Improving gut health can decelerate disease progression in an individual infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a recent study has found.
HIV, a virus that attacks the body’s immune system, can progress to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) when left untreated. There may be currently no cure for HIV, but treatments can slow the progression of the disease and patients can live a protracted healthy life.
Current treatments for HIV aim at suppressing T cell activation liable for the replication of the virus and controlling inflammation. Nonetheless, researchers have found that this approach could only calm the immune activation and inflammation but cannot restore them to pre-infection levels.
Studies have shown that patients with the fastest progressing HIV have less healthy gut microbiomes. It’s because, soon after an individual gets infected with HIV, the virus depletes nearly all of immune cells within the intestines liable for protecting against invading pathogens. Once the liner gets damaged, gut flora enters the bloodstream.
In the most recent animal study, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh infectious diseases used simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the monkey type of HIV, to grasp latest ways to regulate the disease progression.
“It was a previous study with disappointing results that put us on the trail to this latest discovery. Every study thus far targeting systemic inflammation by addressing immune activation has had very short-lived results. Upon reflection, we realized those results told us something very essential: Inflammation generated by the virus damaging the intestinal lining is driven by a separate mechanism from immune activation. We just needed to prove it,” Cristian Apetrei, lead writer of the study, said.
The findings of the most recent study published within the journal JCI Insight suggest that future HIV treatments should look beyond controlling T cell activation and inflammation. The research revealed that the basis reason behind HIV progression and the important thing to recovery could possibly be gut health.
“On this study, we have directly demonstrated that intestinal dysfunction is the major determinant of systemic inflammation and disease progression. This points to an urgent need for therapies aimed toward preserving gut integrity to avoid accelerated aging, comorbidities and premature death in people living with HIV,” Ivona Pandrea, senior writer of the study, said.
The study focused on two more pathways involved in SIV-related gut dysfunction in HIV patients. “The problem is that we do not know yet all of the mechanisms liable for gut damage in HIV infection. We plan to check the role of those pathways in vivo,” Pandrea said.
The researchers imagine that their findings will prompt further research to grasp how HIV progression could possibly be controlled through food plan, the usage of pre-and pro-biotic supplements and gut microbial transplants.
Published by Medicaldaily.com