Grant: Operating Grant: Innovative Biomedical and Clinical HIV/AIDS Research

The main entry portals of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) during its sexual transmission are the mucosal surfaces of the female and male genital and/or rectal tracts. A major challenge in HIV infection is the inability to control and eradicate the virus in specific cell types or tissues in which it persists, notably during the first days of infection. Although numerous studies have addressed the role of effector cells in peripheral blood, however, the possibility remains that parameters measured in the blood do not accurately mirror the other lymphoid tissues, particularly in mucosal tissues. Recently, a subpopulation of cells expressing a receptor on cell surface, namely CXCR5, has been described to be essential in the control of viral replication, particularly in the germinal centers of lymphoid tissues, the sites of the immune response. In this study, we propose to characterize this population in mucosal tissues compared to non-mucosal tissues. These study findings are of considerable interest in order to better understand mucosal immunity in HIV-infected individuals. To date, there is no successful approach aiming at eliminating the viral reservoir. We believe that analyzing the dynamics of this novel population and the environmental factors that can promote this population, will be the opportunity to identify new processes that can be used to generate this population in vivo for curing HIV-infected patients.