Impairment of Pneumococcal Antigen Specific Isotype-Switched Igg Memory B-Cell Immunity in HIV Infected Malawian Adults |
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| Authors: | Oluwadamilola H Iwajomo Adam Finn Abiodun D Ogunniyi Neil A Williams Robert S Heyderman |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.; 2. Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, University of Malawi College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi.; 3. Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.; University of Cape Town, South Africa, |
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| Abstract: | Pneumococcal disease is associated with a particularly high morbidity and mortality amongst adults in HIV endemic countries. Our previous findings implicating a B-cell defect in HIV-infected children from the same population led us to comprehensively characterize B-cell subsets in minimally symptomatic HIV-infected Malawian adults and investigate the isotype-switched IgG memory B-cell immune response to the pneumococcus. We show that similar to vertically acquired HIV-infected Malawian children, horizontally acquired HIV infection in these adults is associated with IgM memory B-cell (CD19+ CD27+ IgM+ IgD+) depletion, B-cell activation and impairment of specific IgG B-cell memory to a range of pneumococcal proteins. Our data suggest that HIV infection affects both T-cell independent and T-cell dependent B-cell maturation, potentially leading to impairment of humoral responses to extracellular pathogens such as the pneumococcus, and thus leaving this population susceptible to invasive disease. |
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