Figure 7

Eubiotic metabolite treatment reduced HIV-1 leakage through vaginal epithelial cells while dysbiotic metabolite treatment significantly increased HIV-1 leakage. VK2 cells were grown in ALI cultures, KSFM media with combination of eubiotic and dysbiotic concentrations of metabolites was added to the apical side. 24 h after treatments were added, the apical media with treatment was aspirated and HIV-1 (ADA, 10⁵ IU/well) was added on the apical side. (A) TER was measured before and 24 h post HIV-1 exposure in HIV-1 exposed and mock cultures and presented as percent pretreatment TER. (B) After 4, 8 and 24 h of HIV-1 exposure, the basolateral supernatants were collected and added to TZMbl cells. TZMbl cells were fixed and stained for β-gal activity in infected cells. The HIV-1 titers obtained from TZMbl cells were presented as percentage of HIV-1 inoculum. Data show represents mean ± SEM (n = 4) with conditions done in triplicates. (C) VK2 cells were exposed to eubiotic and dysbiotic concentrations of individual AA, BA, LA and SA for 24 h. After 24 h treatments were removed and HIV-1(ADA strain; 10⁵ IU/well) was added on the apical side. After 24 h of HIV-1 exposure basolateral supernatants were collected and HIV-1 was titred on TZMbl cells and presented as percent of inoculum. Statistical significance: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001.