Association Between Gut Microbiota and CD4 Recovery in HIV-1 Infected Patients

• Published in: Frontiers in microbiology Vol. 9; p. 1451
• Main Authors: Lu, Wei, Feng, Yuqing, Jing, Fanhui, Han, Yang, Lyu, Na, Liu, Fei, Li, Jing, Song, Xiaojing, Xie, Jing, Qiu, Zhifeng, Zhu, Ting, Routy, Bertrand, Routy, Jean-Pierre, Li, Taisheng, Zhu, Baoli
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 02.07.2018
• Subjects: butyrate-producing bacteria; CD4 recovery; gut microbiota; HIV-infected individuals; metagenomics sequencing; Microbiology; metagenomics sequencing; HIV-infected individuals; butyrate-producing bacteria; gut microbiota; CD4 recovery
• ISSN: 1664-302X; 1664-302X
• DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.01451

Composition of the gut microbiota has been linked with human immunedeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Evidence suggests that ART-treated patients with poor CD4 T-cell recovery have higher levels of microbial translocation and immune activation. However, the association of the gut microbiota and immune recovery remains unclear. We performed a cross-sectional study on 30 healthy controls (HC) and 61 HIV-infected individuals, including 15 immunological ART responders (IRs), 20 immunological ART non-responders (INRs) and 26 untreated individuals (VU). IR and INR groups were classified by CD4 T-cell counts of ≥350 cells/mm and <350 cells/mm after 2 years of ART, respectively. Each subject's gut microbiota composition was analyzed by metagenomics sequencing. Levels of CD4 T cells, CD8 HLA-DR T cells and CD8 CD38 T cells were measured by flow cytometry. We identified more and fewer in HIV-infected individuals than in HC. Patients in INR group were enriched with , unclassified and when compared with those in IR group. and unclassified were overrepresented in individuals in VU group with CD4 T-cell counts <350 cells/mm . Moreover, we found that the relative abundance of unclassified and were positively correlated with CD8 HLA-DR T-cell count and CD8 HLA-DR /CD8 percentage. Our study has shown that gut microbiota changes were associated with CD4 T-cell counts and immune activation in HIV-infected subjects. Interventions to reverse gut dysbiosis and inhibit immune activation could be a new strategy for improving immune reconstitution of HIV-1-infected individuals.