Understanding the microbiome in the context of opiate abuse in SHIV-infected rhesus macaques

Captive adult rhesus macaques were administered either saline or morphine twice daily for eight weeks and then infected with 200 TCID50 of SHIVADE08 (simian-human immunodeficiency virus chimera) variants. DNA was isolated from fecal samples taken after approximately 45 weeks of infection and saline/morphine administration. This 16S rRNA sequencing was performed in an effort to characterize the microbiome composition and its relationship to the gut-brain axis in a model of HIV infection and opiate use.