Page 15 - pest-POSTEN nr 1-2, 2020

Side 15 -pest-POSTEN

Doktorgrad

Immunitet og effekt av probiotika
hos hivpositive immunologiske
non-respondere Illustrasjon: Colourbox
Birgitte Stiksrud

disputerte for ph.d-graden of people living with HIV (PLWH) do not normalize
den 23. oktober 2019 ved their CD4+ T cell count, denoted immunological
non-responders (INR). INR have increased risk of
Universitetet i Oslo developing AIDS defining illnesses, non-AIDS related
morbidities and higher mortality, probably in part
caused by increased chronic immune activation and
inflammation.
Alterations in the gut microbiota and destruction of
the gut mucosal barrier with subsequent leakage of
microbial products into the systemic circulation could
be one of the sources of chronic inflammation.
This thesis aimed to characterize differences in
chronic immune activation and inflammation between
a cohort of INR and a cohort of ART-treated PLWH
with adequate CD4 recovery, to search for biomarkers
for incomplete CD4 gain on ART and to evaluate the
effects of probiotic intervention in virally suppressed
PLWH with a subnormal CD4 count. The patients
were recruited from Oslo University Hospital with
contribution from Karolinska University Hospital.
Blood and fecal samples were collected.
The INR cohort displayed a more activated innate and
Thesis title: Chronic immune activation and adaptive immune system compared with PLWH on
inflammation in HIV-infected immunological non- ART with normalized CD4 counts. In particular, plasma
responders: A study of innate and adaptive immunity interferon-inducible protein 10 (IP-10) was increased
and effect of probiotic intervention in the INR cohort and associated with reduced future
Principal supervisor: Professor II Anne Margarita CD4 recovery. In a randomized controlled pilot study,
Dyrhol Riise, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo eight weeks of intervention with a multistrain probiotic
was well tolerated, induced shifts in the gut microbiota
First opponent: Assistant Professor Gitte Kronborg, consistent with the probiotic strains administered,
University of Copenhagen, Denmark and seemed to reduce markers of coagulation and
inflammation.
Second opponent: Assistant Professor Marcus Buggert,
Department of Medicine Huddinge, Karolinska These findings contribute to the understanding of the
Institutet, Sweden immunological mechanisms causing an inadequate
CD4 recovery in INR. The usefulness IP-10 as a
Trial Lecture: Behandling med anti-retrovirale midler
og forebyggelse av HIV i 2019. potential biomarker for incomplete CD4 gain in clinical
practice, as well as the potential beneficial effect of
Despite modern antiretroviral therapy (ART) and probiotic intervention have to be further elaborated in
persistent viral suppression, approximately 12-30% larger prospective studies.