ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Microbial Immunology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1598650
This article is part of the Research TopicHIV and the Gut: Novel Insights into HIV Pathogenesis, Clinical Implications and Therapeutic ApproachesView all 5 articles
Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis in People living with HIV who have Cancer: Novel Insights and Diagnostic Potential
Provisionally accepted
Zhiman Xie1
Jie Zhou2*Lemin Wen1Tingyan Luo2Sufang Ai1Guangjing Ruan1Ningmei Liu1
Yiru Wei2
Yingji Lan2Ping Cui2Qin Cao2
Hao Liang2
Li Ye2
Jiegang Huang2- 1Nanning No.4 People's Hospital, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China
- 2Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: People living with HIV(PLWH) are a high-risk population for cancer. We conducted a pioneering study on the gut microbiota of PLWH with various types of cancer, revealing key microbiota.We collected stool samples from 54 PLWH who have cancer (PLWH-C), including Kaposi's sarcoma (KS, n=7), lymphoma (L, n=22), lung cancer (LC, n=12), and colorectal cancer (CRC, n=13), 55 PLWH who do not have cancer (PLWH-NC), and 49 people living without HIV (Ctrl). The gut microbiota in faecal samples was analysed using 16S rRNA sequencing. We compared the microbial diversity among groups and identified key microbiota and Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways using random forest. Furthermore, we analysed the correlation between microbiota and KEGG pathways and constructed microbiota Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) diagnostic models.Results: Compared with PLWH-NC and Ctrl, PLWH with any type of cancer exhibited significantly lower alpha diversity and significant alterations in beta diversity of the gut microbiota. The significantly decreased abundance of Bacteroides and Bacteroides vulgatus in PLWH-C showed a negative correlation with the Pathways in cancer pathway, and a positive correlation with Choline metabolism in cancer, Central carbon metabolism in cancer, and Proteoglycans in cancer pathways. Bacteroides (AUC≥0.83) and Bacteroides vulgatus (AUC≥0.78) exhibited discriminatory diagnostic capabilities for PLWH-C in patients with different cancers compared with PLWH-NC and Ctrl.Discussion: We confirmed a more severe dysbiosis of the gut microbiota in PLWH with KS, L, LC, or CRC. Bacteroides may be associated with disruptions in cancer-related metabolic pathways and serve as diagnostic biomarkers for PLWH with various cancers.
Keywords: hiv/aids, Pan-cancer, Gut Microbiota, machine learning, Bacteroides
Received: 25 Mar 2025; Accepted: 24 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xie, Zhou, Wen, Luo, Ai, Ruan, Liu, Wei, Lan, Cui, Cao, Liang, Ye and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jie Zhou, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.