Abstract
CD4 T cells acquire many functions upon activation and this diversity is essential for good health. During infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), CD4 T cells become infected and decrease in number. Furthermore, these cells become less responsive to stimuli and are known to acquire biases in function that may not be beneficial for combating HIV or other co-infections. How the diversity of the CD4 T-cell response is affected following treatment of HIV-infected individuals with antiretroviral therapy (ART) is not well understood and has been difficult to study for two reasons. First, assessing antigen-specific CD4 T-cell responses has been problematic due to a lack of reagents clearly defining these cells, such as MHC-II tetramers. Second, reliable antibodies capable of detecting the different functional subsets of CD4 T cells are lacking, as is the case for GATA-3 and ROR-γt. The study by Phetsouphanh et al.1 tackles both of these challenges head-on and reveals striking changes in the diversity of CD4 T-cell responses to HIV and Cytomegalovirus (CMV) over a 48-week course of ART (Figure 1).
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