Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30760190›Full record

ArticleCurrent HIV research2018

Potential Role of Regulatory T Cells in Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV.

Peter A Kessler

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Current HIV research, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
0.5field-weighted citation impact, top 40% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

Peter A KesslerDepartment of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta GA, United States.
Emory University · US

Funding

Virology, Immunology, and Microbiology CoreP30AI050410 · NIAID · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · PI DAVID M. MARGOLIS · 2001 to 2026
$76.9M
Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars Support Center @ Vanderbilt-AAMCR24TW007988 · FIC · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY · PI VERMUND, STEN H. · 2007 to 2011
$27.6M
UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease PreventionU48DP000059 · DP · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · PI AMMERMAN, ALICE S · 2004 to 2009
$14.4M
Carolina Population CenterR24HD050924 · NICHD · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · PI MORGAN, SAMUEL PHILIP · 2005 to 2014
$10.0M
AIDS INTERNATIONAL TRAINING AND RESEARCH PROGRAMD43TW001039 · FIC · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · PI ADIMORA, ADAORA A · 1998 to 2013
$9.9M
ACL HHS U48DP001944FIC NIH HHS D43 TW001039FIC NIH HHS R24 TW007988NCCDPHP CDC HHS U48 DP000059NIAID NIH HHS P30 AI050410NICHD NIH HHS R24 HD050924
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 occurs in a minority of HIVinfected mother-infant pairs, even without any interventions. The mechanisms that protect the majority of HIV-exposed infants from infection are unclear. T regulatory cells (Treg) have important immunomodulatory functions, but their role in the fetus as well as in mother-to-child transmission of HIV is under-studied.

methodsWe studied available cryopreserved peripheral blood mononuclear cells from HIVexposed infants from the Breastfeeding, Antiretrovirals and Nutrition (BAN) Study cohort in Malawi: 64 infants were HIV-uninfected and 28 infants were HIV-infected at birth. We quantified the frequency of Treg cells (CD4+CD25+FoxP3+), and activated CD4+ and CD8+ T cells (CD38+ HLADR+) by flow cytometry at birth, 6 weeks and 6, 9 and 12 months of age. Descriptive statistics were performed to describe the distributions of these lymphocyte markers according to the HIV infection status; and Student's t tests and Wilcoxon-Rank Sum tests were performed to compare HIVinfected and uninfected infants.

resultsT cell activation increased rapidly in the first 6 weeks of life, more pronounced on CD8+ T cells; a further increase in activation was observed at the time of weaning from breastfeeding at 6 months of age. In contrast, the frequency of Treg was stable over the first 6 weeks of life (median, 0.5%), slightly decreased between 6 weeks and 6 months (median at 6 months, 0.3%) and then slightly increased between 6 months (time of weaning) and 12 months of age (median, 0.45%). HIVinfected infants had significantly higher frequencies of activated T cells than uninfected infants (P < 0.01). At the time of birth, HIV-exposed uninfected infants had higher levels of Treg, compared to infants infected in utero, even though this did not reach statistical significance in this small sample size (P = 0.08).

conclusionThis study provides initial evidence that Treg may play a role in preventing mother-tochild transmission of HIV, likely by suppressing immune activation in the fetus and infant, and needs to be substantiated in a larger study. Better characterization of the role of Treg in fetal and neonatal immunity may provide a valuable complementary approach to achieve eradication of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Indexed as

Infectious Disease Transmission, VerticalChildFemaleFlow CytometryHIV-1HIV InfectionsHumansInfantInfant, NewbornLymphocyte CountMalawiMaleT-Lymphocytes, RegulatoryT-Lymphocyte SubsetsHIVinfantmother-to-child transmissionneonateregulatory T lymphocytes.Treg

Identifiers

PMID30760190
PMCPMC6446459
OpenAlexW2914794081

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.