Fig. 1

Gut microbiota alterations during HIV infection and their potential effects on the host. a. In different studies, distinct gut microbiome compositions have been identified in HIV infected individuals with or without ART, as compared to healthy controls. Importantly, HIV-associated microbiome configurations vary between these studies. While ART dramatically lowers the viral load in infected individuals, gut microbiome composition is not fully restored to a healthy composition. ‘Elite controllers’ differ in their microbial composition from HIV- infected individuals and are more similar to healthy individuals. b. The characteristic HIV microbiota possibly contributes to some of the common HIV manifestations, including modification of the level if infectivity, occurrence of opportunistic infections, increased gut permeability and resultant bacteria and bacterial product translocation, increased immune activation and T cell polarization, metabolic complications and variability in the response to HIV treatment