We previously demonstrated that HIV replication is concentrated in lymph node B cell follicles during chronic infection and that HIV-specific CTL fail to accumulate in large numbers at those sites. It is unknown whether these observations can be generalized to other secondary lymphoid tissues, or whether virus compartmentalization occurs in the absence of CTL. We evaluated these questions in SIVmac239-infected rhesus macaques by quantifying SIV RNA+ cells and SIV-specific CTL in situ in spleen, lymph nodes and intestinal tissues obtained at several stages of infection. During chronic asymptomatic infection prior to simian AIDS (SAIDS), SIV-producing cells were more concentrated in follicular compared to extrafollicular regions of secondary lymphoid tissues. At day 14 of infection, when CTL have minimal impact on virus replication, there was no compartmentalization of SIV-producing cells. Virus compartmentalization was diminished in animals with SAIDS, which often have low frequency CTL responses. SIV-specific CTL were consistently more concentrated within extrafollicular regions of lymph node and spleen in chronically infected animals regardless of epitope specificity. Frequencies of SIV-specific CTL within follicular and extrafollicular compartments predicted SIV RNA+ cells within these compartments in a mixed model. Few SIV-specific CTL expressed the follicular homing molecule CXCR5 in the absence of the extrafollicular retention molecule CCR7, possibly accounting for the paucity of follicular CTL. These findings bolster the hypothesis that B cell follicles are immune privileged sites and suggest that strategies to augment CTL in B cell follicles could lead to improved viral control and possibly a functional cure for HIV infection.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-specific CD8؉ T cells are typically largely excluded from lymphoid B cell follicles, where HIV-and SIV-producing cells are most highly concentrated, indicating that B cell follicles are somewhat of an immunoprivileged site. To gain insights into virus-specific follicular CD8؉ T cells, we determined the location and phenotype of follicular SIV-specific CD8 ؉ T cells in situ, the local relationship of these cells to Foxp3 ؉ cells, and the effects of CD8 depletion on levels of follicular SIV-producing cells in chronically SIV-infected rhesus macaques. We found that follicular SIV-specific CD8 ؉ T cells were able to migrate throughout follicular areas, including germinal centers. Many expressed PD-1, indicating that they may have been exhausted. A small subset was in direct contact with and likely inhibited by Foxp3؉ cells, and a few were themselves Foxp3 ؉ . In addition, subsets of follicular SIV-specific CD8 ؉ T cells expressed low to medium levels of perforin, and subsets were activated and proliferating. Importantly, after CD8 depletion, the number of SIVproducing cells increased in B cell follicles and extrafollicular areas, suggesting that follicular and extrafollicular CD8؉ T cells have a suppressive effect on SIV replication. Taken together, these results suggest that during chronic SIV infection, despite high levels of exhaustion and likely inhibition by

Live-attenuated SIV vaccines (LAVs) have been the most effective to date in preventing or partially controlling infection by wild-type SIV in non-human primate models of HIV-1 transmission to women acting by mechanisms of protection that are not well understood. To gain insights into mechanisms of protection by LAVs that could aid development of effective vaccines to prevent HIV-1 transmission to women, we used in situ tetramer staining to determine whether increased densities or changes in the local distribution of SIV-specific CD8 T cells correlated with the maturation of SIVΔnef vaccine-induced protection prior to and after intra-vaginal challenge with wild-type SIVmac251. We evaluated the immunodominant Mamu-A1*001:01/Gag (CM9) and Mamu-A1*001:01/Tat (SL8) epitope response in genital and lymphoid tissues, and found that tetramer+ cells were present at all time points examined. In the cervical vaginal tissues, most tetramer+ cells were distributed diffusely throughout the lamina propria or co-localized with other CD8 T cells within lymphoid aggregates. The distribution and densities of the tetramer+ cells at the portal of entry did not correlate with the maturation of protection or change after challenge. Given these findings, we discuss the possibility that changes in other aspects of the immune system, including the quality of the resident population of virus-specific effector CD8 T cells could contribute to maturation of protection, as well as the potential for vaccine strategies that further increase the size and quality of this effector population to prevent HIV-1 transmission.

Prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle, and scrapie in sheep are fatal neurodegenerative diseases for which there is no effective treatment. The pathology of these diseases involves the conversion of a protease sensitive form of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into a protease resistant infectious form (PrPsc or PrPres). Both in vitro (cell culture and cell free conversion assays) and in vivo (animal) studies have demonstrated the strong dependence of this conversion process on protein sequence homology between the initial prion inoculum and the host’s own cellular prion protein. The presence of non-homologous (heterologous) proteins is often inhibitory to this conversion process. We hypothesize that the presence of heterologous prion proteins from one species might therefore constitute an effective treatment for prion disease in another species. To test this hypothesis, we infected mice intracerebrally with murine adapted RML-Chandler scrapie and treated them with heterologous prion protein (purified bacterially expressed recombinant hamster prion protein) or vehicle alone. Treated animals demonstrated reduced disease associated pathology, decreased accumulation of protease-resistant disease-associated prion protein, with delayed onset of clinical symptoms and motor deficits. This was concomitant with significantly increased survival times relative to mock-treated animals. These results provide proof of principle that recombinant hamster prion proteins can effectively and safely inhibit prion disease in mice, and suggest that hamster or other non-human prion proteins may be a viable treatment for prion diseases in humans.

BackgroundFor decades, the Vibratome served as a standard laboratory resource for sectioning fresh and fixed tissues. In skilled hands, high quality and consistent fresh unfixed tissue sections can be produced using a Vibratome but the sectioning procedure is extremely time consuming. In this study, we conducted a systematic comparison between the Vibratome and a new approach to section fresh unfixed tissues using a Compresstome. We used a Vibratome and a Compresstome to cut fresh unfixed lymphoid and genital non-human primate tissues then used in situ tetramer staining to label virus-specific CD8 T cells and immunofluorescent counter-staining to label B and T cells. We compared the Vibratome and Compresstome in five different sectioning parameters: speed of cutting, chilling capability, specimen stabilization, size of section, and section/staining quality.ResultsOverall, the Compresstome and Vibratome both produced high quality sections from unfixed spleen, lymph node, vagina, cervix, and uterus, and subsequent immunofluorescent staining was equivalent. The Compresstome however, offered distinct advantages; producing sections approximately 5 times faster than the Vibratome, cutting tissue sections more easily, and allowing production of larger sections.ConclusionsA Compresstome can be used to generate fresh unfixed primate lymph node, spleen, vagina, cervix and uterus sections, and is superior to a Vibratome in cutting these fresh tissues.