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Background: Torque teno virus (TTV) is part of the human virome. TTV load was related to the immune status in patients after organ transplantation. We hypothesize that TTV load could be an additional marker for immune function in people living with HIV (PLWH)., Methods: In this analysis, serum samples of PLWH from the RESINA multicenter cohort were reanalyzed for TTV. Investigated clinical and epidemiological parameters included human pegivirus load, patient age and sex, HIV load, CD4+ T-cell count (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] stage 1, 2, or 3), and CDC clinical stage (1993 CDC classification system; stage A, B, or C) before initiation of antiretroviral therapy. Regression analysis was used to detect possible associations among parameters., Results: Our analysis confirmed TTV as a strong predictor of CD4+ T-cell count and CDC class 3. This relationship was used to propose a first classification of TTV load with regard to clinical stage. We found no association with clinical CDC stages A-C. The human pegivirus load was inversely correlated with HIV load but not TTV load., Conclusions: TTV load was associated with immunodeficiency in PLWH. Neither TTV nor HIV load were predictive for the clinical categories of HIV infection., Competing Interests: Potential conflicts of interest. B. E. O. J. has received consulting fees from Gilead, ViiV Healthcare (ViiV) and Merck Sharpe and Dohme (MSD). B. E. O. J. has received payment or honoraria for lectures and presentations from Gilead, ViiV and GSK. B. E. O. J. has received support for meetings and travel from Gilead. B. E. O. J. is scientific secretary of the German AIDS Society (unpaid). S. E. has received grants or contracts, support for meetings or travel, and payments or honoraria for lectures or presentations from Gilead, ViiV, MSD and Janssen. S. E. participated on a data safety monitoring board or advisory board for Gilead, ViiV, MSD, Janssen and GSK. S. E. is in a leadership or fiduciary role for the German AIDS Society and the National AIDS Comission NRW. S. E.reveived equipment, materials, drugs, medical writing, gifts or other services from Gilead and GSK. N. L. received consulting fees from ViiV. N. L. received honoraria for lectures from ViiV and MSD. N. L. received support for travel from the Deutsche AIDS Gesellschaft. J. K. R. received consulting fees from Behringer. J. K. R. received payment for lectures or presentations from Gilead, MSD and ViiV. J. K. R. was payed for the particpation on a data safety monitoring board or advisory board for Abivax. J. K. R. is EACS (European AIDS Clinical Society) board member. C. B. received grants or contracts from DZIF (German Center for Infection Research) and DFG (German Research Foundation). C. B. received consulting fees, payment for lectures and presentations, and support for meetings or travel from Abbvie, MSD, Janssen, Gilead and ViiV. C. B. is governing board member of EACS. R. K. received grants from DZIF. R. K. received payment for presentations or lectures from Janssen, Roche, Hologic, Abbvie, Abbott, MSD, ViiV, Gilead and Pfizer. R. K. particpated on a data safety monitoring board or advisory board for ViiV, Gilead, Pfizer, MSD and Janssen. All other authors: No reported conflicts. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America.)

Antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) have been detected in remote environments, but the degree to which their presence is due to anthropogenic contamination remains unclear. Here, anthropogenic and ecological determinants of ARB were characterized in remote and highly visited areas of Rocky Mountain National Park in the United States. Soil and water samples were collected from 29 sites once a month for three months and measured for bacteria resistant to seven antibiotics with flow cytometry. A novel index of the likelihood of human presence (HPI) was generated for estimating human impact on ARB abundance. The HPI accounted for 44% of variation in ARB abundance in water samples (p < 0.0001) and 51% of variation in soil samples (p < 0.00001). Human presence index was illustrated as a reliable predictor of ARB abundance despite a tendency to underpredict at higher levels of human impact. Ecological determinants such as temperature, elevation, slope, and aspect were also found to be significantly associated with ARB abundance. These findings suggest that human presence drives the abundance of ARB in Rocky Mountain National Park, but ecological variables play a significant role in their presence and dispersal., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)