Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis Is Not Independently Associated With Neurocognitive Impairment in People Living With HIV

Gut microbiota dysbiosis, which has been linked to many neurological diseases, is common in HIV infection. However, its role in the pathogenesis of neurocognitive impairment is still not established. In the current study, a total of 85 HIV infected subjects naïve to antiretroviral therapy were classified into two groups—those with HIV-associated neurological diseases (HAND) and those without, using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test. Fecal samples were collected from all subjects and microbiota were analyzed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Subjects with HAND were older (P 0.05) and β-diversity (ANOSIM statistic = 0.010, P = 0.231). There were no significant differences in microbiota composition between the two groups after correction for false discovery rate. Consistently, microbiota from the two groups presented similar predictive functional profiles. Gut microbiota dysbiosis is not independently associated with neurocognitive impairment in people living with HIV.