Live-attenuated lentivirus immunization modulates innate immunity and inflammation while protecting rhesus macaques from vaginal simian immunodeficiency virus challenge

Immunization with attenuated lentiviruses is the only reliable method of protecting rhesus macaques (RM) from vaginal challenge with pathogenic simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). CD8⁺ lymphocyte depletion prior to SIVmac239 vaginal challenge demonstrated that a modest, Gag-specific CD8⁺ T cell response induced by immunization with simian-human immunodeficiency virus 89.6 (SHIV89.6) protects RM. Although CD8⁺ T cells are required for protection, there is no anamnestic expansion of SIV-specific CD8⁺ T cells in any tissues except the vagina after challenge. Further, SHIV immunization increased the number of viral target cells in the vagina and cervix, suggesting that the ratio of target cells to antiviral CD8⁺ T cells was not a determinant of protection. We hypothesized that persistent replication of the attenuated vaccine virus modulates inflammatory responses and limits T cell activation and expansion by inducing immunoregulatory T cell populations. We found that attenuated SHIV infection decreased the number of circulating plasmacytoid dendritic cells, suppressed T cell activation, decreased mRNA levels of proinflammatory mediators, and increased mRNA levels of immunoregulatory molecules. Three days after SIV vaginal challenge, SHIV-immunized RM had significantly more T regulatory cells in the vagina than the unimmunized RM. By day 14 postchallenge, immune activation and inflammation were characteristic of unimmunized RM but were minimal in SHIV-immunized RM. Thus, a modest vaccine-induced CD8⁺ T cell response in the context of immunoregulatory suppression of T cell activation may protect against vaginal HIV transmission.