This work was supported in part by research funding from the Elisabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (Pediatric HIV Vaccine Program Award MV-00-9-900-1429-0-00 to MMA), MGH/ECOR (Physician Scientist Development Award to MMA), NIH NIAID (KO8219 AI074405 and AI074405-03S1 to MMA), and the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), an NIH funded program (P30 AI060354) which is supported by the following NIH Co-Funding and Participating Institutes and Centers: NIAID, NCI, NICHD, NHLBI, NIDA, NIMH, NIA, FIC, and OAR. These studies were furthermore supported by the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation and the Terry and Susan Ragon Foundation.

1. Regulatory T cell isolation from HIV-1 Positive Blood
<ol>
	<li>Carefully transfer blood, collected in ACD tubes, into a 50 ml conical tube for a final volume of 15 ml blood per tube.</li>
	<li>Add 25 &mu;l/ml of blood of RosetteSep Human CD4+ T Cell Enrichment Cocktail, mix carefully and incubate 20 min at room temperature.</li>
	<li>Add 15 ml of PBS/2% FBS to the blood and mix carefully. Layer the diluted blood sample on top of 15 ml of Histopaque at room temperature in a 50 ml conical tube. Spin the conical tube for 20 min at 1,200 x g with a slow start and no brakes.</li>
	<li>Transfer the CD4+ T cell enriched PBMC layer in a new 50 ml conical tube, wash the cells by adding PBS/2% FBS and spin them down for 10 min at 1,200 x g. Then count the cells, wash again and resuspend the cells at about 20 x 106/200 &mu;l.</li>
	<li>Add the following antibodies (concentration): 
	anti-CD3-Phycoerythrin-Cyanine 7 (PE-Cy7) (1/100) 
	anti-CD4-Fluorescein Isothiocyanate (FITC) (1/40) 
	anti-CD25-Allophycocyanin (APC) (1/40) 
	anti-CD127-Phycoerythrin (PE) (1/20) 
	Incubate 30 min in the dark at 4 &deg;C</li>
	<li>Wash the cells with PBS/2% FBS. Resuspend the cells at 20 x 106/ml in PBS/2% FBS and filter them on a 35 &mu;m nylon mesh.</li>
	<li>Using a FACS Aria cell sorter equipped for handling biohazardous material, sort the CD3+CD4+CD25+CD127low Treg in X-VIVO 15 media (see gating strategy in Figure 1). Conventional T cells (CD3+CD4+CD25-CD127+) can be isolated and expanded as negative controls.</li>
</ol>
2. Cell Culture
<ol>
	<li>After isolation, wash the Treg with X-VIVO 15 media.</li>
	<li>Resuspend the cells at 250 x 103/ml in X-VIVO 15 media complemented with 10% Human Serum and Penicillin-Streptomycin (50 U/ml).</li>
	<li>Wash Human T-Activator CD3/CD28 beads according to manufacturer's protocol. Add beads to isolated Tregs at a ratio of 1:1 bead per cell.</li>
	<li>After two days of culture, double the media volume and add IL-2 (300 U/ml).</li>
	<li>Culture the Tregs for 2 weeks. Change media (X-VIVO 15/Human serum/P/S/IL-2) at days 5, 7, 9, 12. Add beads at a 1:1 ratio at day 9. When changing media, keep cells at 250 x 103/ml.</li>
</ol>
3. Phenotyping
At the end of the expansion culture, expanded CD3+CD4+CD25+CD127low Treg can be phenotyped by flow cytometry and compared to expanded CD3+CD4+CD25-CD127+ conventional T cells as a control.
<ol>
	<li>Harvest expanded Tregs/Tconvs and wash them in PBS. Label dead cells using the LIVE/DEAD Fixable Violet Dead Cell Stain Kit according to manufacturer's protocol. Wash the cells in PBS/2% FBS.</li>
	<li>Add the following antibodies (concentration): 
	anti-CD3-PECy7 (1/100) 
	anti-CD4-Qdot-655 (1/200) 
	anti-CD25-PECy5 (1/100) 
	Incubate 30 min in the dark at 4 &deg;C</li>
	<li>Wash the cells and perform the intracellular staining using the Foxp3/ Transcription Factor Staining Buffer Set according to manufacturer's protocol and the following antibodies: 
	anti-FOXP3-PE (1/50) 
	anti-HELIOS-FITC (1/40) 
	anti-CTLA4-APC (1/20) 
	Acquire the data on a flow cytometer.</li>
</ol>
4. Suppression Assay
At the end of the expansion culture, the suppressive function i.e. the capacity of the expanded Treg isolated from HIV-1 positive individuals to suppress the proliferation of activated T cells can be assessed in vitro.
<ol>
	<li>Thaw autologous cryopreserved ex vivo PBMCs. Leave them for about 3 hr in a 37 &deg;C incubator in RPMI 1640 medium containing penicillin/streptomycin, L-glutamine, 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid (HEPES) buffer (=R+ media), and 10% FBS (=R10 media).</li>
	<li>Label the dead cells using the LIVE/DEAD Fixable Violet Dead Cell Stain Kit according to the manufacturer's protocol. Wash the cells in PBS/2% FBS.</li>
	<li>Incubate the cells with anti-CD3-PECy7 for 30 min in the dark at 4 &deg;C. Wash the cells with PBS/2% FBS. Resuspend the cells in PBS/2% FBS and filter them on a 35 &mu;m nylon mesh.</li>
	<li>Using a FACS Aria cell sorter equipped for handling biohazardous material, sort the viable CD3+ T cells in R10 media.</li>
	<li>Label the T cells with a cell tracing reagent such as CellTrace Violet or Vybrant CFDA SE Cell Tracer at 5 &mu;M diluted in PBS for 7 min at 37 &deg;C according to the manufacturer's protocol. Resuspend cells in R+ media supplemented with 10% human serum (=hR10 media) at 1 x 106/ml.</li>
	<li>Harvest the expanded Tregs, resuspend the cells at 0.5 x 106/ml in hR10 and prepare dilutions at 0.25 x 106/ml and 0.125 x 106/ml.</li>
	<li>Prepare anti-CD2/anti-CD3/anti-CD28 microbeads according to the manufacturer's protocol, resuspend the microbeads at 0.75 x 106/ml and prepare dilutions at 0.625, 0.562, 0.5 x 106/ml in hR10 media.</li>
	<li>In a 96 wells round bottom plate, transfer cells and beads according to the following plan:</li>
</ol>
<table border="1">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>T cells:Treg ratio</td>
			<td>1:0</td>
			<td>1:1/2</td>
			<td>1:1/4</td>
			<td>1:1/8</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>T cells (50 &mu;l)</td>
			<td>1 x 106/ml</td>
			<td>1 x 106/ml</td>
			<td>1 x 106/ml</td>
			<td>1 x 106/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tregs (50 &mu;l)</td>
			<td>no</td>
			<td>0.5 x 106/ml</td>
			<td>0.25 x 106/ml</td>
			<td>0.125 x 106/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Beads (100 &mu;l)</td>
			<td>0.5 x 106/ml</td>
			<td>0.75 x 106/ml</td>
			<td>0.625 x 106/ml</td>
			<td>0.562 x 106/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>hR10 (50 &mu;l)</td>
			<td>yes</td>
			<td>no</td>
			<td>no</td>
			<td>no</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>i.e.</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>T cells</td>
			<td>50 x 103</td>
			<td>50 x 103</td>
			<td>50 x 103</td>
			<td>50 x 103</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tregs</td>
			<td>0</td>
			<td>25 x 103</td>
			<td>12.5 x 103</td>
			<td>6.25 x 103</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Beads</td>
			<td>50 x 103</td>
			<td>75 x 103</td>
			<td>62.5 x 103</td>
			<td>56.25 x 103</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<ol start="9">
	<li>After 4 days of culture, wash the cells and incubate them for 30 min at 4 &deg;C with the following antibodies: 
	anti-CD3-PECy7 (1/100) 
	anti-CD4-APC (1/100) 
	anti-CD8-AF700 (1/100)</li>
</ol>
Acquire the data on a flow cytometer. Use the FlowJo proliferation platform to calculate the percentage of divided cells.

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The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Using the protocol described above, Tregs can be successfully isolated and expanded from HIV-1-infected individuals in vitro. Expanded Tregs express high levels of FOXP3, CTLA4 and HELIOS, are highly suppressive and display a highly demethylated Treg-Specific Demethylation Region (TSDR) locus of the FOXP3 gene (data not shown) 15, suggesting true origin from the regulatory T cell lineage, as opposed to activation-induced transient FOXP3 upregulation. Deep sequencing demonstrated that the TCR repertoir...

Avec plus de 34 millions de personnes vivant avec le VIH / sida dans le monde et on estime que 2,5 millions de personnes nouvellement infectées en 2011, la nécessité d&#39;un vaccin efficace contre le VIH pour enrayer l&#39;épidémie mondiale du VIH reste primordiale. Cependant, en dépit de trois décennies d&#39;intenses efforts de recherche, les vaccins contre le VIH-1 des essais d&#39;efficacité à ce jour ont donné lieu à seulement une protection modeste 1-3 et les corrélats de l&#39;immunité protectrice restent mal compris. L&#39;élucidation de la nature de la réponse immunitaire nécessaire pour la protection est essentielle pour la conception stratégique d&#39;un vaccin contre le VIH-1 et d&#39;autres stratégies d&#39;immunothérapie ciblant le VIH-1 infection efficace. CD4 naturelle des cellules T régulatrices (Treg) sont essentielles pour le maintien de l&#39;homéostasie des cellules immunitaires par le contrôle de l&#39;activation immunitaire excessive, limitant ainsi les dommages aux tissus auto-immune. Toutefois, ils peuvent également supprimer les réponses immunitaires contre les agents pathogènes et d&#39;empêcher leur dégagement. Cancer et Hepaétudes sur les vaccins titis B ont démontré que la diminution de l&#39;activité des Tregs peut améliorer la réponse vaccinale et l&#39;immunité de l&#39;antigène spécifique contre les virus 4-7. Cependant, dans le contexte de l&#39;infection par le VIH-1, l&#39;impact exact de cellules T régulatrices demeure incomplètement compris. Tregs ont été montrés pour réduire la réplication du virus dans les cellules T activées 8 et éventuellement avoir un impact activation immunitaire 9. Ils ont également été présentés pour supprimer les réponses immunitaires-1-spécifiques du VIH, ce qui pourrait avoir des effets négatifs pour la progression de la maladie 10,11. Ainsi, avant de pouvoir moduler l&#39;activité Treg afin d&#39;améliorer l&#39;efficacité d&#39;un vaccin contre le VIH-1, il est important d&#39;avoir une meilleure idée de leur fonction dans ce contexte de la maladie. CD4 + humains cellules T régulatrices sont une population de cellules relativement rare, représentant environ 5% des cellules T CD4 + dans le sang périphérique, et leur nombre absolu de nouvelles de baisse avec CD4 associées au VIH + T déplétion des cellules 12 &lt;/ Sup&gt;. Essais en cours pour évaluer la fonction Treg, tels que les tests de prolifération de lymphocytes T avec Treg co-culture, utilisent un nombre relativement élevé de cellules 12. Par conséquent, la fonction et la spécificité des cellules T régulatrices caractériser chez les personnes à un stade avancé du VIH-1 de la maladie a été difficile, en dépit de leur importance pour la pathogenèse du VIH. L&#39;isolement ex vivo et l&#39;expansion des Tregs de VIH-1 des patients pourraient représenter une solution pour surmonter certaines de ces limitations. Nous décrivons ici un protocole robuste et facile à étendre Tregs fonctionnel dérivé d&#39;individus infectés par le VIH-1 in vitro, nous expliquons comment phénotype et de les tester leur fonction suppressive en utilisant des analyses de cytométrie en flux. Nous croyons que ce protocole facilitera l&#39;accès aux Tregs et les aider à comprendre leur rôle dans le VIH-1 progression de la maladie.

<table border="1">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
			<td>Reagents</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>RosetteSep Human CD4+ T Cell Enrichment Cocktail</td>
			<td>Stemcells technologies</td>
			<td>15062</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PBS</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>D8537</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>FBS</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>F4135</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Histopaque</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>H8889</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-CD3-PECy7</td>
			<td>BD Pharmingen</td>
			<td>557851</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-CD4-FITC</td>
			<td>eBioscience</td>
			<td>11-0049-42</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-CD25-APC</td>
			<td>eBioscience</td>
			<td>17-0259-42</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-CD127-PE</td>
			<td>BD Pharmingen</td>
			<td>557938</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Round-Bottom tube with 35 &mu;m a nylon mesh</td>
			<td>BD Falcon</td>
			<td>352235</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>X-VIVO 15</td>
			<td>Lonza</td>
			<td>04-418Q</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Penicillin/Streptomycin</td>
			<td>Mediatech</td>
			<td>30-001-Cl</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Human Serum</td>
			<td>Gemini Bio-Products</td>
			<td>100-512</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Human T-activator CD3/CD28</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>111.31D</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>IL-2</td>
			<td>NIH Aids Research &amp; Reference Reagent Program</td>
			<td>136</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>LIVE/DEAD Fixable Violet Dead Cell Stain Kit</td>
			<td>Life technologies</td>
			<td>L34955</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-CD4-qdot-655</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>Q10007</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-CD25-PECy5</td>
			<td>eBiosciences</td>
			<td>15-0259-42</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Foxp3 / Transcription Factor Staining Buffer Set</td>
			<td>eBiosciences</td>
			<td>00-5523-00</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-FOXP3-PE</td>
			<td>eBiosciences</td>
			<td>12-4776-42</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-HELIOS-FITC</td>
			<td>Biolegend</td>
			<td>137204</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-CTLA4-APC</td>
			<td>BD Pharmingen</td>
			<td>555855</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>CellTrace Violet Cell Proliferation Kit</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>C34557</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Vybrant CFDA SE Cell Tracer Kit</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>V12883</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HEPES</td>
			<td>Mediatech</td>
			<td>25-060-Cl</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Treg Suppression inspector</td>
			<td>Miltenyi Biotec</td>
			<td>130-092-909</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-CD4-APC</td>
			<td>BD Pharmingen</td>
			<td>340443</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-CD8-AF700</td>
			<td>BD Pharmingen</td>
			<td>557945</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>RPMI 1640</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>R0883</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glutamine</td>
			<td>Mediatech</td>
			<td>25-002-Cl</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
			<td>Materials</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>BD Vacutainer Blood Collection Tube w/ ACID CITRATE DEXTROSE (ACD)</td>
			<td>Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD)</td>
			<td>364606</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>FACSAria IIu Cell Sorter</td>
			<td>BD Biosciences</td>
			<td>-</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>LSR II Flow Cytometer</td>
			<td>BD Biosciences</td>
			<td>-</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>FlowJo</td>
			<td>Tree Star</td>
			<td>v887</td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

new tools to expand regulatory t cells from hiv-1-infected individuals

CD4 + lymphocytes T régulateurs (Tregs) sont des modulateurs immunitaires efficaces et jouent un rôle important dans l&#39;homéostasie immunitaire humain. L&#39;épuisement des Tregs a conduit à une augmentation mesurable de réponses des lymphocytes T spécifiques de l&#39;antigène dans les milieux de vaccin contre le cancer et les agents pathogènes infectieux. Cependant, leur rôle en matière de VIH-1 immuno-pathogénie reste controversée, car ils pourraient servir soit à supprimer l&#39;activation immunitaire au VIH-1 associé délétère et ainsi ralentir la progression de la maladie du VIH-1 ou encore de supprimer l&#39;immunité-1-spécifique du VIH et ainsi favoriser virus se propager. La compréhension et la fonction Treg modulation dans le contexte du VIH-1 pourraient mener à de nouvelles stratégies potentielles pour l&#39;immunothérapie ou vaccins contre le VIH. Toutefois, des questions importantes restent ouvertes sur leur rôle dans le contexte de l&#39;infection par le VIH-1, qui doit être soigneusement étudié. Ce qui représente environ 5% des CD4 + humains des cellules T dans le sang périphérique, l&#39;étude de la population Treg s&#39;est avérée difficile, especially dans le VIH-1, où les individus infectés de cellules T CD4 de HIV-1 et associée à celle Treg appauvrissement se produit. La caractérisation des cellules T régulatrices chez les personnes à un stade avancé du VIH-1 des échantillons de tissus ou de maladie, pour laquelle seuls de très petits échantillons biologiques peuvent être obtenus, est donc extrêmement difficile. Nous proposons une solution technique pour surmonter ces limitations en utilisant l&#39;isolement et l&#39;expansion des Tregs de personnes VIH-1 positifs. Nous décrivons ici une méthode simple et robuste pour développer avec succès Tregs isolés de personnes atteintes du VIH-1-infected in vitro. Flow-triés CD3 + CD4 +, CD25 + CD127 bas Treg ont été stimulées avec anti-CD3/anti-CD28 billes revêtues et cultivés en présence d&#39;IL-2. Le élargi Tregs exprimé des niveaux élevés de FOXP3, CTLA4 et HELIOS rapport aux cellules T conventionnelles et ont été montré pour être très suppressive. Un accès plus facile à un grand nombre de Tregs permettra aux chercheurs d&#39;adresse important des questions concernant leur rôle dans le VIH-1 immunopathogenèse. Nous pensons répondre à ces questions peut fournir des indications utiles pour le développement d&#39;un vaccin efficace contre le VIH-1.

The expression of interleukin 2 receptor (CD25) and the interleukin 7 receptor (CD127) have been described as reliable surface markers to identify functional Treg populations 13 and have been shown to correlate with CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ Tregs 9,12. Figure 1 represents the gating strategy used to flow-sort single CD3+CD4+CD25+CD127low Tregs from PBMC isolated from an HIV-1-positive individual. The CD25/CD127 anti...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about New Tools to Expand Regulatory T Cells from HIV-1-infected Individuals at JoVE.com

New Tools to Expand Regulatory T Cells from HIV-1-infected Individuals

CD4+ Regulatory T cells are potent immune-modulators and serve important functions in immune homeostasis. The paucity of these cells in peripheral blood makes functional studies challenging, specifically in the context of HIV-1-infection. We here describe a method to isolate and expand functional CD4+ Tregs from peripheral blood from HIV-1-infected individuals.

De nouveaux outils pour multiplier des cellules T régulatrices de personnes VIH-1-infected

CD4+ Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are potent immune modulators and serve an important function in human immune homeostasis. Depletion of Tregs has led to ...

new-tools-to-expand-regulatory-t-cells-from-hiv-1-infected-individuals

Research

JoVE Journal

Immunology and Infection

11.1K vues.  Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard. CD4+ Regulatory T cells are potent immune-modulators and serve important functions in immune homeostasis. The paucity of these cells in peripheral blood makes functional studies challenging, specifically in the context of HIV-1-infection. We here describe a method to isolate and expand functional CD4+ Tregs from peripheral blood from HIV-1-infected individuals.