Altered gut microbiota correlate with different immune responses to HAART in HIV-infected individuals

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundAlthough gut microbiota dysbiosis has been reported in HIV infected individuals recently, the relationship between the gut microbiota and immune activation in patients with different immune responses to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is still not well understood. Gut microbiota and immune activation were studied in 36 non-HIV-infected subjects (healthy controls) and 58 HIV-infected individuals, including 28 immunological responders (IR) and 30 immunological non-responders (INR) (≥500 and < 200 CD4+ T-cell counts/μl after 2 years of HIV-1 viral suppression respectively) without comorbidities.ResultsMetagenome sequencing revealed that HIV-infected immunological responders and immunological non-responders could not recover completely from the gut microbiota dysbiosis. At a 97% similarity level, the relative abundances ofFusobacterium, Ruminococcus gnavusandMegamonaswere greater, whereasFaecalibacterium, Alistipes, Bifidobacterium, Eubacterium rectaleandRoseburiawere more depleted in the IR and INR groups than those in the healthy controls.RuminococcaceaeandAlistipeswere positively correlated with nadir and current CD4+ T-cell counts, but negatively correlated with CD8 + CD57+ T-cell counts.Inflammation markers and translocation biomarkers (LPS) levels were positively correlated with the abundances of generaRuminococcusandFusobacteriumbut were negatively correlated with the genusFaecalibacterium. The relative abundances ofEscherichia-ShigellaandBlautiawere significantly higher in the IR than those in the INR group.Escherichia-Shigellawere negatively correlated with the CD4/CD8 ratio but positively correlated with the amount ofCD8 + CD57+ T-cells.RoseburiaandBlautiawere negatively associated with nadir CD4+ T-cell and positively associated with CD8 + CD57+ T-cell counts.ConclusionsGut microbiota dysbiosis may be one of the factors contributing to different immune responses and treatment outcomes to HAART.