Varicella zoster virus productively infects human peripheral blood mononuclear cells to modulate expression of immunoinhibitory proteins and blocking PD-L1 enhances virus-specific CD8+ T cell effector function
Fig 2
VZV-infected monocytes, NK cells, NKT cells, B cells, CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells all express nuclear VZV ORF63.
Human PBMCs were co-cultured with uninfected- or VZV-infected HFLs for 48 h, then uninfected- and VZV-infected monocytes, NK, NKT, B cells, CD4+ T and CD8+ T cells based upon surface VZV gE expression were sorted using flow cytometry and analyzed for VZV ORF63 expression using immunofluorescence. Uninfected- and VZV-infected HFLs were analyzed for ORF63 expression as well. (A) VZV-infected monocytes, NK cells, NKT cells, B cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells and HFLs all express nuclear VZV ORF63 (green). (B) VZV-infected monocytes, NK cells, NKT cells, B cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells and HFLs were stained with Alexa Fluor-488 (AF-488, green) only as an isotype control for ORF63 expression. (C) Uninfected monocytes, NK cells, NKT cells, B cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells and HFLs have no VZV ORF63 expression (green). DAPI (blue) was used as cell nucleus stain. Magnification, X400. Size bar = 10μm. Results representative of duplicate experiments using PBMCs from 2 different healthy donors.