Identifier: TFG:1637
Authors: Beloso Santiago, Miriam
Abstract:
Among patients infected with HIV, there is a group of individuals, called elite controllers (EC), who are characterized by spontaneously controlling viral load in the absence of antiretroviral treatment. However, approximately 30% of them end up losing this capacity. The mechanistic pathways involved in this phenomenon are unknown. In fact, no metabolomic study has yet been carried out in the EC, which allows to identify the metabolic pathways involved in this loss of virological control. Therefore, the objective of this study was to study the existence of a metabolomic profile that precedes this loss, in order to identify the mechanisms involved and discover potential predictive biological markers. To this end, a targeted and non-targeted metabolomic study was carried out on plasma samples from CE patients. A total of 16 patients were selected, eight had spontaneously lost virological control, called transient controllers (CT). As a control group, we selected 8 CE patients who maintained virological control during the same follow-up period, the persistent controllers (PC). The results obtained showed that 13 metabolites were significantly different between the CT and CP groups in the pre-loss control period. Among them, valine was considered as a potential biological marker predictive of the loss of virological control. However, no significant changes in the TC metabolome were observed over the time of follow-up. In conclusion, in this work it was possible to determine a metabolomic profile prior to the loss of control associated with an activation of the immune system, oxidative damage and a mitochondrial dysfunction to obtain energy. Knowing the alterations of the EC metabolome associated with the loss of control can be very relevant to predict its virological progression and for the development of new therapeutic strategies against HIV.
Repositori URV