Mobilization of systemic CCL4 following HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in young men in Africa

• DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.965214
• Publication Date: 2022-07-27T04:44:33Z
• Authors: Stefan Petkov; Carolina Herrera; Laura Else; Susan Mugaba; Patricia Namubiru; Geoffrey Odoch; Daniel Opoka; Azure-Dee A. P. P...; Thabiso B. Seiphetlo; Jennifer Serwanga; Andrew S. Ssemata; Pontiano Kaleebu; Emily L. Webb; Saye Khoo; Limakatso Lebina; Clive M. Gray; Neil Martinson; Julie Fox; Francesca Chiodi
• Keywords: Emtricitabine; Tenofovir alafenamide; Pre-exposure prophylaxis; CCL4

HIV-1 pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) relies on inhibition of replication steps. To understand how PrEP modulates the immunological environment, we derived plasma proteomic profile men receiving emtricitabine-tenofovir (FTC-TDF) or alafenamide (FTC-TAF) during CHAPS trial in South Africa and Uganda (NCT03986970). The randomized 144 participants to one control 8 arms, differing by drug type, number doses timing from final dose sampling. Blood was collected pre- post-PrEP. inflammatory samples analyzed using Olink (N=92 proteins) Luminex (N=33) associated with concentrations mass spectrometry. proteins whose levels changed most significantly post-PrEP were CCL4, CCL3 TNF-α; CCL4 key discriminator between samples. increased compared specimens. correlated FTC plasma. Production chemokines response short-term indicates mobilization ligands which potentially block virus attachment CCR5 co-receptor. significant correlation suggests that increase is modulated as an PrEP.