Anti-CD14 monoclonal antibody, clone CC-G33 [FITC]

Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune disease. Identification of the biomarkers responsible for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) syndromes of psoriasis can help researchers recognize the different aspects of psoriasis and find novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of psoriasis. The current study investigated the levels of circulating Mo-MDSCs and Mo-MDSC-associated immune factors in the peripheral blood of psoriasis patients with different TCM syndromes. We found that the frequency of Mo-MDSCs (CD14(+)HLA-DR-/low cells) among CD14(+) cells from plaque psoriasis patients with blood-stasis (BS) syndrome was significantly increased when compared with healthy controls mml:mfenced close=")" open="(" separators="|"p<0.001 and blood-heat (BH) syndrome group mml:mfenced close=")" open="(" separators="|"p<0.001, respectively. However, serum IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17A, TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma, iNOS, Arg-1, and NO concentration showed no statistically significant difference between healthy controls and psoriasis patients as well as no significant difference between the BH and BS syndrome groups. Compared with healthy controls, the mRNA expression of Arg-1, TNF-alpha, ROR-gamma, and PD-L1 was increased, while the mRNA expression of PD-1 and IL-10 was decreased in PBMCs from psoriasis patients. Moreover, the mRNA expression of TNF-alpha and FOXP3 in PBMCs showed a pronounced statistical difference between the psoriatic BH syndrome group and the BS syndrome group. Therefore, we provide evidence that the percentage of CD14(+)HLA-DR-/low MDSC/ CD14(+) cells and TNF-alpha and Foxp3 mRNA expression levels in PBMCs are potential biomarkers for distinguishing TCM BH syndrome and BS syndrome.

Background: Complete recovery of the CD4 T cell count is uncommon among chronically HIV-infected individuals with very low pre-treatment CD4 count. We studied the prevalence of chronically immune recovery and its associated factors including immune characteristics chronic HIV-infected Thais. Methods: Treatment-naive participants (n = 375) from the HIV-NAT 006 cohort with a pre-treatment CD4 T cell count after initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) and having achieved a suppressed viremia (HIV-RNA level < 400 copies/mL) were retrospectively followed at the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre, Bangkok, Thailand. Suboptimal immune recovery (SIR) was defined as having a CD4thorn T cell count <200 cells/mm(3) for 3 years after ART initiation. A case-control sub-study matched for age, sex and pre-ART CD4 T cell count was conducted to compare immunological characteristics between SIR (n = 17) and non-SIR (n = 24) participants. Immunological biomarkers such as interleukin-7 (IL-7) and soluble CD14 (sCD14) and other covariates including cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA level, baseline hemoglobin level, hepatitis B and C co-infections, and T cell subsets associated with immune activation and exhaustion were evaluated. Results: Among 375 participants with pre-ART CD4 T cell counts < 200 cells/mm(3), the prevalence of SIR was 39.7%, 19.7% and 7.7% at years 1, 2 and 3 after starting ART, respectively. In a multivariate analysis, a pre-ART CD4 T cell count <= 100 cells/mm(3) (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 9.45, 95% CI 2.92-30.61, p < 0.001), older age (aOR 1.07, 95% CI 1.01-1.13, p = 0.029) and baseline HIV-RNA level (aOR 0.36, 95% CI 0.21-0.59, p < 0.001) were independently associated with SIR at year 3 after ART initiation. In the matched case-control sub-study (cases = 17, controls = 24), there was a higher prevalence of hepatitis C co-infection (18.8% vs. 0%, p = 0.05), lower sCD14 levels (mean, 6.23 vs. 6.27 log(10) pg/mL, p = 0.04), lower CD8 T cell counts (mean, 514 vs. 876, p = 0.0003), lower CD4/CD8 T cell ratio (mean, 0.27 vs. 0.41, p = 0.01) and higher expression of PD1 on CD8(+) T cells (74.2% vs. 65.1%, p = 0.02) observed in SIR participants compared to their non-SIR counterparts at year 3 after ART initiation. Conclusions: Nearly 10% of the study participants who had achieved virological suppression failed to recover a CD4 T cell count > 200 cells/mm(3) after 3 years of ART which was with a very low pre-ART CD4 T cell count and older age. The long-term clinical outcomes of SIR participants need to be further explored.