Recent UCLA-led research suggests certain gut bacteria — including one which is crucial for a healthy gut microbiome – differ between individuals who go on to amass HIV infection in comparison with those that haven’t change into infected.

The findings, published within the peer-reviewed journal eBioMedicine, suggest that the gut microbiome could contribute to 1’s risk for HIV infection, said study lead Dr. Jennifer Fulcher, assistant professor of medication, division of infectious diseases, on the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

“That is a very important area that needs further research to raised understand if and the way these bacteria could affect HIV transmission,” said Fulcher, who also has an appointment with VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. “Microbiome-based therapies have gotten a hot area of research with great potential. With further research this might be a novel method to assist in HIV prevention.”

It is understood that there’s link between chronic HIV and changes in gut bacteria, Fulcher said. The researchers desired to get a greater understanding of when following HIV infection these changes begin to happen.

To this end, they examined gut microbiome samples from 27 men who’ve sex with men that were collected each before and after they became infected. They then compared those samples with 28 men who were at similar behavioral risk for infection but didn’t have HIV.

The samples got here from the UCLA-led Collaborating Consortium of Cohorts Producing NIDA Opportunities (C3PNO), a resource and data center for hundreds of thousands of pieces of research, lab samples, statistics and other data aimed toward boosting investigations into the results of substance abuse on HIV/AIDS.

The researchers found that in the course of the first yr there was little or no change within the infected men’s gut bacteria. They found, nevertheless, that the lads who acquired HIV had pre-existing differences in gut bacteria, even before they became infected, compared with their uninfected counterparts.

Specifically, these men had decreased levels of Bacteroides species, a kind of bacteria prevalent within the lower intestinal tract which have vital metabolic functions in maintaining a healthy gut environment, and increased levels Megasphaera elsdenii, whose role within the human gut just isn’t yet known, compared with the uninfected at-risk controls. The researchers also found that prior to infection the lads who acquired HIV had elevated inflammatory cytokines and bioactive lipids, each of that are related to systemic inflammation, indicating that their bodies were continually on the defense against infection or injury, in comparison with the matched controls.

Study limitations include the relatively small sample size, and the main target being on only young men who’ve sex with men, most of whom use drugs, which can reduce its generalizability to other populations.

Study co-authors along with Fulcher are Fan Li, Dr. Nicole Tobin, Sara Zabih, Julie Elliott, Dr. Jesse Clark, Steven Shoptaw, Pamina Gorbach, and Dr. Grace Aldrovandi of UCLA; Dr. Richard D’Aquila and Brian Mustanski of Northwestern University; and Michele Kipke of Kid’s Hospital Los Angeles and USC.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (K08 AI124979, P30 AI117943), National Institute on Drug Abuse (U01 DA036267, U01 DA036939, U01 DA036926, U24 DA044554), National Institute of Mental Health (P30 MH058107, R34 MH105272), the UCLA AIDS Institute, the UCLA Center for AIDS Research (NIAID AI028697), and the UCLA Pediatric AIDS Coalition.

Recent UCLA-led research suggests certain gut bacteria — including one which is crucial for a healthy gut microbiome – differ between individuals who go on to amass HIV infection in comparison with those that haven’t change into infected.

The findings, published within the peer-reviewed journal eBioMedicine, suggest that the gut microbiome could contribute to 1’s risk for HIV infection, said study lead Dr. Jennifer Fulcher, assistant professor of medication, division of infectious diseases, on the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

“That is a very important area that needs further research to raised understand if and the way these bacteria could affect HIV transmission,” said Fulcher, who also has an appointment with VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. “Microbiome-based therapies have gotten a hot area of research with great potential. With further research this might be a novel method to assist in HIV prevention.”

It is understood that there’s link between chronic HIV and changes in gut bacteria, Fulcher said. The researchers desired to get a greater understanding of when following HIV infection these changes begin to happen.

To this end, they examined gut microbiome samples from 27 men who’ve sex with men that were collected each before and after they became infected. They then compared those samples with 28 men who were at similar behavioral risk for infection but didn’t have HIV.

The samples got here from the UCLA-led Collaborating Consortium of Cohorts Producing NIDA Opportunities (C3PNO), a resource and data center for hundreds of thousands of pieces of research, lab samples, statistics and other data aimed toward boosting investigations into the results of substance abuse on HIV/AIDS.

The researchers found that in the course of the first yr there was little or no change within the infected men’s gut bacteria. They found, nevertheless, that the lads who acquired HIV had pre-existing differences in gut bacteria, even before they became infected, compared with their uninfected counterparts.

Specifically, these men had decreased levels of Bacteroides species, a kind of bacteria prevalent within the lower intestinal tract which have vital metabolic functions in maintaining a healthy gut environment, and increased levels Megasphaera elsdenii, whose role within the human gut just isn’t yet known, compared with the uninfected at-risk controls. The researchers also found that prior to infection the lads who acquired HIV had elevated inflammatory cytokines and bioactive lipids, each of that are related to systemic inflammation, indicating that their bodies were continually on the defense against infection or injury, in comparison with the matched controls.

Study limitations include the relatively small sample size, and the main target being on only young men who’ve sex with men, most of whom use drugs, which can reduce its generalizability to other populations.

Source:

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences