1E). As HIV-specific IL-10+ CD8+ T cells lacked natural Treg-cell markers but expressed CXCR3, which is a characteristic of Th1 cells and recently activated cells [17, 18], we hypothesised that their emergence in chronically infected ART-naïve individuals was related to the effector T-cell response to HIV-1. The frequencies

of gag-specific IL-10+ CD8+ T cells, as measured by cytokine secretion, and gag-specific IFN-γ+ T cells determined by ELISpot using PBMCs from the same bleed from each subject were strongly correlated (r = 0.74, p < 0.0001) (Fig. 2A). In view of this observation, we investigated whether gag-specific IL-10+ CD8+ T cells co-expressed IFN-γ, a phenotype identified in Selleck Palbociclib human CD4+ IL-10+ Tr1 cells high throughput screening with regulatory functions [19]. Dual IL-10/IFN-γ-secreting cells were detected in all ART-naïve individuals tested and outnumbered the IL-10+ IFN-γneg subset in the majority (mean, SD – 54 ± 20% HIV-specific IL-10+ CD8+ T cells; Fig. 2B and C). There were no notable phenotypic differences, in terms of

CD25, FoxP3 or CXCR3 expression, between the HIV-specific CD8+ T cells that co-produced IL-10 and IFN-γ and those that produced IL-10 alone (data not shown). However, we observed a significant inverse relationship between the fraction of the latter subset and plasma viral load (r = −0.62, p = 0.018; Fig. 2D). By contrast, the frequency of HIV-specific IL-10+ CD8+

T cells (IFN-γ+ and IFN-γneg combined) did not correlate with viraemia (r = 0.02, p = 0.97). This suggested that shifting of the balance of HIV-specific IL-10-producing CD8+ T cells away from IFN-γ co-production was associated with spontaneous control of HIV-1. Next, we investigated whether antigen-specific CD8+ T cells with a similar phenotype could be induced in other chronic viral infections such as CMV and HCV, or whether the IL-10-producing CD8+ T-cell population we identified was unique to HIV-1 infection. As CMV co-infection is highly prevalent in HIV-infected GPX6 populations, we first studied HIV-positive individuals with detectable IFN-γ responses to CMV. In addition, we selected HCV-mono-infected individuals with responses to HCV antigens for analysis, as HCV-specific IL-10-producing CD8+ T cells have been detected within the liver in chronically infected patients [9]. Responders were identified by either IFN-γ secretion assays (CMV, Fig. 3A) or ELISpot assays (HCV) as described previously [20]. These individuals were then tested for virus-specific IL-10 responses using cytokine secretion assays (Fig. 3B).