Estudo do perfil imunológico das células NK e seus subtipos em pacientes com HIV/AIDS e pacientes com HIV/AIDS e câncer

Abstract

The HIV-1 infection is characterized by chronic and progressive immune dysfunction due to declining levels of CD4T lymphocytes, driven by inflammation and proliferation of the virus. In recent years, with the discovery that natural killer (NK) cell receptors play key roles in different parts of the body, new understanding was shed on the role of these receptors and the complex set of functions associated with NK cell receptors beyond the simple recognition of pathological cells. Such knowledge provided new, unexpected views on the NK receptors and their possible participation in a growing range of diseases, including HIV/AIDS and cancer. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyze the immune profile of HIV/AIDS patients with and without malignant neoplastic disease. The natural cytotoxicity receptor (NCR), lectin type C, and killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) were analized by flow cytometry on NK cells and T lymphocytes from peripheral blood samples of healthy donors (n = 25), patients with HIV/AIDS (n = 25), and patients with HIV/AIDS and cancer (n = 21). In this study, we found no changes in the distribution of NK cells and their subtypes in any of the groups. We observed decreased expression of NKp46 and NKp30 receptors in the HIV/AIDS group. The expression of these NCR NK cells was higher in patients with HIV/AIDS and cancer than in HIV/AIDS patients without cancer. The increased expression of the NKG2D receptor (CD314) in total T lymphocytes was also observed in both groups. It can be concluded that there were no changes in the distribution of NK cells and their subtypes in all the samples analyzed here.