PROJECT
Impact of Antiretroviral Therapy on Mucosal Immunity

Dendritic cells, T cells, and epithelial cells play central roles in maintaining healthy oral immune functions. However, oral immune function is perturbed during HIV infection, resulting in the increased susceptibility to infection with organisms that would normally be controlled by a healthy immune system (e.g., oropharyngeal candidiasis). The numbers and function of dendritic cells and T cells are modified during HIV infection and likely contribute to the impaired ability to control normal oral pathogens.

Treating people with antiretroviral therapy (ART) should control virus amplification to limit immune destruction, but also must not interfere with (and, if possible, improve) oral immune function. Therefore, dendritic cells, T cells, and epithelial cells within the outer epithelial layers as well as the mucosal-associated lymphoid tissues of the oral cavity must be studied closely during ART. To investigate this, research is being performed in infected and uninfected animals receiving ART (or not) in order to monitor oral immune function under ART and compare it to the immune functions in other mucosal tissues or blood. Understanding changes in immune activities at the body surfaces is critical in advancing strategies to control HIV-induced immune damage, as well as in the development of antiviral approaches.

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Population Council researchers

Melissa Robbiani, Loreley Villamide-Herrera, Ines Frank, Jessica Kenney, Onome Akpogheneta, Federica Crostarosa, Nina Derby, Edith Jasny, Panagiotis Vagenas, Meropi Aravantinou, Rachel Singer, Vennansha Williams

Non-Council collaborators

James Blanchard (Tulane National Primate Research Center, Covington, Louisiana)

Agegnehu Gettie (Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, New York, New York)

Jeffrey Lifson (National Cancer Institute, Frederick, Maryland)

Andres Salazar (Oncovir, Washington, DC)

Donor

US National Institutes of Health

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