Ragon Institute 
A new paper represents the first characterization of the human virome in HIV infection was published in the March 9 issue of the scientific journal Cell Host & Microbe. This paper is a collaboration between the Ragon Institute Kwon Lab in collaboration with the Virgin Lab at the Washington University School of Medicine at St. Louis. Dr. Skip Virgin is a Ragon Institute Scientific Advisory Board member.
Follow the links to read or download a pdf of the article and a commentary on research results:
Altered Virome and BacterialMicrobiome in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Associated Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
Cynthia L. Monaco, David B. Gootenberg, Guoyan Zhao, Scott A. Handley, Musie S. Ghebremichael, Efrem S. Lim, Alex Lankowski, Megan T. Baldridge, and others
Cell Host & Microbe, Vol. 19, Issue 3, p311–322
Published in issue: March 09, 2016
Monaco et al. characterize the enteric virome and bacterial microbiome in an HIV-infected Ugandan patient cohort. Low peripheral CD4 T cell counts were associated with an expansion of enteric adenovirus sequences and bacterial microbiome alterations, including increases in Enterobacteriaceae, each of which may contribute to AIDS-associated enteropathy and disease progression.
The HIV-Associated Enteric Microbiome Has Gone Viral
Brent E. Palmer, Sam X. Li, Catherine A. Lozupone
Cell Host & Microbe, Vol. 19, Issue 3, p270–272
Published in issue: March 09, 2016
HIV infection is associated with dramatic alterations in enteric bacteria, but little is known about other microbiome components. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, studies by Monaco et al. (2016) and Handley et al. (2016) reveal an under-appreciated role of the enteric virome in HIV-associated gastroenteritis and pathogenesis.