Abstract: Objective: Establish a model of autologous Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-infected CD4 T cell, to investigate the cytotoxicity of γδ T cells of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients to autologous HIV-infected and uninfected CD4 T cells. Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from healthy donors and AIDS patients. CD4 T cells with high purity were obtained through negative isolation using magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS). To establish the autologous HIV-infected CD4 T cell model, CD4 T cells from AIDS patients were stimulated with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and co-cultured with interleukin-2 (IL-2). Percentages of HIV-p24+ CD4 T cells were detected by flow cytometry. Cytotoxicity of γδ T cells was determined by Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay. Results: The percentages of HIV-p24+ CD4 T cells reached the peak at 10 days. γδ T cells from AIDS patients can kill both the autologous HIV-infected and uninfected CD4 T cells (the cytolysis rate were 71.1 ± 9.7 and 24.2 ± 18.2，respectively). However, γδ T cells from healthy donors do not kill the autologous CD4 T cells (the cytolysis rate was 4.3 ± 10.1). Conclusions: γδ T cells of AIDS patients can kill the autologous HIV-infected CD4 T cells, which provide a new sight for the clinical therapy of AIDS based on γδ T cells adoptive immunotherapy.

Key words: Keywords: γδ T cells, HIV, AIDS