Isolations and characterisation of some gut microbiomes in HIV positive individuals in Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The human gut microbiota has an important implication in the maintenance of human health and disease pathogenesis. Recent research has shown that gut microbial imbalance, or dysbiosis, may lead to microbial gut translocation and chronic inflammation in HIV-infected individuals, further enhancing HIV progression, and potentially towards the development of AIDS. The isolation and characterization of some gut microbiomes in HIV positive individuals in Jos Nigeria as well as the comparison of the blood parameters would improve patient management since gut microbiota in HIV individuals can have an over-representation of pro inflammatory Proteobacteria, associated with mucosal and systemic immune activation.

Methodology: This research investigated the gut microbiome using feacal samples and compare the Haematological, blood chemical, immunological and virological parameters of 5 naive HIV-infected patients, 10 treated HIV-infected patients (less than 10years on ART and more than 10 years on ART) and five (5) samples from healthy individual which served as the controls.

Result: Results showed that faecal samples from both HIV negative controls and HIV-infected individuals had dominant taxa from the phyla Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria. There was relative abundance of Firmicutes (42.2%), Bacteroidetes (57.7). The analysis shows a significant decrease in the Bacteroidetes (coliforms) count while a significant riseof the abundance of Firmicutes (clostridia) with HIV progression. The fecal microbiota of individuals on ART for more than ten years exhibited significantly higher relative abundances of Clostridium cluster compared to HIV negative individuals. The total bacteria count had the highest m abundance (27.7%), followed by Bacteroides counts (24.4%), Clostridia counts (19.8%), coliforms counts (18.2%) while the lowest was Lactic Acid Bacteria counts (9.9%). Bacteroides counts was high among HIV patients on drugs for more than ten years. The Bacteroidetes (coliforms) counts was highest in HIV-negative controls while the Firmicutes (clostridia) count was highest among HIV patient who were on drugs for more than ten years. The magnitude of divergence from HIV-negative microbiota samples does not correlated with CD4+ T cell count or plasma HIV-1 RNA viral load (all Spearman correlation p-values > 0.73). There was significant increase in the Haemoglobin, packed cell volume and platelets count with HIV progression due to the dysbiosis in the gut and likely bacteria translocation that invade the gut with a significant increase of monocytes with HIV progression.

Conclusion: This study is important for public health because it provided new insights into intestinal microbiome symbiosis related to HIV-1 infection. Immune status and ART were the key factors interactively affecting the gut microbiome. It suggests that microbiome composition influences the progression of HIV infection.