Comparison of the Fecal Bacteriome of HIV-Positive and HIV-Negative Older Adults

• Published in: Biomedicines Vol. 11; no. 8; p. 2305
• Main Authors: Sánchez-Conde, Matilde, Alba, Claudio, Castro, Irma, Dronda, Fernando, Ramírez, Margarita, Arroyo, Rebeca, Moreno, Santiago, Rodríguez, Juan Miguel, Brañas, Fátima
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Aging; Biological diversity; Biotechnology industry; Blautia; Comparative analysis; depression; Diagnosis; Discriminant analysis; Dysbacteriosis; dysbiosis; Feces; Frailty; Geriatrics; gut microbiome; HIV; HIV (Viruses); HIV infection; HIV patients; Human immunodeficiency virus; Infection; Infections; Normal distribution; Older people; RNA; rRNA 16S; Software; Veganism; United States; Spain; United States > US; Germany
• ISSN: 2227-9059; 2227-9059
• DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines11082305

HIV infection is considered a scenario of accelerated aging. Previous studies have suggested a link between aging, frailty, and gut dysbiosis, but there is a knowledge gap regarding the HIV population. Our objective was to compare the fecal bacteriome of older people with HIV (PWH) and non-HIV controls, and to assess potential links between gut dysbiosis and frailty. A total of 36 fecal samples (24 from PWH and 12 from non-HIV controls) were submitted to a metataxonomic analysis targeting the V3–V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene. High-quality reads were assembled and classified into operational taxonomic units. Alpha diversity, assessed using the Shannon index, was higher in the control group than in the HIV group (p < 0.05). The relative abundance of the genus Blautia was higher in the HIV group (p < 0.001). The presence of Blautia was also higher in PWH with depression (p = 0.004), whereas the opposite was observed for the genus Bifidobacterium (p = 0.004). Our study shows shifts in the composition of the PWH bacteriome when compared to that of healthy controls. To our knowledge, this is the first study suggesting a potential link between depression and gut dysbiosis in the HIV population.