Alterations of the Upper Respiratory Microbiome Among Children Living With HIV Infection in Botswana
Children living with HIV (CLWH) are at high risk of colonization and infection by respiratory pathogens, though this risk can be reduced by other microbes in the upper respiratory microbiome. The impact of HIV infection on the pediatric upper respiratory microbiome is poorly understood, and we sought to address this knowledge gap by identifying associations between HIV infection and the nasopharyngeal microbiomes of Batswana children. We enrolled Batswana CLWH (<5 years) and age- and sex-matched HIV-exposed, uninfected and HIV-unexposed, uninfected children in a cross-sectional study. We used shotgun metagenomic sequencing to compare nasopharyngeal microbiomes by HIV status. Among the 143 children in this study, HIV and HIV-associated immunosuppression were associated with alterations in nasopharyngeal microbiome composition, including lower abundances of Corynebacterium species associated with resistance to bacterial pathogen colonization. These findings suggest that the upper respiratory microbiome may contribute to the high risk of respiratory infections among CLWH.
Authors
- David M. Murdoch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7201-7950)
- Mogomotsi Matshaba (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6441-1218)
- Kristen A. Feemster (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0822-5688)
- Sefelani Boiditswe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0382-4243)
- Andrew P. Steenhoff (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9002-8207)
- Leabaneng Tawe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9034-2474)
- Nathan M. Thielman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8152-2879)
- Samir S. Shah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7902-7000)
- John Farirai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7477-8371)
- Lawrence A. David (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-4767)
- Coleen K. Cunningham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7725-3052)
- Shimane Lekalake
- Matthew S. Kelly (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8819-2315)
- Sweta Patel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7867-7706)
- Tonya Arscott‐Mills (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7873-9871)
- Mohamed Z. Patel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4317-4284)
Institutions
- Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (US)
- Children's Medical Center (US)
- Children's Hospital of Orange County (US)
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (US)
- University of Botswana (BW)
- Duke University (US)
- Baylor College of Medicine (US)
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Baylor School (US)
- Pulmonary and Allergy Associates (US)
- Duke Institute for Health Innovation (US)
- Irvine University (US)
- Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (BW)
- Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Center of Excellence (BW)
- University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Journal of Infectious Diseases
- Published
- 2025-08-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiaf429
- Primary Topic
- HIV/AIDS oral health manifestations
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00