HIV budding from a lymphocyteWIKIMEDIA, CDCGut microbes in patients with HIV differ from those in uninfected individuals—and may promote disease progression, according to a paper published today (July 10) in Science Translational Medicine. The report suggests that HIV infection in the gut actually selects for bacteria that promote immune dysfunction, even if a patient receives antiretroviral treatment.
“What’s nice about this paper is that it shows there is a stereotyped dysregulation of the microbiota in HIV patients, meaning there is a signature to the change,” said Dan Littman, a professor of molecular immunology at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, who was not involved in the study.
Furthermore, “they have gone on to show that the degree of dysbiosis and the type of bacteria present correlate with some of the important markers of immune activation and disease progression,” added Danny Douek, an immunologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, who also did not participate in the research.
HIV is a retrovirus that primarily infects and replicates inside immune cells and can ultimately lead to immune dysfunction ...
