A team of researchers from the University of California in San Francisco (USA) has identifiedchanges in gut bacteria in AIDS patientswhich could explain why, despite receiving adequate treatment that should allow them to live for decades with an intact immune system, many of themsuffer prematurely chronic diseases that shorten their life. As explained in the magazineScience Translational Medicine, these bacterial changes generate persistent inflammation.
Studying AIDS patients in different states they found thatthe microbiome or set of microbes that inhabited their digestive system was radically different from that of healthy individuals. Specifically, those infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have higher levels ofPseudomonas, Salmonella, E. coliYStaphylococcus, all of them bacteria capable of causing dangerous inflammation. And in relation to this alteration of the bacterial communities in the colon, they found an increase in the inflammatory molecule IL-6 in the blood, as well as in the production of the enzyme indolamine 2-3-dioxygenase, which can prevent the digestive walls act as a protective barrier. In this way, the patient is left defenseless to the extent that bacteria and the toxic molecules that they produce freely enter the body, progressively increasing inflammation. In other words, the study reveals thatthe AIDS virus does not act alone, but in its attack recruits the most dangerous bacteria found in our digestive system.
In view of the research results, Joseph M. McCune and his colleagues have proposed manipulating the microbial population of the digestive system of AIDS patients to prevent them from getting sick. “Our dream is not for the virus to go away, but to allow infected patients to live a long time without the need for permanent therapy,” says McCune, who believes that modifying the microbiome could be the strategy that would make that dream come true.
