Sergio Serrano-Villar

💊 Las 3 veces que he comprado antibióticos en farmacias distintas me han ofrecido probióticos para “evitar complicaciones”.
📉 No hay evidencia sólida que respalde su uso sistemático en este contexto.
💰 Es un negocio lucrativo que no debería promoverse desde entornos sanitarios 🧪

10/10 🙏

Huge thanks to all participants, investigators, and INSTINCT/GESIDA10918 study sites.

Funded by Gilead/GESIDA (ISR-17-10294).
#HIV #HIVResearch #INSTINCT #ClinicalTrials #InfectiousDiseases

9/10 📚

Together with studies like SALSA, TANGO, iPrEx, and DISCOVER, INSTINCT reinforces that:

🔸 TDF has weight/lipid-suppressive effects
🔸 TAF shows no independent effects on weight
🔸 Modern regimens have comparable metabolic profiles

But results to date have not been uniform (PASODOBLE).

8/10 💭
As noted in the accompanying editorial by @JohnKoethe in the same CID issue: the discussion has evolved from "TAF promotes weight" → "TDF suppresses weight" → "TAF is neutral"
Our data support this latest conclusion.
doi.org/10.1093/cid/...

7/10 🔍

Why does this matter? For years, there was debate whether TAF had "obesogenic" properties when compared to TDF.

This study:

✅ Isolates TAF's effect (adding it to a 2-drug regimen) ✅ Eliminates confounders (no simultaneous changes in other ARVs)

6/10 🦠

Virologic efficacy: Maintained in >95% of participants in both groups. No differences in viral suppression or rebounds.

Safety: Well tolerated, mild and balanced adverse events.

5/10 💊
Metabolic profile: Minimal and similar changes in:
• Total cholesterol
• LDL/HDL
• Triglycerides
• Renal function (eGFR)

4/10 ⚖️

Weight: This is crucial. Annualized weight change:
• BIC/FTC/TAF: +0.3%
• DTG/3TC: +0.2%
No significant difference (p=0.895). Only 23% vs 17% gained ≥5% weight (p=NS).

3/10 📊

Inflammation 🔥: No significant differences in any inflammatory biomarker (sCD14, IL-6, D-dimer, sCD163, hsCRP, Kyn/Trp ratio) between groups over 96 weeks.

2/10 🎯

Design: 141 participants with virologic suppression on stable DTG/3TC were randomized 1:1 to:
• Continue DTG/3TC
• Switch to BIC/FTC/TAF
Follow-up: 96 weeks

Hypothesis: Could "intensification" to 3 drugs reduce residual inflammation and metabolic parameters?

1/10 🧵 Proud to share results from the INSTINCT trial, published in @cidjournal.bsky.social!

A randomized study addressing a key question: Does TAF have independent effects on weight and inflammation in people with HIV?

Spoiler: no
🧪
doi.org/10.1093/cid/...

Thanks to the organizers, assistants, international speakers and sponsors to keep alive this crucial event for the #HPV community in Spain 🤗

El @csic.es difunde la concesión de la ayuda de proyectos sinérgicos de la Comunidad de Madrid a nuestro compañero Dr. Bruno Sainz junto con el Dr. Sergio Serrano-Villar @serranovillar.bsky.social del #IRYCIS
Enhorabuena a los dos grupos de investigadores👏

@dicma-csic.bsky.social

‘It’s really, really bad right now’: NIH scientists dismayed by Trump cuts Researchers say scientific community is in state of whiplash and accuse president of trying to ‘destroy’ vital work

“The Trump administration is, for the first time in history, substantially intervening inside NIH to bring it under political control,” according to a senior NIH official who spoke on condition of anonymity. My latest.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Lithium deficiency and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease - Nature Lithium has an essential role in the brain and is deficient early in Alzheimer’s disease, which can be recapitulated in mice and treated with a novel lithium salt that restores the physiological level...

🧠 Lithium and Alzheimer’s

A new study found that lithium protects the brain. In mice, early lithium loss triggered Alzheimer’s-like damage, but a special lithium salt reversed it.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#SciComm #Alzheimers 🧪

📣Bruno Sainz from #IIBM @csic.es receives substantial funding in the call for synergistic projects (CAM), together with @serranovillar.bsky.social -Ramón y Cajal Hospital/IRYCIS

➡️Reprogramming The Tumor Microenvironment Through Microbiome-Derived Immunomodulatory Molecules

Congratulations Bruno!!👏

🧬 Our new paper in TMAID: Chronic Chagas disease disrupts gut microbiome metabolism.

🔻 TCA, β-oxidation & haem pathways fall
🔺 Benznidazole partly restores microbial function
💡 Biomarkers & targets for microbiota therapies
📄 doi.org/10.1016/j.tm...

🙌@infecciosasryc.bsky.social #Chagas #Microbiome🧪

Beautiful research, thank you!🎉🎊

📣 HIV responses can’t hinge on political shifts.
✊🏾 We need stable, committed funding—not abandonment.🧪
#PEPFAR #HIV #FundingCrisis #GlobalHealth #IAS2025

💥 #IAS2025 | #HIV Global Alert 💥

The abrupt US funding cuts are already hitting hard:
📉 Mozambique: 25% drop in ART initiations/month
📉 Johannesburg: 30% drop in testing, diagnoses & ART/year
🌍 Latin America & Caribbean: 87% of orgs lost funding

Imidazole propionate is a driver and therapeutic target in atherosclerosis - Nature Imidazole propionate produced by gut microbiota is associated with atherosclerosis in mouse models and in humans, and causes the development of atherosclerosis through activation of the imidazoline-1 ...

🧬 Gut-heart axis 2.0. 💥🦠

A gut-bacterial metabolite (imidazole propionate) doesn’t just correlate—it causes #atherosclerosis.

🔎 Mechanism: macrophage inflammasome activation via mitochondrial ROS.

🧪Pharmacologic inhibition reversed vascular inflammation in vivo.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨 A gut bacterium, Hominenteromicrobium YB328, boosts PD-1 cancer immunotherapy by activating dendritic cells & T cells.

🧬 Precision microbiome meets precision medicine.

Now heading to clinical trials 🧪

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

We’re tracking this closely as part of our RUMBA study.

First human genome from ancient Egypt sequenced from 4,800-year-old teeth Forty years after the first effort to extract mummy DNA, researchers have finally generated a full genome sequence from an ancient Egyptian.

Took 4,800 years and a few stubborn molars, but we finally got the first full genome from ancient Egypt.

Mummies: still better preserved than most backup hard drives.🧪🧟‍♀️
🔗 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Transparent research: can big tech learn from big pharma? The results of technology research and development must find their way into the published literature. New models of regulation could help.

Where do academics go when they leave for industry?

The top 10 destinations are all tech giants—led by Google, Amazon, Meta & Microsoft. Pharma and biotech don’t even make the list. Fascinating shift in the R&D landscape. 🧪
🔗 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The Mystery of the Isolated Hepatitis B Core Antibody, Solved (A post inspired by years of doing eConsults, an extremely common query about hepatitis B testing, and the latest BritBox series, “Core Antibody Confidential,” starring a grizzled detective with a fad...

The isolated hepatitis B core antibody:
HBsAg ⛔
anti-HBs ⛔
anti-HBc ✅
What does it mean, and what should you do?
A mystery solved (mostly). Plus, a poll and a couple of great videos. #IDSky blogs.jwatch.org/hiv-id-obser...

💥 Big news! We’ve secured €750K for the RUMBA project through the Synergistic Projects call.

We’ll decode microbiota-derived molecules to boost immunotherapy in lung cancer. The microbiome takes the stage! 🦠🫁 🧪

#microbiome #immunotherapy #lungcancer

Thanks!

Como cada año, el taller de Sergio Serrano en #XXVIIICongresoSEIMC no se puede perder. Como convertir a la IA en tu asistente de investigación? (Si no usas la IA no pasa nada. Si la usas bien puede facilitar mucho el trabajo. Pero si la usas mal, una carrera científica puede terminarse)

Hi Erik, here a physician-scientist in the microbiome field. Can you please add me to the feed? 🙏 orcid.org/0000-0002-54...

More than twenty years ago, I was making coffee ☕ at PretaManger in London and learning the ropes on my first-ever salary.

Today, I came back to speak 🎤 at the IANSociety meeting on #microbiome and #HPV.

🙏 Grateful to the organizers for bringing together such a vibrant community 🌱

t.ly/S3WyZ