Intestinal endothelial cells increase HIV infection and latency in resting and activated CD4 + T cells, particularly affecting CCR6 + CD4 + T cells.

Background: With suppressive antiretroviral therapy, HIV infection is well-managed in most patients. However, eradication and cure are still beyond reach due to latent viral reservoirs in CD4 + T cells, particularly in lymphoid tissue environments including the gut associated lymphatic tissues. In HIV patients, there is extensive depletion of T helper cells, particularly T helper 17 cells from the intestinal mucosal area, and the gut is one of the largest viral reservoir sites. Endothelial cells line lymphatic and blood vessels and were found to promote HIV infection and latency in previous studies. In this study, we examined endothelial cells specific to the gut mucosal area-intestinal endothelial cells-for their impact on HIV infection and latency in T helper cells.

Results: We found that intestinal endothelial cells dramatically increased productive and latent HIV infection in resting CD4 + T helper cells. In activated CD4 + T cells, endothelial cells enabled the formation of latent infection in addition to the increase of productive infection. Endothelial-cell-mediated HIV infection was more prominent in memory T cells than naïve T cells, and it involved the cytokine IL-6 but did not involve the co-stimulatory molecule CD2. The CCR6 + T helper 17 subpopulation was particularly susceptible to such endothelial-cell-promoted infection.

Conclusion: Endothelial cells, which are widely present in lymphoid tissues including the intestinal mucosal area and interact regularly with T cells physiologically, significantly increase HIV infection and latent reservoir formation in CD4 + T cells, particularly in CCR6 + T helper 17 cells. Our study highlighted the importance of endothelial cells and the lymphoid tissue environment in HIV pathology and persistence.