Fig. 1: Vδ1 T cells display a highly differentiated, cytotoxic phenotype during prolonged viral suppression.

a Representative flow cytometry pseudocolor plots and b frequency of total circulating CD3 + Vδ1 and Vδ2 T cells in HIV− donors (blue, n = 28) and ART-suppressed PWH (orange, n = 21). Frequency of effector/memory subsets within c Vδ1 T cells, d Vδ2 T cells, e αβ CD8 T cells, and f αβ CD4 T cells in HIV− (n = 14) and PWH (n = 21). g Comparison of cytotoxic marker expression on Vδ1 T cells between HIV− donors (blue, n = 14) and PWH (orange, n = 21). h Radar plots displaying cytotoxic and memory marker expression between effector subsets in HIV− donors (blue, dotted line) and PWH (solid, orange line) from left to right: Vδ1 T cells, Vδ2 T cells, αβ CD8 + T cells, CD56dimCD16 NK cells, and CD56brightCD16- NK cells. i UMAP visualization of effector cell clusters identified by FlowSOM analysis of mass cytometry data from ART-suppressed PWH (n = 15) and j heatmap of relative expression of markers associated with cytotoxicity, effector/memory status, and activation/exhaustion within each cluster. k Principal component analysis of ATAC-seq data from circulating Vδ1 T cells from HIV− (blue, n = 3) and PWH (orange, n = 3). l Number of differentially accessible chromatin regions (DAR) in PWH compared to HIV− controls (absolute shrunken Log₂ FC > 0.5, FDR-adjusted p value < 0.1). m Integrated genome viewer window showing reduced ATAC-seq peaks (highlighted in blue) within the ETS1 and IKZF3 loci. Two-sided Mann-Whitney U test (b, g), one-way ANOVA using the Holm-Šídák method for multiple comparisons (c–f), and Wald test using Benjamini–Hochberg correction (l). Exact p values for (b) Vδ1 p = 0.00005 and (c) TEMRA Vδ1 p = 0.00085. Mean ± S.E.M are represented. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.