HIV and the Gut Microbiota, Partners in Crime: Breaking the Vicious Cycle to Unearth New Therapeutic Targets

Table 1

Selected studies targeting the gut microbiota or subsequent downstream effects.

Therapeutic target	Drug	Study details	Result	Reference
IDO	1-MT	CXCL1−/− mice	Decreased activation in the brain and decreased depressive behaviour	[71]
	1-MT	Mice with injections to the brain of HIV-infected macrophages	Increased CD8+/IFN-γ+ T cells in the periphery and an 89% decrease in HIV-infected macrophages in the brain	[72]
	1-MT	SIV in rhesus macaques on ART	No change to T cell counts or activation, viral load, or Trp metabolism	[74]
	1-MT	SIV in rhesus macaques on ART	Only partial effect on IDO activity and significant drop in viral load for macaques with unsuccessful ART	[73]
Pro-/prebiotics	Pro and prebiotics	SIV in pigtail macaques on ART	Enhanced reconstitution and functionality of CD4+ T cells and increased frequency of GI tract APCs	[78]
	Bifidobacterium lactis	Meta-analysis of formula supplementation in HIV-infected infants (>6 months)	Improved infant growth and protection against CD4+ T cell loss	[79]
Sevelamer	Sevelamer	Acute SIV infection in pigtail macaques	Drug bound LPS in the gut, drastically decreased inflammation and immune activation, and slightly decreased viral replication	[81]
	Sevelamer	HIV patients not receiving ART	No significant change to microbial translocation, inflammation, or immune activation, but significant decrease in LDL cholesterol	[82]
IL-7	Recombinant human IL-7	HIV patients on successful ART	Increased CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, increased a4b7 T cells, and decreased sCD14	[84]