Weizmann-Led Study Finds Gut Microbes May Bolster Immunity in Early HIV
A Weizmann Institute of Science-led team reports that certain gut bacteria may help support immune defenses in people living with HIV, a finding that could point toward new, low-cost ways to reduce vulnerability to infections—especially in places where the latest antiviral drugs are harder to access. The study, published Monday in Nature Microbiology, compared the gut microbiomes of people with HIV in Israel and Ethiopia with those of healthy volunteers, then tested what those microbes do when transferred into mice.
HIV’s most damaging move is its assault on CD4 T cells, the immune “conductors” that help coordinate the body’s response to pathogens. When those cells drop, the risk of opportunistic infections rises. Scientists have also long focused on the gut as a central battleground in HIV: it is rich in immune tissue, it is where major immune disruption occurs early, and it can remain a reservoir for the virus even when antiretroviral therapy suppresses HIV in the bloodstream.
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The researchers found that immune changes linked to HIV go hand-in-hand with shifts in the balance of gut bacteria. To probe cause and effect, they transplanted gut microbes from human participants into mice. The result was a sharp split by disease stage. Microbes taken from people in the early stages of HIV boosted the mice’s CD4 T cells and improved their ability to fight infections. Microbes from people with more advanced HIV did not deliver the same immune lift.
The takeaway is not that bacteria replace antiretroviral therapy—those drugs remain the backbone of HIV care—but that the microbiome may be one more lever to pull in strengthening immune function. The study points toward potential strategies such as diet changes, probiotics, and more targeted microbiome-based therapies, with the biggest practical promise in settings where treatment options are constrained and preventing secondary infections can be lifesaving.
