Vaccines against mucosally invasive, intracellular pathogens must induce a myriad of immune responses to provide optimal mucosal and systemic protection, including CD4(+) T cells, CD8(+) T cells, and Ab-producing B cells. In general, CD4(+) T cells are known to provide important helper functions for both CD8(+) T cell and B cell responses. However, the relative importance of CD4(+) T cells, CD8...

Effective immunotherapy options for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are becoming increasingly available. The immunotherapy focus has been on tumor-infiltrating T cells (TILs); however, tumor-infiltrating B cells (TIL-Bs) have also been reported to correlate with NSCLC patient survival. The function of TIL-Bs in human cancer has been understudied, with little focus on their role...

Exhausted T-cells in follicular lymphoma (FL) typically express PD-1, but expression of PD-1 is not limited to exhausted cells. Although expected to be functionally suppressed, we found that the population of intratumoral PD-1+ T cells were predominantly responsible for production of cytokines and granules. This surprising finding prompted us to explore the involvement of LAG-3 to specifically ...

Peripheral blood T-cells from untreated HIV-1-infected patients exhibit reduced immune responses, usually associated with a hyperactivated/exhausted phenotype compared to HAART treated patients. However, it is not clear whether HAART ameliorates this altered phenotype of T-cells in the gastrointestinal-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT), the main site for viral replication. Here, we compared T-c...

T he hallmark of HIV infection is the depletion of CD4 + T cells in peripheral blood, lymphoid organs, and mucosal tissues [1]. Since CD4 + T cells play an essential role in immune defenses against almost all pathogens, HIV-positive patients are subject to a variety of opportunistic infections. Despite decades of intensive research, the mechanisms underlying CD4 + T cell depletion remain widely...

The immunoregulatory protein T-cell immunoglobulin- and mucin-domain-containing molecule-3 (Tim-3) mediates T-cell exhaustion and contributes to the suppression of immune responses in both viral infections and tumors. Tim-3 blockade reverses the exhausted phenotype of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in several chronic diseases, including melanoma. Interestingly, natural killer (NK) cells constitutively e...

Background: MicroRNA-155 (miR-155) is upregulated during T cell activation, but the exact mechanisms by which it influences CD4+ T cell activation remain unclear. Objective: To examine whether the B and T lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA) is a target of miR-155 during naïve CD4+ T cell activation. Methods: Firefly luciferase reporter plasmids pEZX-MT01-wild-type-BTLA and pEZX-MT01-mutant-BTLA were ...

OBJECTIVE HIV type 2 (HIV-2) represents an attenuated form of HIV, in which many infected individuals remain 'aviremic' without antiretroviral therapy. However, aviremic HIV-2 disease progression exists, and in the current study, we therefore aimed to examine if specific pathological characteristics of CD4 T cells are linked to such outcome. DESIGN HIV-seronegative (n = 25), HIV type 1 (HIV-1...