# Oral microbial signatures in perinatal HIV infection

> **NIH NIH R01** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2020 · $616,295

## Abstract

Project Summary
Initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) at a young age in perinatally-infected children has been
shown to reduce the size of the “viral reservoir,” which is considered the primary obstacle to HIV
cure or remission. Critical to expanding our understanding of how early ART initiation influences
HIV pathogenesis is expanding the range of biomarkers that can help track these processes.
Here we propose a molecular epidemiology study to investigate the extent to which oral
microbial signatures can be used as biomarkers to predict clinically-relevant virologic and
immunologic changes among early-treated, HIV-infected infants and children. Finding a
biomarker in oral samples would be clinically-useful as non-invasive sampling is always
preferred. We propose to characterize oral microbial communities in two cohorts of HIV-infected
infants and children enrolled at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Johannesburg,
South Africa. Cohort 1 is a cohort of 260 perinatally-infected children now between 10-12 years
of age who have been well-controlled on ART since initiating it when under 2 years of age. In
parallel with Cohort 1 is a cohort of 220 age-matched HIV-uninfected children from the same
community. Cohort 2 is a cohort of intrauterine-infected children initiated on ART within the
neonatal period. Recruitment into this cohort started 3 years ago and is on-going. In parallel with
Cohort 2 is a cohort of HIV-exposed, uninfected infants recruited at birth. We propose to test
oral samples from selected time-points from these cohorts. We will characterize bacterial
communities in these oral samples using targeted 16S rRNA sequencing. Specific Aim 1 will
test the hypothesis that earlier initiation of ART (under 3 months of age) will leave distinct
microbial signatures in the oral cavity detectable in pre-adolescent children well-controlled on
ART. Specific Aim 2 will test the hypothesis that oral microbial signatures will be associated with
the size of the viral reservoir in older pre-adolescent perinatally-infected children well-controlled
on ART as well as in intrauterine-infected infants and young children initiating ART during the
neonatal period. Specific Aim 3 will describe age-related dynamics in oral microbial communities
between very early (<48 hours of life) treated intrauterine-infected infants and HIV-exposed
uninfected infants. We have designed a large and rigorous epidemiologic study in the southern
African population most affected by the HIV epidemic. We have unique cohorts that can be
studied to determine whether oral microbial signatures are associated with known parameters
relevant to HIV remission.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9966971
- **Project number:** 5R01DE028135-03
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Louise Kuhn
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $616,295
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-12 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9966971

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9966971, Oral microbial signatures in perinatal HIV infection (5R01DE028135-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9966971. Licensed CC0.

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