{"doi":"10.1101/2024.04.21.589969","title":"Commensal bacteria inhibit viral infections via a tryptophan metabolite","abstract":"Clinical outcomes following viral exposures exhibit substantial interindividual variability. Although developing evidence suggests commensal bacteria modulate viral infections, the specific bacteria and mechanisms remain underexplored. Here we define a pathway by which viral infections are inhibited by specific tryptophan-catabolizing bacteria. Using HIV as a model, we bioinformatically associated and experimentally validated several bacterial species that inhibited viral replication. This activity required the aromatic amino acid aminotransferase (ArAT) to metabolize tryptophan into 3-indolelactic acid, which agonizes the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). Given that AhR regulates multiple viral infections, we found that commensal bacteria also inhibit cytomegalovirus (CMV) in an ArAT-dependent manner. Finally, we confirmed that ArAT is associated with protection against disease outcomes in three distinct human cohorts at-risk for HIV, CMV, or symptomatic COVID-19. Taken together, our results provide mechanistic insight into how commensal bacteria impact viral infections, thereby adding to an emerging field focused on host-commensal-virus interactions.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2024,"id":490746,"datarank":0.1226862451403892,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"self_citation_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citation_network_contribution":0.018714168056397387,"self_endowment_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citer_contribution":0.018714168056397387,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":1,"citers_with_citation_signal":1,"citers_with_endowment":1,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9517,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1336272,"name":"Nicole Soo","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":244650,"name":"Chin Yee Tan","orcid":"0000-0003-1104-6082","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":908160,"name":"Sedem Dankwa","orcid":"0000-0003-1121-3936","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":398377,"name":"Hsuan-Yuan Wang","orcid":"0000-0001-9248-4281","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1148811,"name":"Barbara S. 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Van Rompay","orcid":"0000-0002-7375-1337","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1336274,"name":"Luisa Cervantes-Barragan","orcid":null,"position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":781383,"name":"Jonathan P. Smith","orcid":"0000-0002-6396-9164","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":795203,"name":"Rinn Song","orcid":"0000-0001-6877-1096","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":64920,"name":"Jatin Roper","orcid":"0000-0002-8851-1352","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":322359,"name":"Matthew S. Kelly","orcid":"0000-0001-8819-2315","position":18,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":130929,"name":"Michael G. Hudgens","orcid":"0000-0002-9106-4194","position":19,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":444170,"name":"Kristina De Paris","orcid":"0000-0001-5199-3004","position":20,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":240902,"name":"Sallie R. 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