TY - JOUR
T1 - Insertive condom-protected and condomless vaginal sex both have a profound impact on the penile immune correlates of HIV susceptibility
AU - Mohammadi, Avid
AU - Bagherichimeh, Sareh
AU - Choi, Yoojin
AU - Fazel, Azadeh
AU - Tevlin, Elizabeth
AU - Huibner, Sanja
AU - Shao, Zhongtian
AU - Zuanazzi, David
AU - Prodger, Jessica L.
AU - Good, Sara V.
AU - Tharao, Wangari
AU - Kaul, Rupert
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright: © 2022 Mohammadi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - The penis is the primary site of HIV acquisition in heterosexual men. Elevated penile inflammatory cytokines increase sexual acquisition risk, and topically applied cytokines enhance foreskin HIV susceptibility in an explant model. However, the impact of penile-vaginal sex on these immune parameters is undefined. Heterosexual couples were recruited to the Sex, Couples and Science (SECS) Study, with the collection of penile swabs, semen, cervicovaginal secretions, and blood after a period of abstinence, and repeated sampling up to 72 hours after either condomless (n = 30) or condom-protected (n = 8) penile-vaginal sex. Soluble immune parameters were quantified by multiplex immunoassay. Co-primary immune endpoints were penile levels of IL-8 and MIG, cytokines previously linked to penile HIV acquisition. One hour after sex there were dramatic increases in penile IL-8 and MIG levels, regardless of condom use, with a gradual return to baseline by 72 hours; similar patterns were observed for other chemoattractant chemokines. Penile cytokine changes were similar in circumcised and uncircumcised men, and repeated measures ANOVA and ANCOVA models demonstrated that the degree of change after condomless sex was explained by cytokine levels in their partners’ cervico-vaginal secretions. This may have important implications for the biology of penile HIV acquisition.
AB - The penis is the primary site of HIV acquisition in heterosexual men. Elevated penile inflammatory cytokines increase sexual acquisition risk, and topically applied cytokines enhance foreskin HIV susceptibility in an explant model. However, the impact of penile-vaginal sex on these immune parameters is undefined. Heterosexual couples were recruited to the Sex, Couples and Science (SECS) Study, with the collection of penile swabs, semen, cervicovaginal secretions, and blood after a period of abstinence, and repeated sampling up to 72 hours after either condomless (n = 30) or condom-protected (n = 8) penile-vaginal sex. Soluble immune parameters were quantified by multiplex immunoassay. Co-primary immune endpoints were penile levels of IL-8 and MIG, cytokines previously linked to penile HIV acquisition. One hour after sex there were dramatic increases in penile IL-8 and MIG levels, regardless of condom use, with a gradual return to baseline by 72 hours; similar patterns were observed for other chemoattractant chemokines. Penile cytokine changes were similar in circumcised and uncircumcised men, and repeated measures ANOVA and ANCOVA models demonstrated that the degree of change after condomless sex was explained by cytokine levels in their partners’ cervico-vaginal secretions. This may have important implications for the biology of penile HIV acquisition.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009948
DO - 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009948
M3 - Article
C2 - 34982799
AN - SCOPUS:85122283624
SN - 1553-7366
VL - 18
JO - PLoS pathogens
JF - PLoS pathogens
IS - 1
M1 - e1009948
ER -