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ATLANTA -- Uninfected infants with HIV-infected mothers had higher levels of regulatory T (Treg) cells when compared with HIV-infected infants, researchers reported here.

The small study may provide a clue into vertical transmission of HIV, and the potential role of Treg cells in protecting the baby from infection while in utero, according to Peter Kessler, of Emory University in Atlanta, and colleagues.

Treg cells have "important immunomodulatory functions, but their role in the fetus, as well as mother-to-child transmission of HIV is understudied," they stated in a at the ASM Microbe meeting.

The authors studied blood samples from a cohort of patients from the Breastfeeding, Antiretrovirals and Nutrition (BAN) in Malawi. Among them were 64 infants who were uninfected with HIV at birth, and 28 infants who were born with HIV infection. They looked at blood samples from delivery, 6 weeks, 24 weeks, 36 weeks, and 48 weeks.

The researchers found that T cell activation increased in the first 6 weeks of life, as well as at the time of weaning from breastfeeding at age 6 months. Infants who were exposed to HIV, but born without HIV, had a higher frequency of Treg cells at birth compared with those infants who were infected with HIV in utero.

Timothy Henrich, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, told 番茄社区app that an increase in T cell activation in infected infants would be expected, as HIV disease causes T cell activation.

"The conclusions are a bit overstated that Treg may play a protective role in pre/perinatal HIV infection," said Henrich, who was not involved in the study. "Given the nature of the study, it is very difficult to draw causation simply from correlation. It is possible that the HIV disease itself led to the differences in Tregs rather than these differences influencing ability to become infected with HIV."

Kessler agreed that more research needed to be done into the exact mechanism of how HIV binds, especially at a neonatal stage.

Kessler is actually a high school student -- he will be a senior in the fall -- and a laboratory intern at Emory University, with a specific interest in HIV research. He credited his co-authors, Surinder P. Kaur, and Chris C. Ibegbu, PhD, of the Emory Vaccine Center, for helping him to "brainstorm" this topic.

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