Metagenomic and Metabonomic Profiling provide insights into AIDS resistance in African Green Monkey

Abstract Background As a natural host of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), African green monkeys (AGM) do not develop AIDS. AGM has recently been shown to rapidly activate and maintain evolutionarily conserved regenerative wound healing mechanisms in mucosal tissue in case of SIV acute infection, suggesting a role of mucosal integrity in AIDS resistance.However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms, especially of which the gut microbiome as well as the metabolites participate in. This study aims to characterize the profiles of gut microbiome and metabolites of AGM with chronic SIV infection (AGM_P), AGM without SIV infection (AGM_N), Cynomolgus macaque (CM), Rhesus macaque (RM). Results Compared with CM and RM, significant decreases in the abundances of Streptococcus, Alistipes, Treponema, Bacteoides, Methanobrevibacter, Methanobrevibacter (P < 0.01), as well as significant increases in the abundances of Clostridium, Eubacterium, Blautia, Roseburia, Faecalibacterium, Dialister (P < 0.01) were demonstrated in AGM_N. Compared with AGM_N, a trend in the increased abundances of Streptococcus and Roseburia were found in AGM_P. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis validated the increased abundances of butyrate-producing Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Eubacteria in AGM_N (P < 0.05). Metabolites involved in lipid metabolism, as well as in butanoate metabolism, were found to be with significantly different levels between AGM_P, AGM_N and CM. And some of these metabolites were shown to be correlated to the abundances of Haloarchaeobius, Methanobrevibacter, Methanothermococcus, and Methanoregula in AGM_N and AGM_P. Conclusions Compared with CM and RM, AGM possesses different capacities of lipid metabolism and butanoate metabolism, which correlates with gut homeostasis and mucosal integrity. These findings may provide insight into AIDS resistance in AGM.