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. 2021 Feb 15;7(1):100033.
doi: 10.1016/j.jve.2021.100033. eCollection 2021 Mar.

Differences in HIV burden in the inflamed and non-inflamed colon from a person living with HIV and ulcerative colitis

Xiaorong Peng  1   2   3 , Stéphane Isnard  1   2   4 , John Lin  1   2 , Brandon Fombuena  1   2 , Talat Bessissow  5 , Nicolas Chomont  6 , Jean-Pierre Routy  1   2   7
Affiliations

Differences in HIV burden in the inflamed and non-inflamed colon from a person living with HIV and ulcerative colitis

Xiaorong Peng et al. J Virus Erad. .

Abstract

The greatest obstacle to an HIV cure is the persistence of latently infected cellular reservoirs in people living with HIV (PLWH) taking antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, no consensus exists on the direct link between local tissue inflammation and the HIV burden. Herein, we have compared the levels of local inflammation, epithelial integrity and HIV DNA between inflamed and non-inflamed colon tissue in a PLWH who underwent a colectomy due to ulcerative colitis. We have observed a 27-fold higher frequency of cells harboring HIV DNA in inflamed compared to non-inflamed colon tissue. Analysis of the expression of occludin-1 and claudin-3 confirmed our macroscopic characterization of inflamed and non-inflamed colon. Our results confirm that increased gut permeability and inflammation are associated with a higher frequency of infected cells and suggest that restoring gut barrier integrity may be used as a strategy to reduce inflammation and HIV persistence in the gut.

Keywords: Colon; Gut barrier integrity; HIV DNA; Inflammation; Reservoir; Ulcerative colitis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Total HIV DNA and relative expression of claudin-3, CD4, IL-6, TNF and occludin-1 in inflamed and non-inflamed gut tissue. Median of HIV DNA levels in 3 inflamed and non-inflamed tissue samples. PBMCs were measured by nested qPCR. A. HIV DNA copies per million cells. B. HIV DNA levels normalized to the percentage of CD4+ T cells detected in both tissues and PBMCs. Unpaired nonparametric test (Mann-Whitney tests) was used for statistical analysis. C. Normalized expression of IL-6, TNF-α and occludin-1 according to GAPDH expression.
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