Immunophenotyping T cells profile associated with COVID-19 vaccination and/or infection in people living with HIV (PLWH)

Abstract

The pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has affected millions of people worldwide since its beginning in 2019. Even with the current availability of different vaccines and new antivirals and immunomodulatory interventions, thousands of infection cases and deaths are still registered daily. Although most infected individuals present mild to moderate symptoms, some patients progress to a more severe scenario, characterized by strong inflammatory response resulting in acute respiratory distress and eventually death. People living with HIV (PLWH) experience age-related comorbidities is also associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes with higher hospitalization and mortality. This association is attributed to an immune cell depletion and chronic immunopathology which is only partially restored by antiretroviral therapy (ART). Early data on the impact of HIV susceptibility to COVID-19 infection was mostly limited to PLWH on antiretroviral therapy. Although, some studies have been publishing that HIV itself may not predispose to more severe COVID-19 outcomes but highlights the importance to perform more studies to understands the role interplaying between HIV and SARS-CoV-2 infection, as well the efficacy of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Some studies with vaccines in PLWH have shown that antibody levels after vaccination were dependent on CD4 T cell count and activated T follicular helper (Tfh) cell frequencies, which can vary widely in PLWH, resulting in over reduced response to vaccines and may induce the HIV reservoir reactivation. The mRNA COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2) and Moderna (mRNA-1273) vaccines have been used to protect population against SARS-CoV-2 infection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there is very limited information about the efficacy of the mRNA-based vaccines in PLWH, with HIV viremia or CD4+ T cell counts less than 200 cells/mm3. In this project, we propose to understand the mechanisms underlying immune responses in ART-treated HIV positive pos-infection with SARS-CoV-2 and/or vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2) and Moderna (mRNA-1273) vaccines using an integrative analysis to identify antibodies and T and B cell phenotypes and their association infection and/or vaccination. (AU)