The licensed oral, live-attenuated bacterial vaccine for typhoid fever, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi strain Ty21a, has also been utilized as a vaccine delivery platform for expression of diverse foreign antigens that stimulate protection against shigellosis, anthrax, plague, or human papilloma virus. However, Ty21a is acid-labile and, for effective oral immunization, stomach acidity has to be either neutralized with buffer or by-passed with Ty21a in an enteric-coated capsule (ECC). Several studies have shown that efficacy is reduced when Ty21a is administered in an ECC versus as a buffered liquid formulation, the former limiting exposure to GI tract lymphoid tissues.