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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, November 2004, p. 1040-1044, Vol. 11, No. 6
1071-412X/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.11.6.1040-1044.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Overexpression of a Novel Lymphocyte Population, Positive for an Intracellular CD14-Like Antigen, in Patients Positive for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1

Dan Turner ,^, Michael Hoffman, Israel Yust, Mordechai Fried, Margalit Bleiberg, and Boris Tartakovsky^*

Research Unit, Clinical Immunology and AIDS Center, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel

Received 3 June 2004/ Returned for modification 26 July 2004/ Accepted 20 August 2004

CD14, originally recognized as a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) receptor, has recently been implicated in the process of T-cell suppression and apoptosis. Its soluble form has been shown to bind, in vitro, to human T cells, a process that may carry a negative signal onto these cells. We recently described a novel lymphocyte population in human peripheral blood, a population that expresses an intracellular CD14-like antigen. This novel T-cell population, composed mainly of CD8 cells and of very few CD4 cells, was found to be greatly enhanced in asymptomatic, untreated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive individuals. In the present study, we further characterized this cell population and found that it differed from other CD8 subpopulations associated with HIV infection such as CD8/CD38. In addition, we followed HIV patients under conditions of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and observed two groups of patients: patients in whom the CD14-like positive-testing T cells returned to normal within 1 to 3 months, and patients in whom it did not, in spite of a significant plasma HIV-RNA viral load decrease. Thus, this new CD14-like positive-testing lymphocyte population may represent an interesting and important component of the cellular events associated with HIV infection. On the basis of its modulation following HAART, we speculate that it may be used, in the future, as a drug-monitoring cellular marker in antiretroviral treatment.

D.T. and M.H. contributed equally to the manuscript.

Present address: McGill AIDS Center, Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Qc, H3T1E2 Canada.