Trial reportPLoS pathogens2014
The semen microbiome and its relationship with local immunology and viral load in HIV infection.
Trial report in PLoS pathogens, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 80 citations in OpenAlex.
- Perceptions About the Relationship Between HIV, Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), and Fecundity in Sub-Saharan Africa: Findings from a Systematic Scoping Review.AIDS and behavior · 2026Article
- Contemporary antiretroviral pharmacology in the male genital tract: implications for HIV treatment and prevention.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2026Review
- Understanding the Associations of Urogenital Microbiomes With Fertility and In Vitro Fertilization.American journal of reproductive immunology (New York, N.Y. : 1989) · 2025Review
- The Equilibrium of Bacterial Microecosystem: Probiotics, Pathogenic Bacteria, and Natural Antimicrobial Substances in Semen.Microorganisms · 2024Review
- Correlation between viral infections in male semen and infertility: a literature review.Virology journal · 2024Review
- Effect of environmental factors on seminal microbiome and impact on sperm quality.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Review
- Human Male Genital Tract Microbiota.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Predictors of Viral Load Status Over Time Among HIV Infected Adults Under HAART in Zewditu Memorial Hospital, Ethiopia: A Retrospective Study.HIV/AIDS (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2023Article
- Article
- The Semen Microbiome and Semen Parameters in Healthy Stallions.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Semen: A modulator of female genital tract inflammation and a vector for HIV-1 transmission.American journal of reproductive immunology (New York, N.Y. : 1989) · 2021Review
- HPV infection and bacterial microbiota in the semen from healthy men.BMC infectious diseases · 2021Article
- Characterization of the seminal bacterial microbiome of healthy, fertile stallions using next-generation sequencing.Animal reproduction · 2021Article
- The Seminal Microbiome and Male Factor Infertility.Current sexual health reports · 2020Article
- Seminal Plasma-Derived Extracellular-Vesicle Fractions from HIV-Infected Men Exhibit Unique MicroRNA Signatures and Induce a Proinflammatory Response in Cells Isolated from the Female Reproductive Tract.Journal of virology · 2020Observational
- Comparative Semen Microbiota Composition of a Stallion in aAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2020Article
- The Microbiome Composition of a Man's Penis Predicts Incident Bacterial Vaginosis in His Female Sex Partner With High Accuracy.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2020Article
- The Penile Microbiota in Uncircumcised and Circumcised Men: Relationships With HIV and Human Papillomavirus Infections and Cervicovaginal Microbiota.Frontiers in medicine · 2020Review
- The seminal microbiome in health and disease.Nature reviews. Urology · 2019Review
- Systemic translocation of Staphylococcus drives autoantibody production in HIV disease.Microbiome · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Semen is a major vector for HIV transmission, but the semen HIV RNA viral load (VL) only correlates moderately with the blood VL. Viral shedding can be enhanced by genital infections and associated inflammation, but it can also occur in the absence of classical pathogens. Thus, we hypothesized that a dysregulated semen microbiome correlates with local HIV shedding. We analyzed semen samples from 49 men who have sex with men (MSM), including 22 HIV-uninfected and 27 HIV-infected men, at baseline and after starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) using 16S rRNA gene-based pyrosequencing and quantitative PCR. We studied the relationship of semen bacteria with HIV infection, semen cytokine levels, and semen VL by linear regression, non-metric multidimensional scaling, and goodness-of-fit test. Streptococcus, Corynebacterium, and Staphylococcus were common semen bacteria, irrespective of HIV status. While Ureaplasma was the more abundant Mollicutes in HIV-uninfected men, Mycoplasma dominated after HIV infection. HIV infection was associated with decreased semen microbiome diversity and richness, which were restored after six months of ART. In HIV-infected men, semen bacterial load correlated with seven pro-inflammatory semen cytokines, including IL-6 (p = 0.024), TNF-α (p = 0.009), and IL-1b (p = 0.002). IL-1b in particular was associated with semen VL (r(2) = 0.18, p = 0.02). Semen bacterial load was also directly linked to the semen HIV VL (r(2) = 0.15, p = 0.02). HIV infection reshapes the relationship between semen bacteria and pro-inflammatory cytokines, and both are linked to semen VL, which supports a role of the semen microbiome in HIV sexual transmission.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.