Abstract
Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with T-cell exhaustion that is mediated through upregulation of the PD-1 negative regulatory pathway. PD-1 expression is induced by HCV core protein, which also induces upregulation of SOCS-1, a key modulator that controls the Jak/STAT pathway regulating cytokine expression. To determine whether these two negative regulatory pathways are linked during T-cell signaling, SOCS-1 expression was examined by blocking the PD-1 pathway in T cells stimulated with anti-CD3/CD28 in the presence of HCV core protein. T cells isolated from healthy subjects or HCV-infected individuals were treated with anti-PD-1 or anti-PDL-1 antibodies in the presence or absence of HCV core protein, and SOCS-1 gene expression was detected by RT-PCR or immunoblotting, while T-cell functions were assayed by flow cytometric analyses. Both PD-1 and SOCS-1 gene expression were upregulated in healthy T cells exposed to HCV core protein, and blocking the PD-1 pathway downregulated SOCS-1 gene expression in these cells. Additionally, T cells isolated from chronically HCV-infected subjects exhibited increased PD-1 and SOCS-1 expression compared to healthy subjects, and SOCS-1 expression in T cells isolated from HCV-infected subjects was also inhibited by blocking PD-1 signaling; this in turn enhanced the phosphorylation of STAT-1, and improved the impaired T-cell proliferation observed in the setting of HCV infection. These data demonstrate that PD-1 and SOCS-1 are linked in dysregulating T-cell signaling during HCV infection, and their cross-talk may coordinately inhibit T-cell signaling pathways that lead to T-cell exhaustion during chronic viral infection.