Cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific CD8+ T cells in individuals with HIV infection: correlation with protection from CMV disease

CD8+ cytotoxic T cells play a key role in immunological protection from clinical cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease. Numbers of CMV-specific CD8+ T cells are increased in untreated and antiretroviral-treated HIV patients compared with healthy controls. Accumulation of CMV-specific CD8+ T cells during HIV infection may reflect persistent reactivation of CMV owing to suboptimal immune control and/or oligoclonal expansion of the limited populations of CMV-specific CD8+ T cells present before antiretroviral therapy (ART). CD8+ T cells directed against the CMV immediate early (IE)-1 protein may play an important role in preventing CMV replication to pathogenic levels. However, immunological protection from CMV disease in HIV-infected individuals on ART does not appear to depend on total numbers of CMV-specific CD8+ T cells but rather on the presence of both effector-memory and effector CMV-specific CD8+ T cells that produce interferon-gamma and/or perforin in response to CMV antigens.