Gut microbiota profiling after vaccination with HIV T cell immunogen (HTI) in mice

Despite the important role of the gut microbiota in the maturation of the immune system, little is known about its impact on the development of T cell responses to vaccines and whether T cell vaccine administration may result in alterations of the resident microbial communities. To this end, the gut microbiota of mice vaccinated with an HIV T-cell immunogen (HTI) in a heterologous prime-boost regime (three DNA primes followed by ChAd and MVA boosts) or PBS (control) was assessed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Fecal samples from animals (n=20 per each experimental group, 10 females and 10 males) were collected longitudinally from cages (pools) and intestinal lumen (small intestine, caecum and large intestine). Antibiotic conditioning (mix of ampicillin, amikacin, metronidazole and vancomycin via oral gavage for 5 days) followed by mouse-to-mouse fecal microbiota transplant were performed before vaccination to reduce potential baseline differences in the microbiota composition across groups.