@article {pmid39848248,
year = {2025},
author = {Abdill, RJ and Graham, SP and Rubinetti, V and Ahmadian, M and Hicks, P and Chetty, A and McDonald, D and Ferretti, P and Gibbons, E and Rossi, M and Krishnan, A and Albert, FW and Greene, CS and Davis, S and Blekhman, R},
title = {Integration of 168,000 samples reveals global patterns of the human gut microbiome.},
journal = {Cell},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2024.12.017},
pmid = {39848248},
issn = {1097-4172},
abstract = {The factors shaping human microbiome variation are a major focus of biomedical research. While other fields have used large sequencing compendia to extract insights requiring otherwise impractical sample sizes, the microbiome field has lacked a comparably sized resource for the 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing commonly used to quantify microbiome composition. To address this gap, we processed 168,464 publicly available human gut microbiome samples with a uniform pipeline. We use this compendium to evaluate geographic and technical effects on microbiome variation. We find that regions such as Central and Southern Asia differ significantly from the more thoroughly characterized microbiomes of Europe and Northern America and that composition alone can be used to predict a sample's region of origin. We also find strong associations between microbiome variation and technical factors such as primers and DNA extraction. We anticipate this growing work, the Human Microbiome Compendium, will enable advanced applied and methodological research.},
}
@article {pmid39844296,
year = {2025},
author = {Liu, B and Xie, Y and Zhang, Y and Tang, G and Lin, J and Yuan, Z and Liu, X and Wang, X and Huang, M and Luo, Y and Yu, H},
title = {Spatial deconvolution from bulk DNA methylation profiles determines intratumoral epigenetic heterogeneity.},
journal = {Cell & bioscience},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {7},
pmid = {39844296},
issn = {2045-3701},
support = {81902877//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 82272965//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 82372715//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 82173067//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Intratumoral heterogeneity emerges from accumulating genetic and epigenetic changes during tumorigenesis, which may contribute to therapeutic failure and drug resistance. However, the lack of a quick and convenient approach to determine the intratumoral epigenetic heterogeneity (eITH) limit the application of eITH in clinical settings. Here, we aimed to develop a tool that can evaluate the eITH using the DNA methylation profiles from bulk tumors.
METHODS: Genomic DNA of three laser micro-dissected tumor regions, including digestive tract surface, central bulk, and invasive front, was extracted from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sections of colorectal cancer patients. The genome-wide methylation profiles were generated with methylation array. The most variable methylated probes were selected to construct a DNA methylation-based heterogeneity (MeHEG) estimation tool that can deconvolve the proportion of each reference tumor region with the support vector machine model-based method. A PCR-based assay for quantitative analysis of DNA methylation (QASM) was developed to specifically determine the methylation status of each CpG in MeHEG assay at single-base resolution to realize fast evaluation of epigenetic heterogeneity.
RESULTS: In the discovery set with 79 patients, the differentially methylated CpGs among the three tumor regions were found. The 7 most representative CpGs were identified and subsequently selected to develop the MeHEG algorithm. We validated its performance of deconvolution of tumor regions in an independent cohort. In addition, we showed the significant association of MeHEG-based epigenetic heterogeneity with the genomic heterogeneity in mutation and copy number variation in our in-house and TCGA cohorts. Besides, we found that the patients with higher MeHEG score had worse disease-free and overall survival outcomes. Finally, we found dynamic change of epigenetic heterogeneity based on MeHEG score in cancer cells under the treatment of therapeutic drugs.
CONCLUSION: By developing a 7-loci panel using a machine learning approach combined with the QASM assay for PCR-based application, we present a valuable method for evaluating intratumoral heterogeneity. The MeHEG algorithm offers novel insights into tumor heterogeneity from an epigenetic perspective, potentially enriching current knowledge of tumor complexity and providing a new tool for clinical and research applications in cancer biology.},
}
@article {pmid39843757,
year = {2025},
author = {Pitashny, M and Kesten, I and Shlon, D and Hur, DB and Bar-Yoseph, H},
title = {The Future of Microbiome Therapeutics.},
journal = {Drugs},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39843757},
issn = {1179-1950},
abstract = {The human microbiome exerts profound influence over various biological processes within the body. Unlike many host determinants, it represents a readily accessible target for manipulation to promote health benefits. However, existing commercial microbiome-directed products often exhibit low efficacy. Advancements in technology are paving the way for the development of novel microbiome therapeutics, across a wide range of indications. In this narrative review, we provide an overview of state-of-the-art technologies in late-stage development, examining their advantages and limitations. By covering a spectrum, from fecal-derived products to live biotherapeutics, phage therapy, and synthetic biology, we illuminate the path toward the future of microbiome therapeutics.},
}
@article {pmid39840991,
year = {2025},
author = {Dufresne, K and Al, KF and Craig, HC and Coleman, CEM and Kasper, KJ and Burton, JP and McCormick, JK},
title = {TSST-1 promotes colonization of Staphylococcus aureus within the vaginal tract by activation of CD8[+] T cells.},
journal = {Infection and immunity},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0043924},
doi = {10.1128/iai.00439-24},
pmid = {39840991},
issn = {1098-5522},
abstract = {Toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1) is a superantigen produced by Staphylococcus aureus and is the determinant of menstrual toxic shock syndrome (mTSS); however, the impact of TSST-1 on the vaginal environment beyond mTSS is not understood. Herein, we assessed how TSST-1 affects vaginal colonization by S. aureus, host inflammatory responses, and changes in microbial communities within the murine vagina. We demonstrated that TSST-1 induced a CD8[+] T-cell-dependent inflammatory response in 24 h that correlated with S. aureus persistence within the vaginal tract. This increase was due to superantigen-dependent T-cell activation that triggered a change in microbial composition within the vaginal tract. Altogether, this study demonstrates that within the vaginal tract, TSST-1 modulates the vaginal microbiota to favor the survival of S. aureus in the absence of mTSS.IMPORTANCEToxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1) is a superantigen toxin produced from Staphylococcus aureus that causes the menstrual form of toxic shock syndrome. This research demonstrates that TSST-1 also has a wider function within the vaginal tract than previously expected. We show that TSST-1, by activating CD8[+] T cells, induces an inflammatory environment that modifies the vaginal microbiota to favor colonization by S. aureus. These are important findings as S. aureus can colonize the human vaginal tract efficiently and subsequently trigger dysbiosis within the microbial communities leading to several adverse outcomes such as decreased fertility, increased risks for sexually transmitted diseases, and issues related to pregnancy and birth.},
}
@article {pmid39107044,
year = {2025},
author = {Trepka, KR and Olson, CA and Upadhyay, V and Zhang, C and Turnbaugh, PJ},
title = {Pharma[e]cology: How the Gut Microbiome Contributes to Variations in Drug Response.},
journal = {Annual review of pharmacology and toxicology},
volume = {65},
number = {1},
pages = {355-373},
doi = {10.1146/annurev-pharmtox-022724-100847},
pmid = {39107044},
issn = {1545-4304},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects/physiology ; Animals ; Pharmaceutical Preparations/metabolism ; Neoplasms/drug therapy/microbiology ; Heart Diseases/drug therapy/microbiology ; Nervous System Diseases/drug therapy/microbiology ; },
abstract = {Drugs represent our first, and sometimes last, line of defense for many diseases, yet despite decades of research we still do not fully understand why a given drug works in one patient and fails in the next. The human gut microbiome is one of the missing puzzle pieces, due to its ability to parallel and extend host pathways for drug metabolism, along with more complex host-microbiome interactions. Herein, we focus on the well-established links between the gut microbiome and drugs for heart disease and cancer, plus emerging data on neurological disease. We highlight the interdisciplinary methods that are available and how they can be used to address major remaining knowledge gaps, including the consequences of microbial drug metabolism for treatment outcomes. Continued progress in this area promises fundamental biological insights into humans and their associated microbial communities and strategies for leveraging the microbiome to improve the practice of medicine.},
}
@article {pmid39839711,
year = {2025},
author = {Griffin, EF and Owens, MG},
title = {Dopaminergic neurodegeneration in C. elegans cultivated with Porphorymonas gingivalis.},
journal = {microPublication biology},
volume = {2025},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39839711},
issn = {2578-9430},
abstract = {Disruption of the human microbiome has emerged as a major contributing factor in the etiology of neurodegenerative disease. Previous work suggests a positive correlation between periodontal inflammation and Parkinson's disease. Here, we show that feeding C. elegans animals Porphorymonas gingivalis causes neurodegeneration that is not additive with neurodegeneration induced by the Parkinson's-associated protein, α-synuclein. In contrast, α-synuclein-expressing animals fed P. gingivalis show additional disruption in basal slowing, suggesting that P. gingivalis induces neurodegeneration while altering neuronal function of extant neurons. Though the mechanism is unclear, these results suggest a relationship between P. gingivalis and neurodegeneration that warrants further investigation.},
}
@article {pmid39839678,
year = {2025},
author = {Modha, S and Hughes, J and Orton, RJ and Lytras, S},
title = {Expanding the genomic diversity of human anelloviruses.},
journal = {Virus evolution},
volume = {11},
number = {1},
pages = {veaf002},
pmid = {39839678},
issn = {2057-1577},
abstract = {Anelloviruses are a group of small, circular, single-stranded DNA viruses that are found ubiquitously across mammalian hosts. Here, we explored a large number of publicly available human microbiome datasets and retrieved a total of 829 anellovirus genomes, substantially expanding the known diversity of these viruses. The majority of new genomes fall within the three major human anellovirus genera: Alphatorquevirus, Betatorquevirus, and Gammatorquevirus, while we also present new genomes of the under-sampled Hetorquevirus, Memtorquevirus, and Samektorquevirus genera. We performed recombination analysis and show evidence of extensive recombination across all human anelloviruses. Interestingly, more than 95% of the detected events are between members of the same genus and only 15 inter-genus recombination events were detected. The breakpoints of recombination cluster in hotspots at the ends and outside of the ORF1 gene, while a recombination coldspot was detected within the gene. Our analysis suggests that anellovirus evolution is governed by homologous recombination; however, events between distant viruses or ones producing chimaeric ORF1s likely lead to nonviable recombinants. The large number of genomes further allowed us to examine how essential genomic features vary across anelloviruses. These include functional domains in the ORF1 protein and the nucleotide motif of the replication loop region, required for the viruses' rolling-circle replication. A subset of the genomes assembled in both this and previous studies are completely lacking these essential elements, opening up the possibility that anellovirus intracellular populations contain nonstandard viral genomes. However, low-read depth of the metagenomically assembled contigs may partly explain the lack of some features. Overall, our study highlights key features of anellovirus genomics and evolution, a largely understudied group of viruses whose potential in virus-based therapeutics is recently being explored.},
}
@article {pmid39836666,
year = {2025},
author = {Gill, B and Wessels, JM and Hayes, CL and Ratcliffe, J and Wokuri, J and Ball, E and Reid, G and Kaul, R and Rana, J and Alkhaifi, M and Tharao, W and Smaill, F and Kaushic, C},
title = {Feasibility, safety and tolerability of estrogen and/or probiotics for improving vaginal health in Canadian African, Caribbean, and Black women: A pilot phase 1 clinical trial.},
journal = {PloS one},
volume = {20},
number = {1},
pages = {e0315576},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0315576},
pmid = {39836666},
issn = {1932-6203},
mesh = {Humans ; Female ; *Probiotics/administration & dosage/adverse effects ; Adult ; *Vagina/microbiology ; *Estrogens/administration & dosage ; Middle Aged ; Young Adult ; Adolescent ; Pilot Projects ; Canada ; Black People ; Vaginosis, Bacterial/drug therapy ; Feasibility Studies ; Administration, Intravaginal ; Caribbean Region ; Prospective Studies ; HIV Infections ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: A dysbiotic vaginal microbiome (VMB) is associated with clinical conditions such as bacterial vaginosis (BV) and an increased risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection. Considering the high prevalence of BV among African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) women, we conducted a prospective, randomized, open-label phase 1 clinical trial to determine the feasibility, safety and tolerability of administering low-dose estrogen, probiotics or both in combination to improve vaginal health and decrease HIV-1 susceptibility.
METHODS: ACB women aged 18-49 from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) were randomized to one of four study arms: intravaginal estradiol (Estring©; 7.5mg/day); a vaginal probiotic (RepHresh™ Pro-B™) administered twice daily; a combination of Estring© and vaginal RepHresh™ Pro-B™ (twice daily); or the Estring© and oral RepHresh™ Pro-B™ (twice daily), for a duration of 30 days. Feasibility was evaluated through enrolment, retention, and adherence rates, while safety and tolerability were determined by a pre- and post-treatment blood panel and reported adverse events (AEs).
RESULTS: Overall, 63 ACB women were screened, 50 were enrolled and received the intervention while 41 completed the study, resulting in 80% enrollment and 82% retention rates. Overall adherence to the study protocol was high at 93%, with an adherence of 92% for RepHresh™ Pro-B™ and 97% for Estring©. A total of 88 AEs were reported by 29 participants which were mild (66/88; 75%) and largely resolved (82/88;93%) by the end of the study, with no serious AEs (SAEs) noted. In addition, a panel of safety blood markers measured pre- and post-intervention confirmed no clinically significant changes in blood chemistry or blood cell count.
CONCLUSION: Overall, the administration of intravaginal estrogen and/or probiotics in pre-menopausal ACB women is feasible, safe, and well tolerated.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial was registered with Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03837015) and CIHR HIV Clinical Trials (CTN308).},
}
@article {pmid39829898,
year = {2025},
author = {Ni, M and Fan, Y and Liu, Y and Li, Y and Qiao, W and Davey, LE and Zhang, XS and Ksiezarek, M and Mead, E and Touracheau, A and Jiang, W and Blaser, MJ and Valdivia, RH and Fang, G},
title = {Epigenetic phase variation in the gut microbiome enhances bacterial adaptation.},
journal = {bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1101/2025.01.11.632565},
pmid = {39829898},
issn = {2692-8205},
abstract = {The human gut microbiome within the gastrointestinal tract continuously adapts to variations in diet, medications, and host physiology. A central strategy for genetic adaptation is epigenetic phase variation (ePV) mediated by bacterial DNA methylation, which can regulate gene expression, enhance clonal heterogeneity, and enable a single bacterial strain to exhibit variable phenotypic states. Genome-wide and site-specific ePV have been well characterized in human pathogens' antigenic variation and virulence factor production. However, the role of ePV in facilitating adaptation within the human microbiome remains poorly understood. Here, we comprehensively cataloged genome-wide and site-specific ePV in human infant and adult gut microbiomes. First, using long-read metagenomic sequencing, we detected genome-wide ePV mediated by complex structural variations of DNA methyltransferases, highlighting the ones associated with antibiotics or fecal microbiota transplantation. Second, we analyzed an extensive collection of public short-read metagenomic sequencing datasets, uncovering a greater prevalence of genome-wide ePV in the human gut microbiome. Third, we quantitatively detected site-specific ePVs using single-molecule methylation analysis to identify dynamic variations associated with antibiotic treatment or probiotic engraftment. Finally, we performed an in-depth assessment of an Akkermansia muciniphila isolate from an infant, highlighting that ePV can regulate gene expression and enhance the bacterial adaptive capacity by employing a bet-hedging strategy to increase tolerance to differing antibiotics. Our findings indicate that epigenetic modifications are a common and broad strategy used by bacteria in the human gut to adapt to their environment.},
}
@article {pmid39824829,
year = {2025},
author = {Jeyaram, K and Lahti, L and Tims, S and Heilig, HGHJ and van Gelder, AH and de Vos, WM and Smidt, H and Zoetendal, EG},
title = {Fermented foods affect the seasonal stability of gut bacteria in an Indian rural population.},
journal = {Nature communications},
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {771},
pmid = {39824829},
issn = {2041-1723},
support = {BT/IN/CREST-Awards/44/KJ/2010-11//Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology (DBT)/ ; 295741, 330887//Academy of Finland (Suomen Akatemia)/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; *Seasons ; India ; *Rural Population ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Bacteria/classification/genetics/isolation & purification ; Fermented Foods/microbiology ; Feces/microbiology ; Middle Aged ; Prevotella/isolation & purification ; Young Adult ; Bifidobacterium/isolation & purification ; },
abstract = {The effect of fermented foods on healthy human gut microbiota structure and function, particularly its seasonal preference and frequent long-term consumption, has been largely uncharacterised. Here, we assess the gut microbiota and metabolite composition of 78 healthy Indian agrarian individuals who differ in the intake of fermented milk and soybean products by seasonal sampling during hot-humid summer, autumn and dry winter. Here we show that, seasonal shifts between the Prevotella- and Bifidobacterium/Ruminococcus-driven community types, or ecological states, and associated fatty acid derivatives, with a bimodal change in Bacteroidota community structure during summer, particularly in fermented milk consumers. Our results associate long-term fermented food consumption with reduced gut microbiota diversity and bacterial load. We identify taxonomic groups that drive the seasonal fluctuation and associated shifts between the two ecological states in gut microbiota. This understanding may pave the way towards developing strategies to sustain a healthy and resilient gut microbiota through dietary interventions.},
}
@article {pmid39824739,
year = {2025},
author = {Sfanos, KS},
title = {Clinical translation of the interconnected role of the microbiome and diet in genitourinary malignancies.},
journal = {Urologic oncology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.urolonc.2024.12.269},
pmid = {39824739},
issn = {1873-2496},
abstract = {A complex and often under-appreciated relationship exists between the human microbiome, diet, and the development or progression of cancer. There is likewise an emerging appreciation for the role that the human-associated microbiota play in mediating cancer treatment response. This seminar series covers our current understanding of the interplay between the microbiome and cancer in genitourinary malignancies inclusive of bladder, kidney, and prostate cancers.},
}
@article {pmid39817749,
year = {2025},
author = {Amari, Y and Hosonuma, M and Mizukami, T and Isobe, J and Azetsu, Y and Funayama, E and Maruyama, Y and Tsurui, T and Tajima, K and Sasaki, A and Yamazaki, Y and Nakano, R and Sano, Y and Ishida, A and Nakanishi, T and Mochizuki, S and Yoshizawa, Y and Kumagai, S and Yasuhara, S and Ryu, K and Oguchi, T and Kuramasu, A and Yoshimura, K and Sambe, T and Kobayashi, S and Uchida, N},
title = {Association between the ABCC11 gene polymorphism-determined earwax properties and external auditory canal microbiota in healthy adults.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0169824},
doi = {10.1128/spectrum.01698-24},
pmid = {39817749},
issn = {2165-0497},
abstract = {UNLABELLED: The concept of genome-microbiome interactions, in which the microenvironment determined by host genetic polymorphisms regulates the local microbiota, is important in the pathogenesis of human disease. In otolaryngology, the resident bacterial microbiota is reportedly altered in non-infectious ear diseases, such as otitis media pearls and exudative otitis media. We hypothesized that a single-nucleotide polymorphism in the ATP-binding cassette sub-family C member 11 (ABCC11) gene, which determines earwax properties, regulates the ear canal microbiota. We analyzed ABCC11 gene polymorphisms and ear canal microbiota in healthy individuals to understand the relationship between genome-microbiome interactions in the ear canal. The study included 21 subjects who were divided into two groups: 538GA (9) and 538AA (12). Staphylococcus auricularis and Corynebacterium spp. were observed in the 538GA group, whereas Methylocella spp. was observed in the 538AA group. PICRUSt analysis revealed significant enrichment of certain pathways, such as superpathway of N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylmannosamine and N-acetylneuraminate degradation, chlorosalicylate degradation, mycothiol biosynthesis, and enterobactin biosynthesis in the GA group, whereas allantoin degradation IV (anaerobic), nitrifier denitrification, starch degradation III, L-valine degradation I, and nicotinate degradation I were significantly enriched in the AA group. The ABCC11 gene polymorphism regulates the composition of the ear canal microbiota and its metabolic pathways. This study revealed a genome-microbiome interaction within the resident microbiota of the external auditory canal that may help to elucidate the pathogenesis of ear diseases and develop novel therapies.
IMPORTANCE: The ABCC11 gene polymorphism, which determines earwax characteristics, regulates the composition of the ear canal microbiota and its metabolic pathways. We determined the presence of genome-microbiome interactions in the resident microbiota of the ear canal. Future studies should focus on ABCC11 gene polymorphisms to elucidate the pathogenesis of ear diseases and develop therapeutic methods.},
}
@article {pmid39817732,
year = {2025},
author = {Bao, Z and Zhang, B and Yao, J and Li, MD},
title = {MultiTax-human: an extensive and high-resolution human-related full-length 16S rRNA reference database and taxonomy.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0131224},
doi = {10.1128/spectrum.01312-24},
pmid = {39817732},
issn = {2165-0497},
abstract = {Considering that the human microbiota plays a critical role in health and disease, an accurate and high-resolution taxonomic classification is thus essential for meaningful microbiome analysis. In this study, we developed an automatic system, named MultiTax pipeline, for generating de novo taxonomy from full-length 16S rRNA sequences using the Genome Taxonomy Database and other existing reference databases. We first constructed the MultiTax-human database, a high-resolution resource specifically designed for human microbiome research and clinical applications. The database includes 842,649 high-quality full-length 16S rRNA sequences, extracted from multiple public repositories and human-related studies, offering a comprehensive and accurate portrayal of the human microbiome. To validate the MultiTax-human database, we profiled the human microbiome across various body sites, identified core microbial taxa, and tested its performance using an independent data set. Additionally, the database is equipped with a user-friendly web interface for easy querying and data exploration. The MultiTax-human database is poised to serve as a valuable tool for researchers, enhancing the precision of human microbiome studies and advancing our understanding of its impact on human health and diseases.IMPORTANCEUnderstanding the human microbiome, the collection of microorganisms in and on our bodies, is essential for advancing health research. Current methods often lack precision and consistency, hindering our ability to study these microorganisms effectively. Our study presents the MultiTax-human database, a high-resolution reference tool specifically designed for human microbiome research. By integrating data from multiple sources and employing advanced classification techniques, this database offers an accurate and detailed map of the human microbiome. This resource enhances the ability of researchers and clinicians to explore the roles of microorganisms in health and disease, potentially leading to improved diagnostics, treatments, and insights into various medical conditions.},
}
@article {pmid39809670,
year = {2025},
author = {Galeota-Sprung, B and Bhatt, AS and de la Fuente-Nunez, C},
title = {Microproteins: emerging roles as antibiotics.},
journal = {Trends in genetics : TIG},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.tig.2024.12.004},
pmid = {39809670},
issn = {0168-9525},
abstract = {Recent advances in computational prediction and experimental techniques have detected previously unknown microproteins, particularly in the human microbiome. These small proteins, produced by diverse microbial species, are emerging as promising candidates for new antibiotics.},
}
@article {pmid39809651,
year = {2025},
author = {Liu, X and Meng, L and Song, W and Zhi, M and Wang, P and Liu, B and Du, M and Feng, Q},
title = {Efficacy of Toothpaste Containing Polylysine and Funme Peptide on Oral Microbiome and Oral Health.},
journal = {International dental journal},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.identj.2024.11.017},
pmid = {39809651},
issn = {1875-595X},
abstract = {OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of the toothpaste containing ε-poly-L-lysine (ε-PL) and funme peptide (FP) as key components on oral microbial composition and oral health.
METHODS: An oral microbiome study was initially carried out to analyze the variation in the oral microbiota before and after use of antimicrobial peptide (AMP) toothpaste. Subsequently, a clinical trial was independently performed to assess the efficacy of AMP toothpaste by measuring the dental plaque index (PLI), volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) levels, modified bleeding index (mBI), and bleeding on probing rate (BOP%).
RESULTS: The application of AMP toothpaste increased the α diversity and modified β diversity of oral microbiome across 3 oral niches. AMP toothpaste increased the relative abundance of the commensal oral microbes, and attenuated the abundance of pathogenic bacteria in gingivitis patients to normal levels. The clinical trial showed 44.33% and 12.29% reductions of PLI scores in the test and control groups, respectively, and the test group exhibited a more pronounced decrease in VSC levels. The test group recorded significant reductions in mBI and BOP% by 39.09% and 24.59%, respectively, exceeding the control group's reductions of 4.63% and -0.97% (P < .05).
CONCLUSION: The formulation of toothpaste with ε-PL and FP recalibrated the oral microbiome's diversity and abundance, and mitigated common oral health issues such as plaque, halitosis, and gingivitis while maintaining well safety.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Oral care products containing ε-PL and FP can be used as a new treatment for improving oral microbiota and oral diseases.},
}
@article {pmid39808466,
year = {2023},
author = {Kolář, M},
title = {[Selected aspects of the human microbiome].},
journal = {Klinicka mikrobiologie a infekcni lekarstvi},
volume = {29},
number = {2},
pages = {46-51},
pmid = {39808466},
issn = {1211-264X},
abstract = {This review briefly defines the term microbiome and characterizes its importance in health and disease.},
}
@article {pmid39804694,
year = {2025},
author = {Puller, V and Plaza Oñate, F and Prifti, E and de Lahondès, R},
title = {Impact of simulation and reference catalogues on the evaluation of taxonomic profiling pipelines.},
journal = {Microbial genomics},
volume = {11},
number = {1},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1099/mgen.0.001330},
pmid = {39804694},
issn = {2057-5858},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; Computer Simulation ; Benchmarking ; Bacteria/classification/genetics ; Metagenomics/methods ; Microbiota/genetics ; },
abstract = {Microbiome profiling tools rely on reference catalogues, which significantly affect their performance. Comparing them is, however, challenging, mainly due to differences in their native catalogues. In this study, we present a novel standardized benchmarking framework that makes such comparisons more accurate. We decided not to customize databases but to translate results to a common reference to use the tools with their native environment. Specifically, we conducted two realistic simulations of gut microbiome samples, each based on a specific taxonomic profiler, and used two different taxonomic references to project their results, namely the Genome Taxonomy Database and the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome. To demonstrate the importance of using such a framework, we evaluated four established profilers as well as the impact of the simulations and that of the common taxonomic references on the perceived performance of these profilers. Finally, we provide guidelines to enhance future profiler comparisons for human microbiome ecosystems: (i) use or create realistic simulations tailored to your biological context (BC), (ii) identify a common feature space suited to your BC and independent of the catalogues used by the profilers and (iii) apply a comprehensive set of metrics covering accuracy (sensitivity/precision), overall representativity (richness/Shannon) and quantification (UniFrac and/or Aitchison distance).},
}
@article {pmid39802902,
year = {2024},
author = {Li, D and Wu, R and Yu, Q and Tuo, Z and Wang, J and Yoo, KH and Wei, W and Yang, Y and Ye, L and Guo, Y and Chaipanichkul, P and Okoli, UA and Poolman, TM and Burton, JP and Cho, WC and Heavey, S and Feng, D},
title = {Microbiota and urinary tumor immunity: Mechanisms, therapeutic implications, and future perspectives.},
journal = {Chinese journal of cancer research = Chung-kuo yen cheng yen chiu},
volume = {36},
number = {6},
pages = {596-615},
pmid = {39802902},
issn = {1000-9604},
}
@article {pmid39800869,
year = {2025},
author = {Zhang, H and Chen, A and Li, S and Chen, K and You, X and Bian, Y and Li, C and Liu, S and Huang, J and Zhang, S},
title = {Spatio-Temporal Change of Skin and Oral Microbiota: A Longitudinal Study of Microbial Diversity and Stability.},
journal = {Electrophoresis},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1002/elps.202400160},
pmid = {39800869},
issn = {1522-2683},
support = {82371896//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 82260335//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; },
abstract = {The human skin and oral cavity harbor complex microbial communities, which exist in dynamic equilibrium with the host's physiological state and the external environment. This study investigates the microbial atlas of human skin and oral cavities using samples collected over a 10-month period, aiming to assess how both internal and external factors influence the human microbiome. We examined bacterial community diversity and stability across various body sites, including palm and nasal skin, saliva, and oral epithelial cells, during environmental changes and a COVID-19 pandemic. The skin microbiome was confirmed to display spatial and temporal stability compared to the oral microbiome, particularly the oral epithelium, which was susceptible to changes in the host's physiological state and immune response. Moreover, significant differences in the microbial community structure among the 4 sample types were observed, and 87 distinct bacteria biomarkers were identified. The random forest prediction model achieved an overall prediction accuracy of 95.24% across the four types of samples studied. Additionally, nasal skin samples showed significant promise for individual identification through profiling the skin microbiota. These findings highlight the potential of skin and oral microbiota as forensic markers for inferring body sites and identifying individuals. In summary, despite facing limitations such as a small cohort size and the need for broader validation, this research provides an overall perspective and initial insights for refining experimental designs and conducting in-depth research in various microbial research fields.},
}
@article {pmid39798621,
year = {2025},
author = {Heckmann, ND and Culler, M and Mont, MA and Lieberman, JR and Parvizi, J},
title = {Emerging Concepts in Periprosthetic Joint Infection Research: The Human Microbiome.},
journal = {The Journal of arthroplasty},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.arth.2025.01.001},
pmid = {39798621},
issn = {1532-8406},
abstract = {Microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses, that reside on and within the human body are collectively known as the human microbiome. Dysbiosis, or disruption in the microbiome, has been implicated in several disease processes, including asthma, obesity, autoimmune diseases, and numerous other conditions. While the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) and the generation of descriptive studies it inspired established correlations between characteristic patterns in the composition of the microbiome and specific disease phenotypes, current research has begun to focus on elucidating the causal role of the microbiome in disease pathogenesis. Within the field of orthopaedic surgery, researchers have proposed the concept of a "gut-joint axis" by which the intestinal microbiome influences joint health and the development of diseases such as osteoarthritis and periprosthetic joint infection (PJI). It is theorized that intestinal dysbiosis increases gut permeability, leading to the translocation of bacteria and their metabolic products into the systemic circulation and the stimulation of proinflammatory response cascades throughout the body, including within the joints. While correlative studies have identified patterns of dysbiotic derangement associated with osteoarthritis and PJI, translational research is needed to clarify the precise mechanisms by which these changes influence disease processes. Additionally, an emerging body of literature has challenged the previously held belief that certain body sites are sterile and do not possess a microbiome, with studies identifying distinct microbial genomic signatures and a core microbiome that varies between anatomic sites. A more thorough characterization of the joint microbiome may have profound implications for our understanding of PJI pathogenesis and our ability to stratify patients based on risk. The purpose of this review was to outline our current understanding of the human microbiome, to describe the gut-joint axis and its role in specific pathologies, including PJI, and to highlight the potential of microbiome-based therapeutic interventions in the field of orthopaedics.},
}
@article {pmid39797472,
year = {2025},
author = {Chong-Nguyen, C and Yilmaz, B and Coles, B and Sokol, H and MacPherson, A and Siepe, M and Reineke, D and Mosbahi, S and Tomii, D and Nakase, M and Atighetchi, S and Ferro, C and Wingert, C and Gräni, C and Pilgrim, T and Windecker, S and Blasco, H and Dupuy, C and Emond, P and Banz, Y and Losmanovà, T and Döring, Y and Siontis, GCM},
title = {A scoping review evaluating the current state of gut microbiota and its metabolites in valvular heart disease physiopathology.},
journal = {European journal of clinical investigation},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e14381},
doi = {10.1111/eci.14381},
pmid = {39797472},
issn = {1365-2362},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The human microbiome is crucial in regulating intestinal and systemic functions. While its role in cardiovascular disease is better understood, the link between intestinal microbiota and valvular heart diseases (VHD) remains largely unexplored.
METHODS: Peer-reviewed studies on human, animal or cell models analysing gut microbiota profiles published up to April 2024 were included. Eligible studies used 16S rRNA or shotgun sequencing, metabolite profiling by mass spectrometry, and examined osteogenesis or fibrosis signalling in valve cells. Methods and findings were qualitatively analysed, with data charted to summarize study design, materials and outcomes.
RESULTS: Thirteen studies were included in the review: five human, three animal and five in vitro. Of the nine studies on calcific aortic stenosis (CAS), elevated trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) levels were linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular events in cohort studies, with CAS patients showing higher levels of Bacteroides plebeius, Enterobacteriaceae, Veillonella dispar and Prevotella copri. In vivo, TMAO promoted aortic valve fibrosis, while tryptophan derivatives stimulated osteogenic differentiation and interleukin-6 secretion in valvular interstitial cells. Two studies on rheumatic mitral valve disease found altered microbiota profiles and lower short-chain fatty acid levels, suggesting potential impacts on immune regulation. Two studies on Barlow's mitral valve disease in animal models revealed elevated TMAO levels in dogs with congestive heart failure, reduced Paraprevotellaceae, increased Actinomycetaceae and dysbiosis involving Turicibacter and E. coli.
CONCLUSIONS: TMAO has been mainly identified as a prognostic marker in VHD. Gut microbiota dysbiosis has been observed in various forms of VHD and deserve further study.},
}
@article {pmid39796469,
year = {2024},
author = {Wu, F and Guo, Y and Wang, Y and Sui, X and Wang, H and Zhang, H and Xin, B and Yang, C and Zhang, C and Jiang, S and Qu, L and Feng, Q and Dai, Z and Shi, C and Li, Y},
title = {Effects of Long-Term Fasting on Gut Microbiota, Serum Metabolome, and Their Association in Male Adults.},
journal = {Nutrients},
volume = {17},
number = {1},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/nu17010035},
pmid = {39796469},
issn = {2072-6643},
support = {2022SY54B0506, BJH22WS1J002, 18035020103//the Advanced Space Medico-Engineering Research Project of China/ ; SMFA22Q03, SMFA22B04//The State Key Laboratory of Space Medicine, China Astronaut Research and Training Center/ ; HYZHXM01002//the Space Medical Experiment Project of China Manned Space Program/ ; JCYJ20200109110630285//he Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission 2020 Basic Research Project/ ; 2022YFA1604504//National Key R&D Program of China/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; Male ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; *Fasting/blood ; *Metabolome ; Pilot Projects ; Adult ; Animals ; Obesity/microbiology/blood ; Bacteria/classification ; Diet, High-Fat ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Long-term fasting demonstrates greater therapeutic potential and broader application prospects in extreme environments than intermittent fasting.
METHOD: This pilot study of 10-day complete fasting (CF), with a small sample size of 13 volunteers, aimed to investigate the time-series impacts on gut microbiome, serum metabolome, and their interrelationships with biochemical indices.
RESULTS: The results show CF significantly affected gut microbiota diversity, composition, and interspecies interactions, characterized by an expansion of the Proteobacteria phylum (about six-fold) and a decrease in Bacteroidetes (about 50%) and Firmicutes (about 34%) populations. Notably, certain bacteria taxa exhibited complex interactions and strong correlations with serum metabolites implicated in energy and amino acid metabolism, with a particular focus on fatty acylcarnitines and tryptophan derivatives. A key focus of our study was the effect of Ruthenibacterium lactatiformans, which was highly increased during CF and exhibited a strong correlation with fat metabolic indicators. This bacterium was found to mitigate high-fat diet-induced obesity, glucose intolerance, dyslipidemia, and intestinal barrier dysfunction in animal experiments. These effects suggest its potential as a probiotic candidate for the amelioration of dyslipidemia and for mediating the benefits of fasting on fat metabolism.
CONCLUSIONS: Our pilot study suggests that alterations in gut microbiota during CF contribute to the shift of energy metabolic substrate and the establishment of a novel homeostatic state during prolonged fasting.},
}
@article {pmid39796301,
year = {2024},
author = {Galazka, S and Vigl, V and Kuffner, M and Dielacher, I and Spettel, K and Kriz, R and Kreuzinger, N and Vierheilig, J and Woegerbauer, M},
title = {Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Differently Processed Smoothies and Fresh Produce from Austria.},
journal = {Foods (Basel, Switzerland)},
volume = {14},
number = {1},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/foods14010011},
pmid = {39796301},
issn = {2304-8158},
support = {BMASGK-74602/0005-IX/B/15/2019//Austrian Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection (BMASGK)/ ; },
abstract = {Plant-derived foods are potential vehicles for microbial antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), which can be transferred to the human microbiome if consumed raw or minimally processed. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and the amount of clinically relevant ARGs and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in differently processed smoothies (freshly prepared, cold-pressed, pasteurized and high-pressure processed) and fresh produce samples (organically and conventionally cultivated) to assess potential health hazards associated with their consumption. The MGE ISPps and the class 1 integron-integrase gene intI1 were detected by probe-based qPCR in concentrations up to 10[4] copies/mL in all smoothies, lettuce, carrots and a single tomato sample. The highest total (2.2 × 10[5] copies/mL) and the most diverse ARG and MGE loads (16/26 targets) were observed in freshly prepared and the lowest prevalences (5/26) and concentrations (4.1 × 10[3] copies/mL) in high-pressure-processed (HPP) smoothies. BlaCTX-M-1-15 (1.2 × 10[5] c/mL) and strB (6.3 × 10[4] c/mL) were the most abundant, and qacEΔ1 (95%), blaTEM1 (85%), ermB and sul1 (75%, each) were the most prevalent ARGs. QnrS, vanA, sat-4, blaKPC, blaNDM-1 and blaOXA-10 were never detected. HPP treatment reduced the microbial loads by ca. 5 logs, also destroying extracellular DNA potentially encoding ARGs that could otherwise be transferred by bacterial transformation. The bacterial microbiome, potential pathogens, bacterial ARG carriers and competent bacteria able to take up ARGs were identified by Illumina 16S rRNA gene sequencing. To reduce the risk of AMR spread from smoothies, our data endorse the application of DNA-disintegrating processing techniques such as HPP.},
}
@article {pmid39794144,
year = {2025},
author = {Lan, P and Zhang, ZJ and He, Z},
title = {[Progress in the study of the surgical management of Crohn disease based on the mesenteric concept].},
journal = {Zhonghua wai ke za zhi [Chinese journal of surgery]},
volume = {63},
number = {2},
pages = {107-113},
doi = {10.3760/cma.j.cn112139-20240331-00155},
pmid = {39794144},
issn = {0529-5815},
support = {2022YFA1304000//National Key R&D Program of China/ ; U21A20344//Key Joint Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; },
abstract = {In recent years, with the deepening of mesentery research, it is found that its blood vessels, nerves, lymphoid tissue, adipose tissue and other structures play an important role in the occurrence and development of Crohn disease, and the degree of lesion is related with the disease process, surgical difficulty, the occurrence of intraoperative complications and postoperative recurrence. The optimal surgical strategy of Crohn disease based on mesenteric involvement has received great attention. Multiple retrospective studies found that extended mesenteric resection and Kono-S anastomosis potentially could reduce the rate of postoperative recurrence. However, the latest prospective randomized controlled studies did not achieve the expected results, and the evidence for the surgical strategy based on mesentery is still weak. This review summarises the findings of basic and clinical investigations of the mesentery in Crohn disease so far and explores its role in surgical treatment optimization, and provides new thinking and insights for the further research and surgical options for Crohn disease.},
}
@article {pmid39793044,
year = {2025},
author = {Putumbaka, S and Schut, GJ and Thorgersen, MP and Poole, FL and Shao, N and Rodionov, DA and Adams, MWW},
title = {Tungsten is utilized for lactate consumption and SCFA production by a dominant human gut microbe Eubacterium limosum.},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
volume = {122},
number = {1},
pages = {e2411809121},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2411809121},
pmid = {39793044},
issn = {1091-6490},
support = {R01 GM136885/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {*Eubacterium/metabolism/genetics ; Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; *Lactic Acid/metabolism ; *Tungsten/metabolism ; *Fatty Acids, Volatile/metabolism ; Bacterial Proteins/metabolism/genetics ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial ; },
abstract = {Eubacterium limosum is a dominant member of the human gut microbiome and produces short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). These promote immune system function and inhibit inflammation, making this microbe important for human health. Lactate is a primary source of gut SCFAs but its utilization by E. limosum has not been explored. We show that E. limosum growing on lactate takes up added tungstate rather than molybdate and produces the SCFAs acetate and butyrate, but not propionate. The genes encoding an electron bifurcating, tungsten-containing oxidoreductase (WOR1) and a tungsten-containing formate dehydrogenase (FDH), along with an electron bifurcating lactate dehydrogenase (LCT), lactate permease, and enzymes of the propanediol pathway, are all up-regulated on lactate compared to growth on glucose. Lactate metabolism is controlled by a GntR-family repressor (LctR) and two global regulators, Rex and CcpA, where Rex in part controls W storage and tungstopyranopterin (Tuco) biosynthesis. Tuco-dependent riboswitches, along with CcpA, also control two iron transporters, consistent with the increased iron demand for many iron-containing enzymes, including WOR1 and FDH, involved in SCFA production. From intracellular aldehyde concentrations and the substrate specificity of WOR1, we propose that WOR1 is involved in detoxifying acetaldehyde produced during lactate degradation. Lactate to SCFA conversion by E. limosum is clearly highly tungstocentric and tungsten might be an overlooked micronutrient in the human microbiome and in overall human health.},
}
@article {pmid39792309,
year = {2025},
author = {Wang, P and Xia, P and Gao, S and Shi, W and Zhang, X},
title = {Critical Structures of Bisphenol Analogues on Embryonic Toxicity Identified by a Computational Approach.},
journal = {Environmental science & technology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1021/acs.est.4c10012},
pmid = {39792309},
issn = {1520-5851},
abstract = {Safer chemical alternatives to bisphenol (BP) have been a major pursuit of modern green chemistry and toxicology. Using a chemical similarity-based approach, it is difficult to identify minor structural differences that contribute to the significant changes of toxicity. Here, we used omics and computational toxicology to identify chemical features associated with BP analogue-induced embryonic toxicity, offering valuable insights to inform the design of safer chemical alternatives. The zebrafish embryonic acute toxicity, behavioral effects, and concentration-dependent transcriptome analysis of 17 BP analogues were tested, and the chemical structure characteristics and key biological activities-induced embryonic toxicity were explored. BPE, BPF, BPP, BPBP, and BPS induced lower embryonic lethality than BPA. And, 8 BP analogues triggered hyperactive behavior at environmentally and human relevant concentrations. BP analogues with phenol rings linked via hydrophobic segments ("chain:alkaneBranch_neopentyl_C5") disturbed stress response, leading to embryonic lethality, and introducing hydrophobic groups on the meta position of bisphenol structure augmented their embryonic lethality effects. "3DACorr_TotChg_3" of BP analogues is a key physicochemical feature for behavioral disorders, and BP analogues with 3DACorr_TotChg_3 value < 0.11 could induce hyperactive behavior by perturbing neurodevelopment relevant biological pathways. This study provides an integrated strategy, combining data-driven profiling and mechanism-based analysis for safer chemical alternatives.},
}
@article {pmid39791890,
year = {2025},
author = {Soborowski, AL and Hackley, RK and Hwang, S and Zhou, G and Dulmage, KA and Schönheit, P and Daniels, C and Bisson-Filho, AW and Marchfelder, A and Maupin-Furlow, JA and Allers, T and Schmid, AK},
title = {Genomic re-sequencing reveals mutational divergence across genetically engineered strains of model archaea.},
journal = {mSystems},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0108424},
doi = {10.1128/msystems.01084-24},
pmid = {39791890},
issn = {2379-5077},
abstract = {UNLABELLED: Archaeal molecular biology has been a topic of intense research in recent decades as their role in global ecosystems, nutrient cycles, and eukaryotic evolution comes to light. The hypersaline-adapted archaeal species Halobacterium salinarum and Haloferax volcanii serve as important model organisms for understanding archaeal genomics, genetics, and biochemistry, in part because efficient tools enable genetic manipulation. As a result, the number of strains in circulation among the haloarchaeal research community has increased in recent decades. However, the degree of genetic divergence and effects on genetic integrity resulting from the creation and inter-lab transfer of novel lab stock strains remain unclear. To address this, we performed whole-genome re-sequencing on a cross-section of wild-type, parental, and knockout strains in both model species. Integrating these data with existing repositories of re-sequencing data, we identify mutations that have arisen in a collection of 60 strains, sampled from two species across eight different labs. Independent of sequencing, we construct strain lineages, identifying branch points and significant genetic events in strain history. Combining this with our sequencing data, we identify small clusters of mutations that definitively separate lab strains. Additionally, an analysis of gene knockout strains suggests that roughly one in three strains currently in use harbors second-site mutations of potential phenotypic impact. Overall, we find that divergence among lab strains is thus far minimal, though as the archaeal research community continues to grow, careful strain provenance and genomic re-sequencing are required to keep inter-lab divergence to a minimum, prevent the compounding of mutations into fully independent lineages, and maintain the current high degree of reproducible research between lab groups.
IMPORTANCE: Archaea are a domain of microbial life whose member species play a critical role in the global carbon cycle, climate regulation, the human microbiome, and persistence in extreme habitats. In particular, hypersaline-adapted archaea are important, genetically tractable model organisms for studying archaeal genetics, genomics, and biochemistry. As the archaeal research community grows, keeping track of the genetic integrity of strains of interest is necessary. In particular, routine genetic manipulations and the common practice of sharing strains between labs allow mutations to arise in lab stocks. If these mutations affect cellular processes, they may jeopardize the reproducibility of work between research groups and confound the results of future studies. In this work, we examine DNA sequences from 60 strains across two species of archaea. We identify shared and unique mutations occurring between and within strains. Independently, we trace the lineage of each strain, identifying which genetic manipulations lead to observed off-target mutations. While overall divergence across labs is minimal so far, our work highlights the need for labs to continue proper strain husbandry.},
}
@article {pmid39789171,
year = {2025},
author = {Barman, I and Seo, H and Kim, S and Rahim, MA and Yoon, Y and Hossain, MS and Shuvo, MSH and Song, HY},
title = {Isolation of New Strains of Lactic Acid Bacteria from the Vaginal Microbiome of Postmenopausal Women and their Probiotic Characteristics.},
journal = {Current microbiology},
volume = {82},
number = {2},
pages = {76},
pmid = {39789171},
issn = {1432-0991},
support = {20018499//Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy/ ; RS-2023-00219563//Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea/ ; Soon Chun Hyang University Research Fund//Soon Chun Hyang University/ ; },
mesh = {Female ; *Probiotics ; Humans ; *Vagina/microbiology ; *Lactobacillales/genetics/isolation & purification/classification/metabolism ; *Postmenopause ; Bacterial Adhesion ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Microbiota ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; Cytokines/metabolism ; Macrophages/microbiology ; },
abstract = {Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), traditionally consumed as fermented foods, are now being applied to the medical field beyond health-functional food as probiotics. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously discover and evaluate new strains with suitable probiotic characteristics, mainly focusing on safety. In this study, we isolated eight new strains from postmenopausal vaginal fluid using culturomics approaches, an emerging area of interest. Data showed that most strains possessed significant cell surface hydrophobicity (≥ 76%), auto-aggregation capacity (17 to 61%), strong adhesion activity (8 to 34%), and excellent resistance to gastric acid, bile salt, and digestive enzyme, enhancing their survival in the gastrointestinal tract. Moreover, the strains exhibited functional characteristics, including substantial antibacterial activity with a minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranging from 12.5 to 50%. They also harbored bacteriocins genes, produced short-chain fatty acids (acetate and propionate), exhibited significant phagocytic activity, possessed high antioxidative properties, rapidly depleted sodium nitrite, and exhibited proteolysis and β-glucosidase activity. In addition, heat-killed LAB strains significantly reduced the gene expressions of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-β, IL-6, and iNOS in macrophages. Safety assessment revealed no cytotoxicity in macrophage cell lines. All strains tested negative for biogenic amine or H2O2 production, displayed no gelatinase or hemolytic activity, lacked virulence genes or detrimental enzymes, and displayed antibiotic susceptibility. In summary, these newly isolated strains demonstrate excellent probiotic functionality with a strong focus on safety, making them promising candidates for future drug development in the relevant fields.},
}
@article {pmid39788169,
year = {2025},
author = {Xu, B and Luo, Z and Niu, X and Li, Z and Lu, Y and Li, J},
title = {Fungi, immunosenescence and cancer.},
journal = {Seminars in cancer biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.semcancer.2025.01.002},
pmid = {39788169},
issn = {1096-3650},
abstract = {Fungal microbes are a small but immunoreactive component of the human microbiome, which may influence cancer development, progression and therapeutic response. Immunosenescence is a process of immune dysfunction that occurs with aging, including lymphoid organ remodeling, contributing to alterations in the immune system in the elderly, which plays a critical role in many aspects of cancer. There is evidence for the interactions between fungi and immunosenescence in potentially regulating cancer progression and remodeling the tumor microenvironment (TME). In this review, we summarize potential roles of commensal and pathogenic fungi in modulating cancer-associated processes and provide more-detailed discussions on the mechanisms of which fungi affect tumor biology, including local and distant regulation of the TME, modulating antitumor immune responses and interactions with neighboring bacterial commensals. We also delineate the features of immunosenescence and its influence on cancer development and treatment, and highlight the interactions between fungi and immunosenescence in cancer. We discuss the prospects and challenges for harnessing fungi and immunosenescence in cancer diagnosis and/or treatment. Considering the limited understanding and techniques in conducting such research, we also provide our view on how to overcome challenges faced by the exploration of fungi, immunosenescence and their interactions on tumor biology.},
}
@article {pmid39788158,
year = {2025},
author = {Theodosiou, AA and Fady, PE and Bennett, N and Read, RC and Bogaert, D and Jones, CE},
title = {Microbiotoxicity: a call to arms for cross-sector protection of the human microbiome.},
journal = {The Journal of infection},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {106408},
doi = {10.1016/j.jinf.2025.106408},
pmid = {39788158},
issn = {1532-2742},
}
@article {pmid39775305,
year = {2025},
author = {Xu, Y and Wang, Z and Li, C and Tian, S and Du, W},
title = {Droplet microfluidics: unveiling the hidden complexity of the human microbiome.},
journal = {Lab on a chip},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1039/d4lc00877d},
pmid = {39775305},
issn = {1473-0189},
abstract = {The human body harbors diverse microbial communities essential for maintaining health and influencing disease processes. Droplet microfluidics, a precise and high-throughput platform for manipulating microscale droplets, has become vital in advancing microbiome research. This review introduces the foundational principles of droplet microfluidics, its operational capabilities, and wide-ranging applications. We emphasize its role in enhancing single-cell sequencing technologies, particularly genome and RNA sequencing, transforming our understanding of microbial diversity, gene expression, and community dynamics. We explore its critical function in isolating and cultivating traditionally unculturable microbes and investigating microbial activity and interactions, facilitating deeper insight into community behavior and metabolic functions. Lastly, we highlight its broader applications in microbial analysis and its potential to revolutionize human health research by driving innovations in diagnostics, therapeutic development, and personalized medicine. This review provides a comprehensive overview of droplet microfluidics' impact on microbiome research, underscoring its potential to transform our understanding of microbial dynamics and their relevance to health and disease.},
}
@article {pmid39770796,
year = {2024},
author = {Enderlin, D and Bieri, U and Gadient, J and Morsy, Y and Scharl, M and Rüschoff, JH and Hefermehl, LJ and Nikitin, A and Langenauer, J and Engeler, DS and Förster, B and Obrecht, F and Surber, J and Scherer, TP and Eberli, D and Poyet, C},
title = {Towards Reliable Methodology: Microbiome Analysis of Fresh Frozen vs. Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded Bladder Tissue Samples: A Feasibility Study.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {12},
number = {12},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/microorganisms12122594},
pmid = {39770796},
issn = {2076-2607},
support = {KFS-5308-02-2021-R//the Swiss Cancer Research foundation/ ; },
abstract = {Studies have shown that the human microbiome influences the response to systemic immunotherapy. However, only scarce data exist on the impact of the urinary microbiome on the response rates of bladder cancer (BC) to local Bacillus Calmette-Guérin instillation therapy. We launched the prospective SILENT-EMPIRE study in 2022 to address this question. We report the results of the pilot study of SILENT-EMPIRE, which aimed to compare the microbiome between fresh frozen (FF) and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples in the cancerous tissue and adjacent healthy tissue of BC patients. Our results show that alpha diversity is increased in FF samples compared to FFPE (coverage index p = 0.041, core abundance index p = 0.008). No significant differences concerning alpha diversity could be detected between cancerous and non-cancerous tissue in the same BC patients. This study demonstrates that microbiome analysis from both FF and FFPE samples is feasible. Implementing this finding could aid in the translation of research findings into clinical practice.},
}
@article {pmid39770627,
year = {2024},
author = {Ricchezze, G and Buratti, E and De Micco, F and Cingolani, M and Scendoni, R},
title = {Medico-Legal Applications of the Human Microbiome and Critical Issues Due to Environmental Transfer: A Review.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {12},
number = {12},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/microorganisms12122424},
pmid = {39770627},
issn = {2076-2607},
support = {ECS00000041 - VITALITY - CUP n° D83C22000710005//European Union - NextGenerationEU under the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) National Innovation Ecosystem/ ; },
abstract = {Microbiome has recently seen an increase in its forensic applications. It could be employed to identify a suspect when DNA is not available; it can be used to establish postmortem interval (PMI). Furthermore, it could prove to be fundamental in cases of sexual assault. One of the most interesting aspects to study is how microbiomes are transferred. The aim of this review is to analyze the existing literature focusing on the potential transfer of microbiome from humans to environment. Searches on PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science identified a total of 348 articles. Furthermore, from the bibliographies of the included articles, an additional publication was selected, in accordance with the established inclusion and exclusion criteria. This study has shown the potential of utilizing microbiomes as trace evidence, particularly in connecting individuals to specific environments or objects. However, the variability and dynamics of microbial transfer and persistence need to be carefully addressed.},
}
@article {pmid39763928,
year = {2024},
author = {Glowacki, RWP and Engelhart, MJ and Till, JM and Kadam, A and Nemet, I and Sangwan, N and Ahern, PP},
title = {Identification of strain-specific cues that regulate biofilm formation in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.},
journal = {bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1101/2024.12.20.629428},
pmid = {39763928},
issn = {2692-8205},
abstract = {UNLABELLED: Members of the gut microbiome encounter a barrage of host- and microbe-derived microbiocidal factors that must be overcome to maintain fitness in the intestine. The long-term stability of many gut microbiome strains within the microbiome suggests the existence of strain-specific strategies that have evolved to foster resilience to such insults. Despite this, little is known about the mechanisms that mediate this resistance. Biofilm formation represents one commonly employed defense strategy against stressors like those found in the intestine. Here, we demonstrate strain-level variation in the capacity of the gut symbiont Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron to form biofilms. Despite the potent induction of biofilm formation by purified bile in most strains, we show that the specific bile acid species driving biofilm formation differ among strains, and uncover that a secondary bile-acid, lithocholic acid, and its conjugated forms, potently induce biofilm formation in a strain-specific manner. Additionally, we found that the short-chain fatty acid, acetic acid, could suppress biofilm formation. Thus, our data defines the molecular components of bile that promote biofilm formation in B. thetaiotaomicron and reveals that distinct molecular cues trigger the induction or inhibition of this process. Moreover, we uncover strain-level variation in these responses, thus identifying that both shared and strain-specific determinants govern biofilm formation in this species.
IMPORTANCE: In order to thrive within the intestine, it is imperative that gut microbes resist the multitude of insults derived from the host immune system and other microbiome members. As such, they have evolved strategies that ensure their survival within the intestine. We investigated one such strategy, biofilm formation, in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron , a common member of the human microbiome. We uncovered significant variation in natural biofilm formation in the absence of an overt stimulus among different Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron strains, and revealed that different strains adopted a biofilm lifestyle in response to distinct molecular stimuli. Thus our studies provide novel insights into factors mediating gut symbiont resiliency, revealing strain-specific and shared strategies in these responses. Collectively, our findings underscore the prevalence of strain-level differences that should be factored into our understanding of gut microbiome functions.},
}
@article {pmid39757039,
year = {2025},
author = {Cruz-Lebrón, A and Faiez, TS and Hess, MM and Sfanos, KS},
title = {Diet and the microbiome as mediators of prostate cancer risk, progression, and therapy response.},
journal = {Urologic oncology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.urolonc.2024.12.001},
pmid = {39757039},
issn = {1873-2496},
abstract = {Complex relationships between the human microbiome and cancer are increasingly recognized for cancer sites that harbor commensal microbial communities such as the gut, genitourinary tract, and skin. For organ sites that likely do not contain commensal microbiota, there is still a substantial capacity for the human-associated microbiota to influence disease etiology across the cancer spectrum. We propose such a relationship for prostate cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer in males in the United States. This review explores the current evidence for a role for the urinary and gut microbiota in prostate cancer risk, via both direct interactions (prostate infections) and long-distance interactions such as via the metabolism of procarcinogenic or anticarcinogenic dietary metabolites. We further explore a newly recognized role of the gut microbiota in mediating cancer treatment response or resistance either via production of androgens and/or procarcinogenic metabolites or via direct metabolism of anticancer drugs that are used to treat advanced disease. Overall, we present the current state of knowledge relating to how the human microbiome mediates prostate cancer risk, progression, and therapy response, as well as suggest future research directions for the field.},
}
@article {pmid39754316,
year = {2025},
author = {Peng, S and Wu, M and Yan, Q and Xu, G and Xie, Y and Tang, G and Lin, J and Yuan, Z and Liang, X and Yuan, Z and Weng, J and Bai, L and Wang, X and Yu, H and Huang, M and Luo, Y and Liu, X},
title = {Disrupting EDEM3-induced M2-like macrophage trafficking by glucose restriction overcomes resistance to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade.},
journal = {Clinical and translational medicine},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {e70161},
doi = {10.1002/ctm2.70161},
pmid = {39754316},
issn = {2001-1326},
support = {82372715//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 82173067//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 82272965//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 2024A1515030054//Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province/ ; 2022A1515012656//Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province/ ; 2018026//Project 5010 of Clinical Medical Research of Sun Yat-sen University-5010 Cultivation Foundation/ ; 2025A04J4447//Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou/ ; 202201011004//Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou/ ; 2022JBGS07//Scientific Research Project of the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University/ ; P20150227202010251//Talent Project of the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University/ ; R2021217202512965//Excellent Talent Training Project of the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University/ ; 1010CG(2022)-02//Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University Clinical Research-'1010' Program/ ; 1010CG(2022)-03//Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University Clinical Research-'1010' Program/ ; 1010PY(2022)-10)//Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University Clinical Research-'1010' Program/ ; 23ykbj007//Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Sun Yat-sen University/ ; //Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities/ ; //National Key Clinical Discipline/ ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Immunotherapy is beneficial for some colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, but immunosuppressive networks limit its effectiveness. Cancer-associatedfibroblasts (CAFs) are significant in immune escape and resistance toimmunotherapy, emphasizing the urgent need for new treatment strategies.
METHODS: Flow cytometric, Western blotting, proteomics analysis, analysis of public database data, genetically modified cell line models, T cell coculture, crystal violetstaining, ELISA, metabonomic and clinical tumour samples were conducted to assess the role of EDEM3 in immune escape and itsmolecular mechanisms. We evaluated theeffects of FMD plus 2-DG on antitumour immunity using multipleximmunofluorescence, flow cytometry, cytokine profiling, TUNEL assays, xenografttumours, and in vivo studies.
RESULTS: We show thatCAFs upregulate PD-L1 glycosylation and contribute to immune evasion byglycosyltransferase EDEM3. Additionally, EDEM3 plays a role in tumour immunityduring tumour progression. However, the EDEM3-mediated upregulation of PD-L1 expression underpins PD-1/PD-L1 blockade resistance in vivo. This finding contradictsthe previous trend that positive PD-L1 expression indicates a strong responseto PD-1/PD-L1 blockade. Mechanistically, high-EDEM3 expression facilitates M2-like This finding contradictsthe previous trend that positive PD-L1 expression indicates a strong responseto PD-1/PD-L1 blockade.Mechanistically, polarizationand chemotactic migration of macrophages, which are enriched in theperipheral region of tumours compared to thecore region, precluding access of CD8+ T cells to tumourfoci. Furthermore, we EDEM3 predominantly activates the recruited M2-like macrophagesvia a glucose metabolism-dependent mechanism. Manipulationof glucose utilization by a fasting-mimicking diet(FMD) plus 2-DG treatmentsynergistically with PD-1 antibody elicits potent antitumour activity byeffectively decreasing tumour glycosylated PD-L1 expression, augmenting the CD8+effector T cell infiltration and activation while concurrently reducing the infiltration.TheCAFs-EDEM3-M2-like macrophage axis plays a critical role in promotingimmunotherapy resistance. infiltration.TheCAFs-EDEM3-M2-like macrophage axis plays a critical role in promotingimmunotherapy resistance.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that blocking EDEM3-induced M2-like macro phage trafficking by FMD plus 2-DG is a promising and effective strategy to overcomeresistance to checkpoint blockade therapy offeringhope for improved treatment outcomes.
KEY POINTS: Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) can enhance PD-L1 glycosylation through the glycosyltransferase EDEM3, contributing to immune evasion during tumour progression. EDEM3 predominantly activates the recruit M2-like macrophages via a glucose metabolism-dependent mechanism. Blocking glucose utilization antagonizes recruiting and polarizing M2-like macrophages synergistically with PD-1 antibody to improve anticancer immunity.},
}
@article {pmid39747869,
year = {2025},
author = {Wu, W and Zhao, Y and Cheng, X and Xie, X and Zeng, Y and Tao, Q and Yang, Y and Xiao, C and Zhang, Z and Pang, J and Jin, J and He, H and Lin, Y and Li, B and Ma, J and Ye, X and Lin, WJ},
title = {Modulation of glymphatic system by visual circuit activation alleviates memory impairment and apathy in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.},
journal = {Nature communications},
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {63},
pmid = {39747869},
issn = {2041-1723},
support = {81972967//National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)/ ; 82172526//National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)/ ; 82272586//National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)/ ; 32271068//National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)/ ; 202007030001//Guangzhou Science and Technology Program key projects/ ; 202007030001//Guangzhou Science and Technology Program key projects/ ; 202007030001//Guangzhou Science and Technology Program key projects/ ; },
mesh = {Animals ; *Alzheimer Disease/therapy/metabolism ; *Disease Models, Animal ; Mice ; *Mice, Transgenic ; *Aquaporin 4/metabolism/genetics ; *Memory Disorders/therapy/metabolism ; *Amyloid beta-Peptides/metabolism ; *Glymphatic System/metabolism ; Apathy ; Hippocampus/metabolism ; Male ; Light ; Humans ; },
abstract = {Alzheimer's disease is characterized by progressive amyloid deposition and cognitive decline, yet the pathological mechanisms and treatments remain elusive. Here we report the therapeutic potential of low-intensity 40 hertz blue light exposure in a 5xFAD mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Our findings reveal that light treatment prevents memory decline in 4-month-old 5xFAD mice and motivation loss in 14-month-old 5xFAD mice, accompanied by restoration of glial water channel aquaporin-4 polarity, improved brain drainage efficiency, and a reduction in hippocampal lipid accumulation. We further demonstrate the beneficial effects of 40 hertz blue light are mediated through the activation of the vLGN/IGL-Re visual circuit. Notably, concomitant use of anti-Aβ antibody with 40 hertz blue light demonstrates improved soluble Aβ clearance and cognitive performance in 5xFAD mice. These findings offer functional evidence on the therapeutic effects of 40 hertz blue light in Aβ-related pathologies and suggest its potential as a supplementary strategy to augment the efficacy of antibody-based therapy.},
}
@article {pmid39747694,
year = {2025},
author = {Hsu, TY and Nzabarushimana, E and Wong, D and Luo, C and Beiko, RG and Langille, M and Huttenhower, C and Nguyen, LH and Franzosa, EA},
title = {Profiling lateral gene transfer events in the human microbiome using WAAFLE.},
journal = {Nature microbiology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39747694},
issn = {2058-5276},
support = {K23DK125838//U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases)/ ; R24DK110499//U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases)/ ; Research Scholars Award//American Gastroenterological Association (AGA)/ ; Career Development Award//Crohn's and Colitis Foundation (Crohn's & Colitis Foundation)/ ; T32CA009001//U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Cancer Institute (NCI)/ ; U54DE023798//U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)/ ; },
abstract = {Lateral gene transfer (LGT), also known as horizontal gene transfer, facilitates genomic diversification in microbial populations. While previous work has surveyed LGT in human-associated microbial isolate genomes, the landscape of LGT arising in personal microbiomes is not well understood, as there are no widely adopted methods to characterize LGT from complex communities. Here we developed, benchmarked and validated a computational algorithm (WAAFLE or Workflow to Annotate Assemblies and Find LGT Events) to profile LGT from assembled metagenomes. WAAFLE prioritizes specificity while maintaining high sensitivity for intergenus LGT. Applying WAAFLE to >2,000 human metagenomes from diverse body sites, we identified >100,000 high-confidence previously uncharacterized LGT (~2 per microbial genome-equivalent). These were enriched for mobile elements, as well as restriction-modification functions associated with the destruction of foreign DNA. LGT frequency was influenced by biogeography, phylogenetic similarity of involved pairs (for example, Fusobacterium periodonticum and F. nucleatum) and donor abundance. These forces manifest as networks in which hub taxa donate unequally with phylogenetic neighbours. Our findings suggest that human microbiome LGT may be more ubiquitous than previously described.},
}
@article {pmid39747692,
year = {2025},
author = {Olm, MR and Spencer, SP and Takeuchi, T and Silva, EL and Sonnenburg, JL},
title = {Metagenomic immunoglobulin sequencing reveals IgA coating of microbial strains in the healthy human gut.},
journal = {Nature microbiology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39747692},
issn = {2058-5276},
support = {DP1AT009892//U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (NIH)/ ; T32DK007056//U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (NIH)/ ; F32DK128865//U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (NIH)/ ; K08DK134856//U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (NIH)/ ; },
abstract = {IgA, the primary human antibody secreted from the gut mucosa, shapes the intestinal microbiota. Methodological limitations have hindered defining which microbial strains are targeted by IgA and the implications of binding. Here we develop a technique, metagenomic immunoglobulin sequencing (MIg-seq), that provides strain-level resolution of microbes coated by IgA and use it to determine IgA coating levels for 3,520 gut microbiome strains in healthy human faeces. We find that both health and disease-associated bacteria are targeted by IgA. Microbial genes are highly predictive of IgA binding levels; in particular, mucus degradation genes are correlated with high binding, and replication rates are significantly reduced for microbes bound by IgA. We demonstrate that IgA binding is more correlated with host immune status than traditional relative abundance measures of microbial community composition. This study introduces a powerful technique for assessing strain-level IgA binding in human stool, paving the way for deeper understanding of IgA-based host-microbe interactions.},
}
@article {pmid39746827,
year = {2025},
author = {Goldhawk, DE and Al, KF and Donnelly, SC and Varela-Mattatall, GE and Dassanayake, P and Gelman, N and Prato, FS and Burton, JP},
title = {Assessing microbiota in vivo: debugging with medical imaging.},
journal = {Trends in microbiology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.tim.2024.12.001},
pmid = {39746827},
issn = {1878-4380},
abstract = {The microbiota is integral to human health and has been mostly characterized through various ex vivo 'omic'-based approaches. To better understand the real-time function and impact of the microbiota, in vivo molecular imaging is required. With technologies such as positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computed tomography (CT), insight into microbiological processes may be coupled to in vivo information. Noninvasive imaging enables longitudinal tracking of microbes and their components in real time; mapping of microbiota biodistribution, persistence and migration; and simultaneous monitoring of host physiological responses. The development of molecular imaging for clinical translation is an interdisciplinary science, with broad implications for deeper understanding of host-microbe interactions and the role(s) of the microbiome in health and disease.},
}
@article {pmid39740900,
year = {2025},
author = {Palkovsky, M and Modrackova, N and Neuzil-Bunesova, V and Liberko, M and Soumarova, R},
title = {The Bidirectional Impact of Cancer Radiotherapy and Human Microbiome: Microbiome as Potential Anti-tumor Treatment Efficacy and Toxicity Modulator.},
journal = {In vivo (Athens, Greece)},
volume = {39},
number = {1},
pages = {37-54},
doi = {10.21873/invivo.13803},
pmid = {39740900},
issn = {1791-7549},
mesh = {Humans ; *Neoplasms/radiotherapy/microbiology ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/radiation effects/drug effects ; *Microbiota/radiation effects ; Radiotherapy/adverse effects/methods ; Treatment Outcome ; },
abstract = {Microbiome and radiotherapy represent bidirectionally interacting entities. The human microbiome has emerged as a pivotal modulator of the efficacy and toxicity of radiotherapy; however, a reciprocal effect of radiotherapy on microbiome composition alterations has also been observed. This review explores the relationship between the microbiome and extracranial solid tumors, particularly focusing on the bidirectional impact of radiotherapy on organ-specific microbiome. This article aims to provide a systematic review on the radiotherapy-induced microbial alteration in-field as well as in distant microbiomes. In this review, particular focus is directed to the oral and gut microbiome, its role in the development and progression of cancer, and how it is altered throughout radiotherapy. This review concludes with recommendations for future research, such as exploring microbiome modification to optimize radiotherapy-induced toxicities or enhance its anti-cancer effects.},
}
@article {pmid39738315,
year = {2024},
author = {Ecklu-Mensah, G and Miller, R and Maseng, MG and Hawes, V and Hinz, D and Kim, C and Gilbert, JA},
title = {Modulating the human gut microbiome and health markers through kombucha consumption: a controlled clinical study.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {14},
number = {1},
pages = {31647},
pmid = {39738315},
issn = {2045-2322},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; *Biomarkers ; Middle Aged ; Probiotics/administration & dosage ; Feces/microbiology ; Diet, Western/adverse effects ; },
abstract = {Fermented foods are becoming more popular due to their purported links to metabolic health and the gut microbiome. However, direct clinical evidence for the health claims is lacking. Here, we describe an eight-week clinical trial that explored the effects of a four-week kombucha supplement in healthy individuals consuming a Western diet, randomized into the kombucha (n = 16) or control (n = 8) group. We collected longitudinal stool and blood samples to profile the human microbiome and inflammation markers. We did not observe significant changes in either biochemical parameters or levels of circulating markers of inflammation across the entire cohort. However, paired analysis between baseline and end of intervention time points within kombucha or control groups revealed increases in fasting insulin and in HOMA-IR in the kombucha group whereas reductions in HDL cholesterol were associated with the control group. Shotgun metagenomic analysis revealed the relative abundance of Weizmannia, a kombucha-enriched probiotic and several SCFA producing taxa to be overrepresented in consumers at the end of the intervention. Collectively, in our healthy cohort consuming a Western diet, a short-term kombucha intervention induced modest impacts on human gut microbiome composition and biochemical parameters, which may be attributed to relatively small number of participants and the extensive inter-participant variability.},
}
@article {pmid39737808,
year = {2024},
author = {Fagnano, A and Capocasa, G and Frateloreto, F and Latini, L and Mortera, SL and Lanzalunga, O and Di Stefano, S and Olivo, G},
title = {Deciphering the Role of Crown-ether Receptor Orientation in C-H Oxidation Catalyzed by Supramolecular Nonheme FeIV(O) Complexes.},
journal = {Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany)},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e202404041},
doi = {10.1002/chem.202404041},
pmid = {39737808},
issn = {1521-3765},
abstract = {The outstanding efficiency and selectivity of enzymatic reactions, such as C-H oxidation by nonheme iron oxygenases, stems from a precise control of substrate positioning inside the active site. The resulting proximity between a specific moiety (a certain C-H bond) to the reactant (a FeIV(O) active species) translates into higher rates and selectivity, that can be in part replicated also with artificial supramolecular catalysts. However, structural modification of the position and orientation of the binding site both in enzymes and in artificial catalysts often leads to significant variations in reactivity that can be difficult to rationalize due to the system's complexity. Herein, we quantitatively analyzed the impact of such a structural modification (namely receptor orientation) on the C-H oxidation reactivity (kinetics, Effective Molarity) and selectivity by comparing simple supramolecular FeIV(O) models. Overall, we did not observe significant differences in reaction rates, but we noticed slight changes in the selectivity profile. These results indicate that, when a crown-ether is employed as a recognition site, the key ingredient for enhanced reactivity is the presence of the supramolecular receptor itself rather than its exact orientation, providing a guide for the rational design of supramolecular catalysts.},
}
@article {pmid39735577,
year = {2025},
author = {Monshizadeh, M and Hong, Y and Ye, Y},
title = {Multitask knowledge-primed neural network for predicting missing metadata and host phenotype based on human microbiome.},
journal = {Bioinformatics advances},
volume = {5},
number = {1},
pages = {vbae203},
pmid = {39735577},
issn = {2635-0041},
abstract = {MOTIVATION: Microbial signatures in the human microbiome are closely associated with various human diseases, driving the development of machine learning models for microbiome-based disease prediction. Despite progress, challenges remain in enhancing prediction accuracy, generalizability, and interpretability. Confounding factors, such as host's gender, age, and body mass index, significantly influence the human microbiome, complicating microbiome-based predictions.
RESULTS: To address these challenges, we developed MicroKPNN-MT, a unified model for predicting human phenotype based on microbiome data, as well as additional metadata like age and gender. This model builds on our earlier MicroKPNN framework, which incorporates prior knowledge of microbial species into neural networks to enhance prediction accuracy and interpretability. In MicroKPNN-MT, metadata, when available, serves as additional input features for prediction. Otherwise, the model predicts metadata from microbiome data using additional decoders. We applied MicroKPNN-MT to microbiome data collected in mBodyMap, covering healthy individuals and 25 different diseases, and demonstrated its potential as a predictive tool for multiple diseases, which at the same time provided predictions for the missing metadata. Our results showed that incorporating real or predicted metadata helped improve the accuracy of disease predictions, and more importantly, helped improve the generalizability of the predictive models.
https://github.com/mgtools/MicroKPNN-MT.},
}
@article {pmid39732609,
year = {2024},
author = {Tegegne, HA and Savidge, TC},
title = {Leveraging human microbiomes for disease prediction and treatment.},
journal = {Trends in pharmacological sciences},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.tips.2024.11.007},
pmid = {39732609},
issn = {1873-3735},
abstract = {The human microbiome consists of diverse microorganisms that inhabit various body sites. As these microbes are increasingly recognized as key determinants of health, there is significant interest in leveraging individual microbiome profiles for early disease detection, prevention, and drug efficacy prediction. However, the complexity of microbiome data, coupled with conflicting study outcomes, has hindered its integration into clinical practice. This challenge is partially due to demographic and technological biases that impede the development of reliable disease classifiers. Here, we examine recent advances in 16S rRNA and shotgun-metagenomics sequencing, along with bioinformatics tools designed to enhance microbiome data integration for precision diagnostics and personalized treatments. We also highlight progress in microbiome-based therapies and address the challenges of establishing causality to ensure robust diagnostics and effective treatments for complex diseases.},
}
@article {pmid39731160,
year = {2024},
author = {Virtanen, S and Saqib, S and Kanerva, T and Ventin-Holmberg, R and Nieminen, P and Holster, T and Kalliala, I and Salonen, A},
title = {Metagenome-validated combined amplicon sequencing and text mining-based annotations for simultaneous profiling of bacteria and fungi: vaginal microbiota and mycobiota in healthy women.},
journal = {Microbiome},
volume = {12},
number = {1},
pages = {273},
pmid = {39731160},
issn = {2049-2618},
mesh = {Humans ; *Vagina/microbiology ; Female ; *RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; *Fungi/genetics/classification/isolation & purification ; *Bacteria/genetics/classification/isolation & purification ; *Microbiota/genetics ; *Metagenome ; *Data Mining ; Metagenomics/methods ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing/methods ; Sequence Analysis, DNA/methods ; Mycobiome ; Healthy Volunteers ; DNA, Bacterial/genetics ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Amplicon sequencing of kingdom-specific tags such as 16S rRNA gene for bacteria and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region for fungi are widely used for investigating microbial communities. So far most human studies have focused on bacteria while studies on host-associated fungi in health and disease have only recently started to accumulate. To enable cost-effective parallel analysis of bacterial and fungal communities in human and environmental samples, we developed a method where 16S rRNA gene and ITS1 amplicons were pooled together for a single Illumina MiSeq or HiSeq run and analysed after primer-based segregation. Taxonomic assignments were performed with Blast in combination with an iterative text-extraction-based filtration approach, which uses extensive literature records from public databases to select the most probable hits that were further validated by shotgun metagenomic sequencing.
RESULTS: Using 50 vaginal samples, we show that the combined run provides comparable results on bacterial composition and diversity to conventional 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The text-extraction-based taxonomic assignment-guided tool provided ecosystem-specific bacterial annotations that were confirmed by shotgun metagenomic sequencing (VIRGO, MetaPhlAn, Kraken2). Fungi were identified in 39/50 samples with ITS sequencing while in the metagenome data fungi largely remained undetected due to their low abundance and database issues. Co-abundance analysis of bacteria and fungi did not show strong between-kingdom correlations within the vaginal ecosystem of healthy women.
CONCLUSION: Combined amplicon sequencing for bacteria and fungi provides a simple and cost-effective method for simultaneous analysis of microbiota and mycobiota within the same samples. Conventional metagenomic sequencing does not provide sufficient fungal genome coverage for their reliable detection in vaginal samples. Text extraction-based annotation tool facilitates ecosystem-specific characterization and interpretation of microbial communities by coupling sequence homology to microbe metadata readily available through public databases. Video Abstract.},
}
@article {pmid39724786,
year = {2024},
author = {Ma, X and Zhang, J and Jiang, Q and Li, YX and Yang, G},
title = {Human microbiome-derived peptide affects the development of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis via molecular mimicry.},
journal = {EBioMedicine},
volume = {111},
number = {},
pages = {105516},
doi = {10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105516},
pmid = {39724786},
issn = {2352-3964},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Gut commensal microbiota has been identified as a potential environmental risk factor for multiple sclerosis (MS), and numerous studies have linked the commensal microorganism with the onset of MS. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the gut microbiome and host-immune system interaction.
METHODS: We employed bioinformatics methodologies to identify human microbial-derived peptides by analyzing their similarity to the MHC II-TCR binding patterns of self-antigens. Subsequently, we conducted a range of in vitro and in vivo assays to assess the encephalitogenic potential of these microbial-derived peptides.
FINDINGS: We analyzed 304,246 human microbiome genomes and 103 metagenomes collected from the MS cohort and identified 731 nonredundant analogs of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein peptide 35-55 (MOG35-55). Of note, half of these analogs could bind to MHC II and interact with TCR through structural modeling of the interaction using fine-tuned AlphaFold. Among the 8 selected peptides, the peptide (P3) shows the ability to activate MOG35-55-specific CD4[+] T cells in vitro. Furthermore, P3 shows encephalitogenic capacity and has the potential to induce EAE in some animals. Notably, mice immunized with a combination of P3 and MOG35-55 develop severe EAE. Additionally, dendritic cells could process and present P3 to MOG35-55-specific CD4[+] T cells and activate these cells.
INTERPRETATION: Our data suggests the potential involvement of a MOG35-55-mimic peptide derived from the gut microbiota as a molecular trigger of EAE pathogenesis. Our findings offer direct evidence of how microbes can initiate the development of EAE, suggesting a potential explanation for the correlation between certain gut microorganisms and MS prevalence.
FUNDING: National Natural Science Foundation of China (82371350 to GY).},
}
@article {pmid39723602,
year = {2024},
author = {Ma, J and Palmer, DJ and Geddes, D and Lai, CT and Rea, A and Prescott, SL and D'Vaz, N and Stinson, LF},
title = {Maternal Allergic Disease Phenotype and Infant Birth Season Influence the Human Milk Microbiome.},
journal = {Allergy},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1111/all.16442},
pmid = {39723602},
issn = {1398-9995},
support = {//Medela/ ; //National Health and Medical Research Council/ ; //University of Western Australia/ ; //Telethon Kids Institute Ascend Fellowship/ ; },
abstract = {Early infancy is a critical period for immune development. In addition to being the primary food source during early infancy, human milk also provides multiple bioactive components that shape the infant gut microbiome and immune system and provides a constant source of exposure to maternal microbiota. Given the potential interplay between allergic diseases and the human microbiome, this study aimed to characterise the milk microbiome of allergic mothers. Full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed on milk samples collected at 3 and 6 months postpartum from 196 women with allergic disease. Multivariate linear mixed models were constructed to identify the maternal, infant, and environmental determinants of the milk microbiome. Human milk microbiome composition and beta diversity varied over time (PERMANOVA R[2] = 0.011, p = 0.011). The season of infant birth emerged as the strongest determinant of the microbiome community structure (PERMANOVA R[2] = 0.014, p = 0.011) with impacts on five of the most abundant taxa. The milk microbiome also varied according to the type of maternal allergic disease (allergic rhinitis, asthma, atopic dermatitis, and food allergy). Additionally, infant formula exposure reduced the relative abundance of several typical oral taxa in milk. In conclusion, the milk microbiome of allergic mothers was strongly shaped by the season of infant birth, maternal allergic disease phenotype, and infant feeding mode. Maternal allergic disease history and infant season of birth should therefore be considered in future studies of infant and maternal microbiota. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: ACTRN12606000281594.},
}
@article {pmid39720963,
year = {2024},
author = {Guha, SK and Niyogi, S},
title = {Microbial Dynamics in COVID-19: Unraveling the Impact of Human Microbiome on Disease Susceptibility and Therapeutic Strategies.},
journal = {Current microbiology},
volume = {82},
number = {1},
pages = {59},
pmid = {39720963},
issn = {1432-0991},
mesh = {Humans ; *COVID-19/microbiology/virology ; *SARS-CoV-2 ; *Microbiota ; *Dysbiosis/microbiology ; Disease Susceptibility ; Probiotics/therapeutic use ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; },
abstract = {This review explores the bidirectional relationship between the human microbiome and SARS-CoV-2 infection, elucidating its implications for COVID-19 susceptibility, severity, and therapeutic strategies. Metagenomic analyses reveal notable alterations in microbiome composition associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, impacting disease severity and clinical outcomes. Dysbiosis within the respiratory, gastrointestinal, oral, and skin microbiomes exacerbates COVID-19 pathology through immune dysregulation and inflammatory pathways. Understanding these microbial shifts is pivotal for devising targeted therapeutic interventions. Notably, co-infection of oral pathogens with SARS-CoV-2 worsens lung pathology, while gut microbiome dysbiosis influences viral susceptibility and severity. Potential therapeutic approaches targeting the microbiome include probiotics, antimicrobial agents, and immunomodulatory strategies. This review underscores the importance of elucidating host-microbiota interactions to advance precision medicine and public health initiatives in combating COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.},
}
@article {pmid39717276,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhou, Y and Jiang, M and Li, X and Shen, K and Zong, H and Lv, Q and Shen, B},
title = {Bibliometric and visual analysis of human microbiome-breast cancer interactions: current insights and future directions.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1490007},
pmid = {39717276},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {The composition of the gut microbiome differs from that of healthy individuals and is closely linked to the progression and development of breast cancer. Recent studies have increasingly examined the relationship between microbial communities and breast cancer. This study analyzed the research landscape of microbiome and breast cancer, focusing on 736 qualified publications from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). Publications in this field are on the rise, with the United States leading in contributions, followed by China and Italy. Despite this strong output, the centrality value of China in this field is comparatively low at ninth, highlighting a gap between the quantity of research and its global impact. This pattern is repetitively observed in institutional contributions, with a predominance of Western institutes among the top contributors, underscoring a potential research quality gap in China. Keyword analysis reveals that research hotspots are focused on the effect of microbiome on breast cancer pathogenesis and tumor metabolism, with risk factors and metabolic pathways being the most interesting areas. Publications point to a shift toward anti-tumor therapies and personalized medicine, with clusters such as "anti-tumor" and "potential regulatory agent" gaining prominence. Additionally, intratumor bacteria studies have emerged as a new area of significant interest, reflecting a new direction in research. The University of Helsinki and Adlercreutz H are influential institutions and researchers in this field. Current trends in microbiome and breast cancer research indicate a significant shift toward therapeutic applications and personalized medicine. Strengthening international collaborations and focusing on research quality is crucial for advancing microbiome and breast cancer research.},
}
@article {pmid39717208,
year = {2025},
author = {Fallah, A and Sedighian, H and Kachuei, R and Fooladi, AAI},
title = {Human microbiome in post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS).},
journal = {Current research in microbial sciences},
volume = {8},
number = {},
pages = {100324},
pmid = {39717208},
issn = {2666-5174},
abstract = {The global COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2019, is still ongoing. SARS-CoV-2, also known as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, is the causative agent. Diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting are common GI symptoms observed in a significant number of COVID-19 patients. Additionally, the respiratory and GI tracts express high level of transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) and angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2), making them primary sites for human microbiota and targets for SARS-CoV-2 infection. A growing body of research indicates that individuals with COVID-19 and post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS) exhibit considerable alterations in their microbiome. In various human disorders, including diabetes, obesity, cancer, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, and several viral infections, the microbiota play a significant immunomodulatory role. In this review, we investigate the potential therapeutic implications of the interactions between host microbiota and COVID-19. Microbiota-derived metabolites and components serve as primary mediators of microbiota-host interactions, influencing host immunity. We discuss the various mechanisms through which these metabolites or components produced by the microbiota impact the host's immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Additionally, we address confounding factors in microbiome studies. Finally, we examine and discuss about a range of potential microbiota-based prophylactic measures and treatments for COVID-19 and PACS, as well as their effects on clinical outcomes and disease severity.},
}
@article {pmid39714161,
year = {2024},
author = {Neumann, CJ and Mohammadzadeh, R and Woh, PY and Kobal, T and Pausan, M-R and Shinde, T and Haid, V and Mertelj, P and Weiss, E-C and Kolovetsiou-Kreiner, V and Mahnert, A and Kumpitsch, C and Jantscher-Krenn, E and Moissl-Eichinger, C},
title = {First-year dynamics of the anaerobic microbiome and archaeome in infants' oral and gastrointestinal systems.},
journal = {mSystems},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0107124},
doi = {10.1128/msystems.01071-24},
pmid = {39714161},
issn = {2379-5077},
abstract = {UNLABELLED: Recent research provides new insights into the early establishment of the infant gut microbiome, emphasizing the influence of breastfeeding on the development of gastrointestinal microbiomes. In our study, we longitudinally examined the taxonomic and functional dynamics of the oral and gastrointestinal tract (GIT) microbiomes of healthy infants (n = 30) in their first year, focusing on the often-over-looked aspects, the development of archaeal and anaerobic microbiomes. Breastfed (BF) infants exhibit a more defined transitional phase in their oral microbiome compared to non-breastfed (NBF) infants, marked by a decrease in Streptococcus and the emergence of anaerobic genera such as Granulicatella. This phase, characterized by increased alpha-diversity and significant changes in beta-diversity, occurs earlier in NBF infants (months 1-3) than in BF infants (months 4-6), suggesting that breastfeeding supports later, more defined microbiome maturation. We demonstrated the presence of archaea in the infant oral cavity and GIT microbiome from early infancy, with Methanobrevibacter being the predominant genus. Still, transient patterns show that no stable archaeome is formed. The GIT microbiome exhibited gradual development, with BF infants showing increased diversity and complexity between the third and eighth months, marked by anaerobic microbial networks. NBF infants showed complex microbial co-occurrence patterns from the start. These strong differences between BF and NBF infants' GIT microbiomes are less pronounced on functional levels than on taxonomic levels. Overall, the infant microbiome differentiates and stabilizes over the first year, with breastfeeding playing a crucial role in shaping anaerobic microbial networks and overall microbiome maturation.
IMPORTANCE: The first year of life is a crucial period for establishing a healthy human microbiome. Our study analyses the role of archaea and obligate anaerobes in the development of the human oral and gut microbiome, with a specific focus on the impact of breastfeeding in this process. Our findings demonstrated that the oral and gut microbiomes of breastfed infants undergo distinct phases of increased dynamics within the first year of life. In contrast, the microbiomes of non-breastfed infants are more mature from the first month, leading to a steadier development without distinct transitional phases in the first year. Additionally, we found that archaeal signatures are present in infants under 1 year of age, but they do not form a stable archaeome. In contrast to this, we could track specific bacterial strains transitioning from oral to gut or persisting in the gut over time.},
}
@article {pmid39702789,
year = {2024},
author = {Kaur, S and Patel, BCK and Collen, A and Malhotra, R},
title = {The microbiome and the eye: a new era in ophthalmology.},
journal = {Eye (London, England)},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39702789},
issn = {1476-5454},
abstract = {The human microbiome has progressively been recognised for its role in various disease processes. In ophthalmology, complex interactions between the gut and distinct ocular microbiota within each structure and microenvironment of the eye has advanced our knowledge on the multi-directional relationships of these ecosystems. Increasingly, studies have shown that modulation of the microbiome can be achieved through faecal microbiota transplantation and synbiotics producing favourable outcomes for ophthalmic diseases. As ophthalmologists, we are obliged to educate our patients on measures to cultivate a healthy gut microbiome through a range of holistic measures. Further integrative studies combining microbial metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and metabolomics are necessary to fully characterise the human microbiome and enable targeted therapeutic interventions.},
}
@article {pmid39701818,
year = {2024},
author = {Evans, SE and Valentine, ME and Gallimore, F and Meka, Y and Koehler, SI and Yu, HD and Valentovic, MA and Long, TE},
title = {Perturbations in the Gut Microbiome of C57BL/6J Mice by the Sobriety Aid Antabuse® (Disulfiram).},
journal = {Journal of applied microbiology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/jambio/lxae305},
pmid = {39701818},
issn = {1365-2672},
abstract = {AIMS: Disulfiram (Antabuse®) is an oral alcohol sobriety medication that exhibits antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive facultative anaerobes. The aims of this study were to measure the antimicrobial activity against anaerobic bacteria of the gut human microbiome and establish the extent that disulfiram alters the microbial composition of the ileum, cecum, and feces using C57BL/6 mice.
METHODS AND RESULTS: Antimicrobial susceptibility testing by the microdilution method revealed that disulfiram inhibits the in vitro growth of gut anaerobic species of Bacteroides, Clostridium, Peptostreptococcus, and Porphyromonas. Differential sequencing of 16S rRNA isolated from the ileum, cecum, and feces contents of treated vs. untreated mice showed disulfiram enriches the Gram-negative enteric population. In female mice, the enrichment was greatest in the ileum whereas the feces composition in male mice was the most heavily altered.
CONCLUSIONS: Daily administration of oral disulfiram depletes the enteric Gram-positive anaerobe population as predicted by the MIC data for isolates from the human gut microbiota.},
}
@article {pmid39699186,
year = {2024},
author = {Lei, Y and Li, M and Zhang, H and Deng, Y and Dong, X and Chen, P and Li, Y and Zhang, S and Li, C and Wang, S and Tao, R},
title = {Comparative analysis of the human microbiome from four different regions of China and machine learning-based geographical inference.},
journal = {mSphere},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0067224},
doi = {10.1128/msphere.00672-24},
pmid = {39699186},
issn = {2379-5042},
abstract = {The human microbiome, the community of microorganisms that reside on and inside the human body, is critically important for health and disease. However, it is influenced by various factors and may vary among individuals residing in distinct geographic regions. In this study, 220 samples, consisting of sterile swabs from palmar skin and oral and nasal cavities were collected from Chinese Han individuals living in Shanghai, Chifeng, Kunming, and Urumqi, representing the geographic regions of east, northeast, southwest, and northwest China. The full-length 16S rRNA gene of the microbiota in each sample was sequenced using the PacBio single-molecule real-time sequencing platform, followed by clustering the sequences into operational taxonomic units (OTUs). The analysis revealed significant differences in microbial communities among the four regions. Cutibacterium was the most abundant bacterium in palmar samples from Shanghai and Kunming, Psychrobacter in Chifeng samples, and Psychrobacillus in Urumqi samples. Additionally, Streptococcus and Staphylococcus were the dominant bacteria in the oral and nasal cavities. Individuals from the four regions could be distinguished and predicted based on a model constructed using the random forest algorithm, with the predictive effect of palmar microbiota being better than that of oral and nasal cavities. The prediction accuracy using hypervariable regions (V3-V4 and V4-V5) was comparable with that of using the entire 16S rRNA. Overall, our study highlights the distinctiveness of the human microbiome in individuals living in these four regions. Furthermore, the microbiome can serve as a biomarker for geographic origin inference, which has immense application value in forensic science.IMPORTANCEMicrobial communities in human hosts play a significant role in health and disease, varying in species, quantity, and composition due to factors such as gender, ethnicity, health status, lifestyle, and living environment. The characteristics of microbial composition at various body sites of individuals from different regions remain largely unexplored. This study utilized single-molecule real-time sequencing technology to detect the entire 16S rRNA gene of bacteria residing in the palmar skin, oral, and nasal cavities of Han individuals from four regions in China. The composition and structure of the bacteria at these three body sites were well characterized and found to differ regionally. The results elucidate the differences in bacterial communities colonizing these body sites across different regions and reveal the influence of geographical factors on human bacteria. These findings not only contribute to a deeper understanding of the diversity and geographical distribution of human bacteria but also enrich the microbiome data of the Asian population for further studies.},
}
@article {pmid39697649,
year = {2024},
author = {Aluthge, N and Adams, S and Davila, CA and Gocchi Carrasco, NR and Chiou, KS and Abadie, R and Bennett, SJ and Dombrowski, K and Major, AM and Valentín-Acevedo, A and West, JT and Wood, C and Fernando, SC},
title = {Gut microbiota profiling in injection drug users with and without HIV-1 infection in Puerto Rico.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1470037},
pmid = {39697649},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: The full extent of interactions between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, injection drug use, and the human microbiome is unclear. In this study, we examined the microbiomes of HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals, both drug-injecting and non-injecting, to identify bacterial community changes in response to HIV and drug use. We utilized a well-established cohort of people who inject drugs in Puerto Rico, a region with historically high levels of injection drug use and an HIV incidence rate disproportionately associated with drug use.
METHODS: Using amplicon-based 16S rDNA sequencing, we identified amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) that demonstrated significant variations in the composition of microbial communities based on HIV status and drug use.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Our findings indicate that the HIV-positive group exhibited a higher abundance of ASVs belonging to the genera Prevotella, Alloprevotella, Sutterella, Megasphaera, Fusobacterium, and Mitsuokella. However, Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus ASVs were more abundant in injectors than in non-injectors. We examined the effect of drug use on the gut microbiome in both HIV-infected and non-infected patients, and found that multiple drug use significantly affected the microbial community composition. Analysis of differential of bacterial taxa revealed an enrichment of Bifidobacterium spp., Faecalibacterium spp., and Lactobacillus spp. in the multiple drug-injecting group. However, in the non-injecting group, Parabacteroides spp., Prevotella spp., Paraprevotella spp., Sutterella spp., and Lachnoclostridium spp. The presence of multiple drug-injecting groups was observed to be more prevalent. Our findings provide detailed insight into ASV-level changes in the microbiome in response to HIV and drug use, suggesting that the effect of HIV status and drug injection may have different effects on microbiome composition and in modulating gut bacterial populations.},
}
@article {pmid39695869,
year = {2024},
author = {Rodriguez, J and Cordaillat-Simmons, M and Badalato, N and Berger, B and Breton, H and de Lahondès, R and Deschasaux-Tanguy, M and Desvignes, C and D'Humières, C and Kampshoff, S and Lavelle, A and Metwaly, A and Quijada, NM and Seegers, JFML and Udocor, A and Zwart, H and , and Maguin, E and Doré, J and Druart, C},
title = {Microbiome testing in Europe: navigating analytical, ethical and regulatory challenges.},
journal = {Microbiome},
volume = {12},
number = {1},
pages = {258},
pmid = {39695869},
issn = {2049-2618},
mesh = {Humans ; Europe ; *Feces/microbiology ; Microbiota ; Reproducibility of Results ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: In recent years, human microbiome research has flourished and has drawn attention from both healthcare professionals and general consumers as the human microbiome is now recognized as having a significant influence on human health. This has led to the emergence of companies offering microbiome testing services. Some of these services are sold directly to the consumer via companies' websites or via medical laboratory websites.
METHODOLOGY: In order to provide an overview of the consumer experience proposed by these microbiome testing services, one single faecal sample was sent to six different companies (five based in Europe and one based in the USA). Two out of the six testing kits were commercialized by medical laboratories, but without any requirement for a medical prescription. The analyses and reports received were discussed with a panel of experts (21 experts from 8 countries) during an online workshop.
RESULTS: This workshop led to the identification of several limitations and challenges related to these kits, including over-promising messages from the companies, a lack of transparency in the methodology used for the analysis and a lack of reliability of the results. The experts considered the interpretations and recommendations provided in the different reports to be premature due to the lack of robust scientific evidence and the analyses associated with the reports to be of limited clinical utility. The experts also discussed the grey areas surrounding the regulatory status of these test kits, including their positioning in the European market. The experts recommended a distinction between regulatory requirements based on the intended use or purpose of the kit: on the one hand, test kits developed to satisfy consumer curiosity, with a clear mention of this objective, and no mention of any disease or risk of disease, and on the other hand, in vitro diagnostic (IVD) CE-marked test kits, which could go deeper into the analysis and interpretation of samples, as such a report would be intended for trained healthcare professionals.
CONCLUSIONS: Recommendations or actions, specific to the context of use of microbiome testing kits, are listed to improve the quality and the robustness of these test kits to meet expectations of end users (consumers, patients and healthcare professionals). The need for standardization, robust scientific evidence, qualification of microbiome-based biomarkers and a clear regulatory status in Europe are the main issues that will require attention in the near future to align laboratory development with societal needs and thus foster translation into daily health practice.},
}
@article {pmid39695352,
year = {2025},
author = {Moore, M and Whittington, HD and Knickmeyer, R and Azcarate-Peril, MA and Bruno-Bárcena, JM},
title = {Non-stochastic reassembly of a metabolically cohesive gut consortium shaped by N-acetyl-lactosamine-enriched fibers.},
journal = {Gut microbes},
volume = {17},
number = {1},
pages = {2440120},
doi = {10.1080/19490976.2024.2440120},
pmid = {39695352},
issn = {1949-0984},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Infant ; *Bacteria/metabolism/classification/isolation & purification/genetics ; Feces/microbiology ; Lactose/metabolism ; Dietary Fiber/metabolism ; Oligosaccharides/metabolism ; Amino Sugars ; },
abstract = {Diet is one of the main factors shaping the human microbiome, yet our understanding of how specific dietary components influence microbial consortia assembly and subsequent stability in response to press disturbances - such as increasing resource availability (feeding rate) - is still incomplete. This study explores the reproducible re-assembly, metabolic interplay, and compositional stability within microbial consortia derived from pooled stool samples of three healthy infants. Using a single-step packed-bed reactor (PBR) system, we assessed the reassembly and metabolic output of consortia exposed to lactose, glucose, galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), and humanized GOS (hGOS). Our findings reveal that complex carbohydrates, especially those containing low inclusion (~1.25 gL[-1]) components present in human milk, such as N-acetyl-lactosamine (LacNAc), promote taxonomic, and metabolic stability under varying feeding rates, as shown by diversity metrics and network analysis. Targeted metabolomics highlighted distinct metabolic responses to different carbohydrates: GOS was linked to increased lactate, lactose to propionate, sucrose to butyrate, and CO2, and the introduction of bile salts with GOS or hGOS resulted in butyrate reduction and increased hydrogen production. This study validates the use of single-step PBRs for reliably studying microbial consortium stability and functionality in response to nutritional press disturbances, offering insights into the dietary modulation of microbial consortia and their ecological dynamics.},
}
@article {pmid39690351,
year = {2024},
author = {Ullah, H and Hassan, SHA and Yang, Q and Salama, ES and Liu, P and Li, X},
title = {Dynamic interaction of antibiotic resistance between plant microbiome and organic fertilizers: sources, dissemination, and health risks.},
journal = {World journal of microbiology & biotechnology},
volume = {41},
number = {1},
pages = {4},
pmid = {39690351},
issn = {1573-0972},
support = {lzujbky-2024-ey12//Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities/ ; },
mesh = {*Microbiota/drug effects ; *Fertilizers/analysis ; Humans ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; *Plants/microbiology ; *Soil Microbiology ; *Bacteria/drug effects/genetics/classification ; *Manure/microbiology ; Gene Transfer, Horizontal ; Agriculture/methods ; Drug Resistance, Bacterial ; Sewage/microbiology ; Drug Resistance, Microbial/genetics ; Wastewater/microbiology ; Animals ; Soil/chemistry ; },
abstract = {Antibiotic resistance is a global health problem driven by the irrational use of antibiotics in different areas (such as agriculture, animal farming, and human healthcare). Sub-lethal concentrations of antibiotic residues impose selective pressure on environmental, plant-associated, and human microbiome leading to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB). This review summarizes all sources of antibiotic resistance in agricultural soils (including manure, sewage sludge, wastewater, hospitals/pharmaceutical industry, and bioinoculants). The factors (such as the physicochemical properties of soil, root exudates, concentration of antibiotic exposure, and heavy metals) that facilitate the transmission of resistance in plant microbiomes are discussed. Potential solutions for effective measures and control of antibiotic resistance in the environment are also hypothesized. Manure exhibits the highest antibiotics load, followed by hospital and municipal WW. Chlortetracycline, tetracycline, and sulfadiazine have the highest concentrations in the manure. Antibiotic resistance from organic fertilizers is transmitted to the plant microbiome via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Plant microbiomes serve as transmission routes of ARB and ARGS to humans. The ingestion of ARB leads to human health risks (such as ineffectiveness of medication, increased morbidity, and mortality).},
}
@article {pmid39690257,
year = {2024},
author = {Tsuchida, S and Umemura, H and Iizuka, K and Yamamoto, H and Shimazaki, I and Shikata, E and Nakayama, T},
title = {Recent findings on metabolomics and the microbiome of oral bacteria involved in dental caries and periodontal disease.},
journal = {World journal of microbiology & biotechnology},
volume = {41},
number = {1},
pages = {11},
pmid = {39690257},
issn = {1573-0972},
mesh = {*Dental Caries/microbiology ; Humans ; *Microbiota ; *Mouth/microbiology ; *Metabolomics/methods ; *Periodontal Diseases/microbiology ; *Bacteria/classification/metabolism/genetics/isolation & purification ; Biofilms/growth & development ; Animals ; },
abstract = {Periodontal disease is characterized by bacterial toxins within the oral biofilm surrounding the teeth, leading to gingivitis and the gradual dissolution of the alveolar bone, which supports the teeth. Notably, symptoms in the early stages of the disease are often absent. Similarly, dental caries occurs when oral bacteria metabolize dietary sugars, producing acids that dissolve tooth enamel and dentin. These bacteria are commonly present in the oral cavity of most individuals. Metabolomics, a relatively recent addition to the "omics" research landscape, involves the comprehensive analysis of metabolites in vivo to elucidate pathological mechanisms and accelerate drug discovery. Meanwhile, the term "microbiome" refers to the collection of microorganisms within a specific environmental niche or their collective genomes. The human microbiome plays a critical role in health and disease, influencing a wide array of physiological and pathological processes. Recent advances in microbiome research have identified numerous bacteria implicated in dental caries and periodontal disease. Additionally, studies have uncovered various pathogenic factors associated with these microorganisms. This review focuses on recent findings in metabolomics and the microbiome, specifically targeting oral bacteria linked to dental caries and periodontal disease. We acknowledge the limitation of relying exclusively on the MEDLINE database via PubMed, while excluding other sources such as gray literature, conference proceedings, and clinical practice guidelines.},
}
@article {pmid39689342,
year = {2024},
author = {Chircop, O and Jaggers, C and Spiteri, M and Schembri, A and Padovese, V},
title = {DOXY do, or DOXY Don't? Syphilis and doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis: A case report.},
journal = {International journal of STD & AIDS},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {9564624241308026},
doi = {10.1177/09564624241308026},
pmid = {39689342},
issn = {1758-1052},
abstract = {The resurgence of syphilis across Europe has led to a growing number of atypical cases, often characterised by varied symptoms that can delay diagnosis. We report the case of a young man who has sex with men (MSM), presenting with persistent headaches and swelling of the forehead suggestive of giant cell arteritis (GCA). Despite a recent negative syphilis test, further investigations confirmed the diagnosis of neurosyphilis. The patient had been using doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (DoxyPEP), which is suspected to have delayed the diagnosis by masking the typical antibody response. This case highlights concerns about DoxyPEP's impact on syphilis detection and disease progression. Further research is warranted to explore its effects on antimicrobial resistance, the human microbiome, and clinical outcomes.},
}
@article {pmid39688588,
year = {2024},
author = {Jiang, H and Miao, X and Thairu, MW and Beebe, M and Grupe, DW and Davidson, RJ and Handelsman, J and Sankaran, K},
title = {Multimedia: multimodal mediation analysis of microbiome data.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0113124},
doi = {10.1128/spectrum.01131-24},
pmid = {39688588},
issn = {2165-0497},
abstract = {UNLABELLED: Mediation analysis has emerged as a versatile tool for answering mechanistic questions in microbiome research because it provides a statistical framework for attributing treatment effects to alternative causal pathways. Using a series of linked regressions, this analysis quantifies how complementary data relate to one another and respond to treatments. Despite these advances, existing software's rigid assumptions often result in users viewing mediation analysis as a black box. We designed the multimedia R package to make advanced mediation analysis techniques accessible, ensuring that statistical components are interpretable and adaptable. The package provides a uniform interface to direct and indirect effect estimation, synthetic null hypothesis testing, bootstrap confidence interval construction, and sensitivity analysis, enabling experimentation with various mediator and outcome models while maintaining a simple overall workflow. The software includes modules for regularized linear, compositional, random forest, hierarchical, and hurdle modeling, making it well-suited to microbiome data. We illustrate the package through two case studies. The first re-analyzes a study of the microbiome and metabolome of Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients, uncovering potential mechanistic interactions between the microbiome and disease-associated metabolites, not found in the original study. The second analyzes new data about the influence of mindfulness practice on the microbiome. The mediation analysis highlights shifts in taxa previously associated with depression that cannot be explained indirectly by diet or sleep behaviors alone. A gallery of examples and further documentation can be found at https://go.wisc.edu/830110.
IMPORTANCE: Microbiome studies routinely gather complementary data to capture different aspects of a microbiome's response to a change, such as the introduction of a therapeutic. Mediation analysis clarifies the extent to which responses occur sequentially via mediators, thereby supporting causal, rather than purely descriptive, interpretation. Multimedia is a modular R package with close ties to the wider microbiome software ecosystem that makes statistically rigorous, flexible mediation analysis easily accessible, setting the stage for precise and causally informed microbiome engineering.},
}
@article {pmid39684937,
year = {2024},
author = {Balla, B and Illés, A and Tobiás, B and Pikó, H and Beke, A and Sipos, M and Lakatos, P and Kósa, JP},
title = {The Role of the Vaginal and Endometrial Microbiomes in Infertility and Their Impact on Pregnancy Outcomes in Light of Recent Literature.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {25},
number = {23},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/ijms252313227},
pmid = {39684937},
issn = {1422-0067},
support = {2020-4.1.1.-TKP2020-MOLORKIV//Hungarian Ministry of Innovation and Technology/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; Female ; *Vagina/microbiology ; Pregnancy ; *Microbiota ; *Endometrium/microbiology/metabolism ; *Pregnancy Outcome ; Dysbiosis/microbiology ; Infertility, Female/microbiology ; Infertility/microbiology ; },
abstract = {The Human Microbiome Project (HMP), initiated in 2007, aimed to gather comprehensive knowledge to create a genetic and metabolic map of human-associated microorganisms and their contribution to physiological states and predisposition to certain diseases. Research has revealed that the human microbiome is highly diverse and exhibits significant interpersonal variability; consequently, its exact impact on health remains unclear. With the development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, the broad spectrum of microbial communities has been better characterized. The lower female genital tract, particularly the vagina, is colonized by various bacterial species, with Lactobacillus spp. predominating. The upper female genital tract, especially the uterus, was long considered sterile. However, recent studies have identified a distinct endometrial microbiome. A Lactobacillus-dominated microbiome of the female genital tract is associated with favorable reproductive outcomes, including higher success rates in natural conception and assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Conversely, microbial imbalances, or dysbiosis, marked by reduced Lactobacilli as well as an increased diversity and abundance of pathogenic species (e.g., Gardnerella vaginalis or Prevotella spp.), are linked to infertility, implantation failure, and pregnancy complications such as miscarriage and preterm birth. Dysbiosis can impair the vaginal or endometrial mucosal barrier and also trigger pro-inflammatory responses, disrupting essential reproductive processes like implantation. Despite growing evidence supporting the associations between the microbiome of the female genital tract and certain gynecological and obstetric conditions, clear microbial biomarkers have yet to be identified, and there is no consensus on the precise composition of a normal or healthy microbiome. The lack of standardized protocols and biomarkers limits the routine use of microbiome screening tests. Therefore, larger patient cohorts are needed to facilitate comparative studies and improve our understanding of the physiological microbiome profiles of the uterus and vagina, as well as how dysbiosis may influence clinical outcomes. Further research is required to refine diagnostic tools and develop personalized therapeutic strategies to improve fertility and pregnancy outcomes.},
}
@article {pmid39684310,
year = {2024},
author = {Cominelli, G and Lonati, C and Pinto, D and Rinaldi, F and Franco, C and Favero, G and Rezzani, R},
title = {Melatonin Attenuates Ferritinophagy/Ferroptosis by Acting on Autophagy in the Liver of an Autistic Mouse Model BTBR T[+]Itpr3[tf]/J.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {25},
number = {23},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/ijms252312598},
pmid = {39684310},
issn = {1422-0067},
support = {grants ex 60%//University of Brescia - Italy/ ; grant donation//FLAMMA S.p.A.- Italy/ ; },
mesh = {Animals ; *Melatonin/pharmacology ; Mice ; *Disease Models, Animal ; *Liver/metabolism/drug effects/pathology ; *Autophagy/drug effects ; *Ferroptosis/drug effects ; *Ferritins/metabolism ; Male ; Nuclear Receptor Coactivators/metabolism/genetics ; Microtubule-Associated Proteins/metabolism/genetics ; Autistic Disorder/metabolism/drug therapy/pathology ; Autism Spectrum Disorder/metabolism/drug therapy ; },
abstract = {Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a pool of neurodevelopment disorders in which social impairment is the main symptom. Presently, there are no definitive medications to cure the symptoms but the therapeutic strategies that are taken ameliorate them. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of melatonin (MLT) in treating ASDs using an autistic mouse model BTBR T[+]Itpr3[tf]/J (BTBR). We evaluated the hepatic cytoarchitecture and some markers of autophagy, ferritinophagy/ferroptosis, in BTBR mice treated and not-treated with MLT. The hepatic morphology and the autophagy and ferritinophagy/ferroptosis pathways were analyzed by histological, immunohistochemical, and Western blotting techniques. We studied p62 and microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 B (LC3B) for evaluating the autophagy; nuclear receptor co-activator 4 (NCOA4) and long-chain-coenzyme synthase (ACSL4) for monitoring ferritinophagy/ferroptosis. The liver of BTBR mice revealed that the hepatocytes showed many cytoplasmic inclusions recognized as Mallory-Denk bodies (MDBs); the expression and levels of p62 and LC3B were downregulated, whereas ACSL4 and NCOA4 were upregulated, as compared to control animals. MLT administration to BTBR mice ameliorated liver damage and reduced the impairment of autophagy and ferritinophagy/ferroptosis. In conclusion, we observed that MLT alleviates liver damage in BTBR mice by improving the degradation of intracellular MDBs, promoting autophagy, and suppressing ferritinophagy/ferroptosis.},
}
@article {pmid39683635,
year = {2024},
author = {Ouédraogo, LO and Deng, L and Ouattara, CA and Compaoré, A and Ouédraogo, M and Argaw, A and Lachat, C and Houpt, ER and Saidi, Q and Haerynck, F and Sonnenburg, J and Azad, MB and Tavernier, SJ and Bastos-Moreira, Y and Toe, LC and Dailey-Chwalibóg, T},
title = {Describing Biological Vulnerability in Small, Vulnerable Newborns in Urban Burkina Faso (DenBalo): Gut Microbiota, Immune System, and Breastmilk Assembly.},
journal = {Nutrients},
volume = {16},
number = {23},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/nu16234242},
pmid = {39683635},
issn = {2072-6643},
support = {INV-035474 & INV-036154/GATES/Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; Burkina Faso ; Female ; Infant, Newborn ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Milk, Human/immunology ; Prospective Studies ; *Vagina/microbiology/immunology ; *Immune System ; Pregnancy ; Breast Feeding ; Infant, Small for Gestational Age ; Adult ; },
abstract = {Background: Small vulnerable newborns (SVNs), including those born preterm, small for gestational age, or with low birth weight, are at higher risk of neonatal mortality and long-term health complications. Early exposure to maternal vaginal microbiota and breastfeeding plays a critical role in the development of the neonatal microbiota and immune system, especially in low-resource settings like Burkina Faso, where neonatal mortality rates remain high. Objectives: The DenBalo study aims to investigate the role of maternal and neonatal factors, such as vaginal and gut microbiota, immune development, and early nutrition, in shaping health outcomes in SVNs and healthy infants. Methods: This prospective cohort observational study will recruit 141 mother-infant pairs (70 SVNs and 71 healthy controls) from four health centers in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. The mother-infant pairs will be followed for six months with anthropometric measurements and biospecimen collections, including blood, breast milk, saliva, stool, vaginal swabs, and placental biopsies. Multi-omics approaches, encompassing metagenomics, metabolomics, proteomics, and immune profiling, will be used to assess vaginal and gut microbiota composition and functionality, immune cell maturation, and cytokine levels at critical developmental stages. Conclusions: This study will generate comprehensive data on how microbiota, metabolomic, and proteomic profiles, along with immune system development, differ between SVNs and healthy infants. These findings will guide targeted interventions to improve neonatal health outcomes and reduce mortality, particularly in vulnerable populations.},
}
@article {pmid39682776,
year = {2024},
author = {Kim, S and Rahim, MA and Tajdozian, H and Barman, I and Park, HA and Yoon, Y and Jo, S and Lee, S and Shuvo, MSH and Bae, SH and Lee, H and Ju, S and Park, CE and Kim, HK and Han, JH and Kim, JW and Yoon, SG and Kim, JH and Choi, YG and Lee, S and Seo, H and Song, HY},
title = {Clinical Potential of Novel Microbial Therapeutic LP51 Based on Xerosis-Microbiome Index.},
journal = {Cells},
volume = {13},
number = {23},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/cells13232029},
pmid = {39682776},
issn = {2073-4409},
support = {RS-2023-00219563//National Research Foundation of Korea/ ; P248400003//Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; Female ; *Microbiota/drug effects ; Double-Blind Method ; Adult ; Skin/microbiology/pathology ; Middle Aged ; },
abstract = {Xerosis, characterized by dry, rough skin, causes discomfort and aesthetic concerns, necessitating effective treatment. Traditional treatments often show limited efficacy, prompting the need for innovative therapies. This study highlights the efficacy of microbiome therapeutic LP51, derived from a healthy vaginal microbiome, in improving xerosis. A double-blind clinical trial involving 43 subjects with dry inner arm skin compared the effects of a 2.9% LP51 extract formulation to a placebo over 4 weeks. The LP51 group exhibited a significant increase in stratum corneum hydration (10.0 A.U.) compared to the placebo group (4.8 A.U.) and a 21.4% decrease in transepidermal water loss (TEWL), whereas the placebo group showed no significant change. LP51 also demonstrated benefits in enhancing skin hydration, improving the skin barrier, and exhibited anti-atopic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. Safety was confirmed through in vitro cytotoxicity tests. These effects are attributed to the microbiome-safe component in LP51 and its role in improving xerosis, reflected by an increase in the xerosis-microbiome index, defined by the Firmicutes/Actinobacteria ratio. These findings position microbiome therapeutic LP51 as a promising novel treatment for xerosis.},
}
@article {pmid39682751,
year = {2024},
author = {Seo, H and Kim, S and Beck, S and Song, HY},
title = {Perspectives on Microbiome Therapeutics in Infectious Diseases: A Comprehensive Approach Beyond Immunology and Microbiology.},
journal = {Cells},
volume = {13},
number = {23},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/cells13232003},
pmid = {39682751},
issn = {2073-4409},
support = {RS-2023-00219563//Ministry of Science and ICT/ ; P248400003//Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology/ ; Soonchunhyang University Research Fund//Soonchunhyang University Research Fund/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota/immunology ; *Probiotics/therapeutic use ; *COVID-19/immunology/virology/therapy ; Communicable Diseases/microbiology/therapy/immunology ; SARS-CoV-2/immunology ; },
abstract = {Although global life expectancy has increased over the past 20 years due to advancements in managing infectious diseases, one-fifth of people still die from infections. In response to this ongoing threat, significant efforts are underway to develop vaccines and antimicrobial agents. However, pathogens evolve resistance mechanisms, complicating their control. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the limitations of focusing solely on the pathogen-killing strategies of immunology and microbiology to address complex, multisystemic infectious diseases. This highlights the urgent need for practical advancements, such as microbiome therapeutics, that address these limitations while complementing traditional approaches. Our review emphasizes key outcomes in the field, including evidence of probiotics reducing disease severity and insights into host-microbiome crosstalk that have informed novel therapeutic strategies. These findings underscore the potential of microbiome-based interventions to promote physiological function alongside existing strategies aimed at enhancing host immune responses and pathogen destruction. This narrative review explores microbiome therapeutics as next-generation treatments for infectious diseases, focusing on the application of probiotics and their role in host-microbiome interactions. While offering a novel perspective grounded in a cooperative defense system, this review also addresses the practical challenges and limitations in translating these advancements into clinical settings.},
}
@article {pmid39682542,
year = {2024},
author = {Morales, C and Ballestero, L and Del Río, P and Barbero-Herranz, R and Olavarrieta, L and Gómez-Artíguez, L and Galeano, J and Avendaño-Ortiz, J and Basterra, J and Del Campo, R},
title = {Should the Faecal Microbiota Composition Be Determined to Certify a Faecal Donor?.},
journal = {Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland)},
volume = {14},
number = {23},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/diagnostics14232635},
pmid = {39682542},
issn = {2075-4418},
support = {XX//Mikrobiomik/ ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is considered a safe and effective therapy for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection. It is the only current clinical indication for this technique, although numerous clinical research studies and trials propose its potential usefulness for treating other pathologies. Donor selection is a very rigorous process, based on a personal lifestyle interview and the absence of known pathogens in faeces and serum, leading to only a few volunteers finally achieving the corresponding certification. However, despite the high amount of data generated from the ongoing research studies relating microbiota and health, there is not yet a consensus defining what is a "healthy" microbiota. To date, knowledge of the composition of the microbiota is not a requirement to be a faecal donor. The aim of this work was to evaluate whether the analysis of the composition of the microbiota by massive sequencing of 16S rDNA could be useful in the selection of the faecal donors.
METHODS: Samples from 10 certified donors from Mikrobiomik Healthcare Company were collected and sequenced using 16S rDNA in a MiSeq (Illumina) platform. Alpha (Chao1 and Shannon indices) and beta diversity (Bray-Curtis) were performed using the bioinformatic web server Microbiome Analyst. The differences in microbial composition at the genera and phyla levels among the donors were evaluated.
RESULTS: The microbial diversity metric by alpha diversity indexes showed that most donors exhibited a similar microbial diversity and richness, whereas beta diversity by 16S rDNA sequencing revealed significant inter-donor differences, with a more stable microbial composition over time in some donors. The phyla Bacillota and Bacteroidota were predominant in all donors, while the density of other phyla, such as Actinomycota and Pseudomonota, varied among individuals. Each donor exhibited a characteristic genera distribution pattern; however, it was possible to define a microbiome core consisting of the genera Agathobacter, Eubacterium, Bacteroides, Clostridia UCG-014 and Akkermansia. Conclusions: The results suggest that donor certification does not need to rely exclusively on their microbiota composition, as it is unique to each donor. While one donor showed greater microbial diversity and richness, clear criteria for microbial normality and health have yet to be established. Therefore, donor certification should focus more on clinical and lifestyle aspects.},
}
@article {pmid39681696,
year = {2024},
author = {Joos, R and Boucher, K and Lavelle, A and Arumugam, M and Blaser, MJ and Claesson, MJ and Clarke, G and Cotter, PD and De Sordi, L and Dominguez-Bello, MG and Dutilh, BE and Ehrlich, SD and Ghosh, TS and Hill, C and Junot, C and Lahti, L and Lawley, TD and Licht, TR and Maguin, E and Makhalanyane, TP and Marchesi, JR and Matthijnssens, J and Raes, J and Ravel, J and Salonen, A and Scanlan, PD and Shkoporov, A and Stanton, C and Thiele, I and Tolstoy, I and Walter, J and Yang, B and Yutin, N and Zhernakova, A and Zwart, H and , and Doré, J and Ross, RP},
title = {Author Correction: Examining the healthy human microbiome concept.},
journal = {Nature reviews. Microbiology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1038/s41579-024-01145-8},
pmid = {39681696},
issn = {1740-1534},
}
@article {pmid39676876,
year = {2024},
author = {Bhatnagar, K and Jha, K and Dalal, N and Patki, N and Gupta, G and Kumar, A and Kumar, A and Chaudhary, S},
title = {Exploring micronutrients and microbiome synergy: pioneering new paths in cancer therapy.},
journal = {Frontiers in immunology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1442788},
pmid = {39676876},
issn = {1664-3224},
mesh = {Humans ; *Micronutrients/therapeutic use ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/immunology ; *Neoplasms/immunology/therapy/microbiology ; Animals ; Probiotics/therapeutic use ; Prebiotics/administration & dosage ; Dysbiosis/therapy ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome is the complex ecosystem consisting of trillions of microorganisms that play a key role in developing the immune system and nutrient metabolism. Alterations in the gut microbiome have been linked to cancer initiation, progression, metastasis, and response to treatment. Accumulating evidence suggests that levels of vitamins and minerals influence the gut environment and may have implications for cancer risk and progression. Bifidobacterium has been reported to reduce the colorectal cancer risk by binding to free iron. Additionally, zinc ions have been shown to activate the immune cells and enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy. Higher selenium levels have been associated with a reduced risk of several cancers, including colorectal cancer. In contrast, enhanced copper uptake has been implicated in promoting cancer progression, including colon cancer. The interaction between cancer and gut bacteria, as well as dysbiosis impact has been studied in animal models. The interplay between prebiotics, probiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics and gut bacteria in cancer offers the diverse physiological benefits. We also explored the particular probiotic formulations like VSL#3, Prohep, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG), etc., for their ability to modulate immune responses and reduce tumor burden in preclinical models. Targeting the gut microbiome through antibiotics, bacteriophage, microbiome transplantation-based therapies will offer a new perspective in cancer research. Hence, to understand this interplay, we outline the importance of micronutrients with an emphasis on the immunomodulatory function of the microbiome and highlight the microbiome's potential as a target for precision medicine in cancer treatment.},
}
@article {pmid39675162,
year = {2024},
author = {Skurnik, M},
title = {Scholarly discussion on the classification and electron microscopy analysis of lytic phage EC BD.},
journal = {International journal of food microbiology},
volume = {429},
number = {},
pages = {111012},
doi = {10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2024.111012},
pmid = {39675162},
issn = {1879-3460},
}
@article {pmid39662756,
year = {2024},
author = {Hodgkiss, R and Acharjee, A},
title = {Unravelling metabolite-microbiome interactions in inflammatory bowel disease through AI and interaction-based modelling.},
journal = {Biochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular basis of disease},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {167618},
doi = {10.1016/j.bbadis.2024.167618},
pmid = {39662756},
issn = {1879-260X},
abstract = {Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBDs) are chronic inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract and colon affecting approximately 7 million individuals worldwide. The knowledge of specific pathology and aetiological mechanisms leading to IBD is limited, however a reduced immune system, antibiotic use and reserved diet may initiate symptoms. Dysbiosis of the gut microbiome, and consequently a varied composition of the metabolome, has been extensively linked to these risk factors and IBD. Metagenomic sequencing and liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) of N = 220 fecal samples by Fransoza et al., provided abundance data on microbial genera and metabolites for use in this study. Identification of differentially abundant microbes and metabolites was performed using a Wilcoxon test, followed by feature selection of random forest (RF), gradient-boosting (XGBoost) and least absolute shrinkage operator (LASSO) models. The performance of these features was then validated using RF models on the Human Microbiome Project 2 (HMP2) dataset and a microbial community (MICOM) model was utilised to predict and interpret the interactions between key microbes and metabolites. The Flavronifractor genus and microbes of the families Lachnospiraceae and Oscillospiraceae were found differential by all models. Metabolic pathways commonly influenced by such microbes in IBD were CoA biosynthesis, bile acid metabolism and amino acid production and degradation. This study highlights distinct interactive microbiome and metabolome profiles within IBD and the highly potential pathways causing disease pathology. It therefore paves way for future investigation into new therapeutic targets and non-invasive diagnostic tools for IBD.},
}
@article {pmid39657723,
year = {2024},
author = {Sinkko, H and Olah, P and Yang, Y and Maia, G and Barrientos-Somarribas, M and Rádai, Z and Mäenpää, K and Sorratto, T and Salava, A and Lauerma, A and Barker, J and Ranki, A and Homey, B and Andersson, B and Fyhrquist, N and Alenius, H and , },
title = {Taxonomic and functional profiling of skin microbiome in psoriasis.},
journal = {The British journal of dermatology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/bjd/ljae471},
pmid = {39657723},
issn = {1365-2133},
}
@article {pmid39657633,
year = {2024},
author = {Yang, W and Wu, K and Chen, H and Huang, J and Yu, Z},
title = {Emerging role of rare earth elements in biomolecular functions.},
journal = {The ISME journal},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/ismejo/wrae241},
pmid = {39657633},
issn = {1751-7370},
abstract = {The importance of rare earth elements is increasingly recognized due to the increased demand for their mining and separation. This demand is driving research on the biology of rare earth elements. Biomolecules associated with rare earth elements include rare earth element-dependent enzymes (methanol dehydrogenase XoxF, ethanol dehydrogenase ExaF/PedH), rare earth element-binding proteins, and the relevant metallophores. Traditional (chemical) separation methods for rare earth elements harvesting and separation are typically inefficient, while causing environmental problems, whereas bioharvesting, potentially, offers more efficient, more green platforms. Here, we review the current state of research on the biological functions of rare earth element-dependent biomolecules, and the characteristics of the relevant proteins, including the specific amino acids involved in rare earth metal binding. We also provide an outlook at strategies for further understanding of biological processes and the potential applications of rare earth element-dependent enzymes and other biomolecules.},
}
@article {pmid39654676,
year = {2024},
author = {Han, H and Choi, YH and Kim, SY and Park, JH and Chung, J and Na, HS},
title = {Optimizing microbiome reference databases with PacBio full-length 16S rRNA sequencing for enhanced taxonomic classification and biomarker discovery.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1485073},
pmid = {39654676},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The study of the human microbiome is crucial for understanding disease mechanisms, identifying biomarkers, and guiding preventive measures. Advances in sequencing platforms, particularly 16S rRNA sequencing, have revolutionized microbiome research. Despite the benefits, large microbiome reference databases (DBs) pose challenges, including computational demands and potential inaccuracies. This study aimed to determine if full-length 16S rRNA sequencing data produced by PacBio could be used to optimize reference DBs and be applied to Illumina V3-V4 targeted sequencing data for microbial study.
METHODS: Oral and gut microbiome data (PRJNA1049979) were retrieved from NCBI. DADA2 was applied to full-length 16S rRNA PacBio data to obtain amplicon sequencing variants (ASVs). The RDP reference DB was used to assign the ASVs, which were then used as a reference DB to train the classifier. QIIME2 was used for V3-V4 targeted Illumina data analysis. BLAST was used to analyze alignment statistics. Linear discriminant analysis Effect Size (LEfSe) was employed for discriminant analysis.
RESULTS: ASVs produced by PacBio showed coverage of the oral microbiome similar to the Human Oral Microbiome Database. A phylogenetic tree was trimmed at various thresholds to obtain an optimized reference DB. This established method was then applied to gut microbiome data, and the optimized gut microbiome reference DB provided improved taxa classification and biomarker discovery efficiency.
CONCLUSION: Full-length 16S rRNA sequencing data produced by PacBio can be used to construct a microbiome reference DB. Utilizing an optimized reference DB can increase the accuracy of microbiome classification and enhance biomarker discovery.},
}
@article {pmid39651993,
year = {2024},
author = {Poncet, R and Gargominy, O},
title = {In the Shadow of Medicine: The Glaring Absence of Occurrence Records of Human-Hosted Biodiversity.},
journal = {Online journal of public health informatics},
volume = {16},
number = {},
pages = {e60140},
doi = {10.2196/60140},
pmid = {39651993},
issn = {1947-2579},
abstract = {Microbial diversity is vast, with bacteria playing a crucial role in human health. However, occurrence records (location, date, observer, and host interaction of human-associated bacteria) remain scarce. This lack of information hinders our understanding of human-microbe relationships and disease prevention. In this study, we show that existing solutions such as France's Système d'Information sur le Patrimoine Naturel framework, can be used to efficiently collect and manage occurrence data on human-associated bacteria. This user-friendly system allows medical personnel to easily share and access data on bacterial pathogens. By adopting similar national infrastructures and treating human-associated bacteria as biodiversity data, we can significantly improve public health management and research, and our understanding of the One Health concept, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health.},
}
@article {pmid39648582,
year = {2024},
author = {Burton, JP and Kofoed, RH and Rust, R},
title = {Science around the world.},
journal = {Trends in molecular medicine},
volume = {30},
number = {3},
pages = {197-199},
doi = {10.1016/j.molmed.2024.01.008},
pmid = {39648582},
issn = {1471-499X},
}
@article {pmid39647502,
year = {2024},
author = {Porcari, S and Mullish, BH and Asnicar, F and Ng, SC and Zhao, L and Hansen, R and O'Toole, PW and Raes, J and Hold, G and Putignani, L and Hvas, CL and Zeller, G and Koren, O and Tun, H and Valles-Colomer, M and Collado, MC and Fischer, M and Allegretti, J and Iqbal, T and Chassaing, B and Keller, J and Baunwall, SM and Abreu, M and Barbara, G and Zhang, F and Ponziani, FR and Costello, SP and Paramsothy, S and Kao, D and Kelly, C and Kupcinskas, J and Youngster, I and Franceschi, F and Khanna, S and Vehreschild, M and Link, A and De Maio, F and Pasolli, E and Miguez, AB and Brigidi, P and Posteraro, B and Scaldaferri, F and Stojanovic, MR and Megraud, F and Malfertheiner, P and Masucci, L and Arumugam, M and Kaakoush, N and Segal, E and Bajaj, J and Leong, R and Cryan, J and Weersma, RK and Knight, R and Guarner, F and Shanahan, F and Cani, PD and Elinav, E and Sanguinetti, M and de Vos, WM and El-Omar, E and Dorè, J and Marchesi, J and Tilg, H and Sokol, H and Segata, N and Cammarota, G and Gasbarrini, A and Ianiro, G},
title = {International consensus statement on microbiome testing in clinical practice.},
journal = {The lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/S2468-1253(24)00311-X},
pmid = {39647502},
issn = {2468-1253},
abstract = {There is growing interest in the potential exploitation of the gut microbiome as a diagnostic tool in medicine, but evidence supporting its clinical usefulness is scarce. An increasing number of commercial providers offer direct-to-consumer microbiome diagnostic tests without any consensus on their regulation or any proven value in clinical practice, which could result in considerable waste of individual and health-care resources and potential drawbacks in the clinical management of patients. We convened an international multidisciplinary expert panel to standardise best practices of microbiome testing for clinical implementation, including recommendations on general principles and minimum requirements for their provision, indications, pre-testing protocols, method of analyses, reporting of results, and potential clinical value. We also evaluated current knowledge gaps and future directions in this field. We aimed to establish a framework to regulate the provision of microbiome testing and minimise the use of inappropriate tests and pave the way for the evidence-based development and use of human microbiome diagnostics in clinical medicine.},
}
@article {pmid39639265,
year = {2024},
author = {Ma, ZS},
title = {Revisiting microgenderome: detecting and cataloguing sexually unique and enriched species in human microbiomes.},
journal = {BMC biology},
volume = {22},
number = {1},
pages = {284},
pmid = {39639265},
issn = {1741-7007},
mesh = {Humans ; Female ; Male ; *Microbiota ; *Sex Characteristics ; Species Specificity ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Microgenderome or arguably more accurately microsexome refers to studies on sexual dimorphism of human microbiomes aimed at investigating bidirectional interactions between human microbiomes, sex hormones, and immune systems. It is important because of its implications to disease susceptibility and therapy, in which men and women demonstrate divergence in many diseases especially autoimmune diseases. In a previous report [1], we presented analyses of several key ecological aspects of microgenderome by leveraging the large datasets of the HMP (human microbiome project) but failed to offer species-level composition differences such as sexually unique species (US) and enriched species (ES). Existing approaches, for such tasks, including differential species relative abundance analysis and differential network analysis, possess certain limitations given that virtually all rely on species abundance alone or are univariate, while ignoring species distribution information across samples. Obviously, it is both species abundance and distribution that shape/drive the structure and dynamics of human microbiomes, and both should be equally responsible for the universal heterogeneity of microbiomes including the sexual dimorphism.
RESULTS: Here, we fill the gap by taking advantages of a recently developed computational algorithm, species specificity, and specificity diversity (SSD) framework (refer to the companion article) to reanalyze the HMP and complementary seminovaginal microbiome datasets. The SSD framework can randomly search and catalogue the sexually specific unique/enriched species with statistical rigor, guided by species specificity (a synthetic metric of abundance and distribution) and specificity diversity (SD). The SSD framework reveals that men seem to have more unique species than women in their gut and reproductive system microbiomes, but women seem to have more unique species than men in the airway, oral, and skin microbiomes, which is likely due to sexual dimorphism in the hormone and immune systems. We further investigate co-dependency and heterogeneity of those sexually unique/enriched species across 15 body sites, with core/periphery network analyses.
CONCLUSIONS: This study not only produced sexually unique/enriched species in the human microbiomes and analyzed their codependency and heterogeneity but also further validated the robustness of the SSD framework presented in the companion article, by performing all negative control tests based on the HMP gut microbiome samples.},
}
@article {pmid39628703,
year = {2022},
author = {Liu, D and Siguenza, NE and Zarrinpar, A and Ding, Y},
title = {Methods of DNA introduction for the engineering of commensal microbes.},
journal = {Engineering microbiology},
volume = {2},
number = {4},
pages = {100048},
pmid = {39628703},
issn = {2667-3703},
abstract = {The microbiome is an essential component of ecological systems and is comprised of a diverse array of microbes. Over the past decades, the accumulated observational evidence reveals a close correlation between the microbiome and human health and disease. Many groups are now manipulating individual microbial strains, species and the community as a whole to gain a mechanistic understanding of the functions of the microbiome. Here, we discuss three major approaches for introducing DNA to engineer model bacteria and isolated undomesticated bacteria, including transformation, transduction, and conjugation. We provide an overview of these approaches and describe the advantages and limitations of each method. In addition, we highlight examples of human microbiome engineering using these approaches. Finally, we provide perspectives for the future of microbiome engineering.},
}
@article {pmid39626677,
year = {2024},
author = {He, Z and Yu, J and Gong, J and Wu, J and Zong, X and Luo, Z and He, X and Cheng, WM and Liu, Y and Liu, C and Zhang, Q and Dai, L and Ding, T and Gao, B and Gharaibeh, RZ and Huang, J and Jobin, C and Lan, P},
title = {Campylobacterjejuni-derived cytolethal distending toxin promotes colorectal cancer metastasis.},
journal = {Cell host & microbe},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.chom.2024.11.006},
pmid = {39626677},
issn = {1934-6069},
abstract = {Various forms of solid tumors harbor intracellular bacteria, but the physiological consequences of these microorganisms are poorly understood. We show that Campylobacter is significantly enriched in primary colorectal cancer (CRC) lesions from patients with metastasis. Campylobacterjejuni-derived cytolethal distending toxin (CDT) promotes CRC metastasis through JAK2-STAT3-MMP9 signaling in liver or pulmonary metastatic mice models, as confirmed in C. jejuni-infected human colonic tissue and CDT-treated colonic tumoroids from patients. Genetic deletion of cdtB (ΔcdtB) or purified CdtB protein demonstrates that the genotoxin is essential for C. jejuni's pro-metastatic property. In C.-jejuni-colonized mice, increased translocation of CDT-producing C. jejuni to extraintestinal implanted tumors potentially leads to accelerated metastasis of these tumors. Overall, these findings demonstrate that an intratumor-bacteria-derived genotoxin accelerates tumor metastasis, potentially opening a new diagnostic and therapeutic avenue for cancer management.},
}
@article {pmid39624165,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhang, Y and Schluter, J and Zhang, L and Cao, X and Jenq, RR and Feng, H and Haines, J and Zhang, L},
title = {Review and revamp of compositional data transformation: A new framework combining proportion conversion and contrast transformation.},
journal = {Computational and structural biotechnology journal},
volume = {23},
number = {},
pages = {4088-4107},
pmid = {39624165},
issn = {2001-0370},
abstract = {Due to the development of next-generation sequencing technology and an increased appreciation of their role in modulating host immunity and their potential as therapeutic agents, the human microbiome has emerged as a key area of interest in various biological investigations of human health and disease. However, microbiome data present a number of statistical challenges not addressed by existing methods, such as the varying sequencing depth, the compositionality, and zero inflation. Solutions like scaling and transformation methods help to mitigate heterogeneity and release constraints, but often introduce biases and yield inconsistent results on the same data. To address these issues, we conduct a systematic review of compositional data transformation, with a particular focus on the connection and distinction of existing techniques. Additionally, we create a new framework that enables the development of new transformations by combining proportion conversion with contrast transformations. This framework includes well-known methods such as Additive Log Ratio (ALR) and Centered Log Ratio (CLR) as special cases. Using this framework, we develop two novel transformations-Centered Arcsine Contrast (CAC) and Additive Arcsine Contrast (AAC)-which show enhanced performance in scenarios with high zero-inflation. Moreover, our findings suggest that ALR and CLR transformations are more effective when zero values are less prevalent. This comprehensive review and the innovative framework provide microbiome researchers with a significant direction to enhance data transformation procedures and improve analytical outcomes.},
}
@article {pmid39621633,
year = {2024},
author = {Martins, FP and Andrade-Silva, J and Teixeira, BL and Ferrari, A and Christoff, AP and Cruz, GNF and Paladino, FV and de Oliveira, LFV and Hernandes, C},
title = {Oral microbiome test as an alternative diagnostic tool for gastric alterations: A prospective, bicentric cross-sectional study.},
journal = {PloS one},
volume = {19},
number = {12},
pages = {e0314660},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0314660},
pmid = {39621633},
issn = {1932-6203},
mesh = {Humans ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Female ; Male ; Middle Aged ; *Mouth/microbiology ; Prospective Studies ; Adult ; *Microbiota ; Brazil ; Aged ; Stomach/microbiology ; Bacteria/genetics/isolation & purification/classification ; Stomach Diseases/microbiology/diagnosis ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome plays a pivotal role in influencing various physiological processes and maintaining overall well-being, including the gastric system. Current diagnostic tests for gastric diseases often involve invasive procedures, sampling limitations, and medication effects, leading to potential diagnostic errors and discomfort to patients. Considering the connection between oral and gastric microbiomes, this cross-sectional study aimed to assess the diagnostic potential of the oral bacterial profile in patients undergoing upper digestive endoscopy. Oral samples from 266 participants across two Brazilian sites (Belterra and Sao Paulo) were sequenced and subjected to bioinformatic analysis to identify microbiome composition across endoscopy outcome groups, exploring alpha and beta-diversity, richness, and differential abundance and prevalence. Prevotella, Haemophilus, Fusobacterium, Neisseria, and Streptococcus were the most abundant genera observed. No significant associations were found between alpha diversity profiles and endoscopy outcomes; beta diversity analyses similarly showed no correlations. Overall, the study did not establish the oral microbiome as a reliable marker for gastric health, underscoring the necessity for broader studies in the development of non-invasive diagnostic tests.},
}
@article {pmid39619727,
year = {2024},
author = {Sawan, HM and Shroukh, W and Abutaima, R and Al Omari, SM and Abdel-Qader, DH and Binsuwaidan, R},
title = {Impact of Jordanian Pharmacists' Knowledge of the Human Microbiome: Has the Practice of Antibiotics and Probiotics Dispensing Been Affected? A Cross-Sectional Study.},
journal = {Infection and drug resistance},
volume = {17},
number = {},
pages = {5203-5214},
pmid = {39619727},
issn = {1178-6973},
abstract = {OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess Jordanian pharmacists' knowledge of the human microbiome and the impact of their knowledge on their attitudes and practices toward antibiotics and probiotics.
METHODS: A self-administered survey was designed after reviewing the literature. Participants' demographics were collected, and questions to evaluate pharmacists' knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward antibiotic and probiotic dispensing were asked. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences V.26. Pearson correlations and one-way ANOVA were employed to calculate the significance of knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Statistical significance was considered at p < 0.05.
RESULTS: Of the 333 respondents, around 75% (n=250) had a high level of general knowledge regarding the human gut microbiome. Almost equal proportions of participants had either intermediate or high levels of knowledge about the role of gut bacteria in health (n=164, 49.2%) (n=166, 49.8%), respectively, while almost two-thirds had an intermediate level of knowledge of the role of gut bacteria in disease (n=197, 59.2%). More than half of the participants had a positive attitude toward antibiotics, probiotics, and the human microbiome (n=179, 53.8%), and the majority (n=239, 71.8%) had an intermediate level of practice with them. There was a significant positive correlation between pharmacists' general knowledge of the human microbiome and their positive attitudes (r=0.306, p < 0.01) and practices (r=0.331, p < 0.01) toward antibiotics and probiotics.
CONCLUSION: Study results raise the importance of interventional educational measures to promote healthcare professionals' knowledge of the human microbiome and their potential beneficence on pharmacists' attitudes and practices regarding antibiotics and probiotics dispensing. The results also denote the urgent need for probiotics' clinical guidelines to ensure practice uniformity.},
}
@article {pmid39614169,
year = {2024},
author = {Tang, H and Du, S and Niu, Z and Zhang, D and Tang, Z and Chen, H and Chen, Z and Zhang, M and Xu, Y and Sun, Y and Fu, X and Norback, D and Shao, J and Zhao, Z},
title = {Nasal, dermal, oral and indoor dust microbe and their interrelationship in children with allergic rhinitis.},
journal = {BMC microbiology},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
pages = {505},
pmid = {39614169},
issn = {1471-2180},
mesh = {Humans ; *Dust/analysis ; Male ; Child ; Female ; *Rhinitis, Allergic/microbiology ; Case-Control Studies ; *RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; *Bacteria/classification/isolation & purification/genetics ; *Skin/microbiology ; *Mouth/microbiology ; *Microbiota ; Nasal Cavity/microbiology ; Air Pollution, Indoor/analysis ; Child, Preschool ; Metagenomics/methods ; Nose/microbiology ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Allergic rhinitis (AR) subjects might have their microenvironment changed due to pathogenesis and living environment. Whether the nasal microbe in AR children differs from healthy subjects and how it interplays with dermal, oral and indoor dust microbe needs to be elucidated.
METHODS: In this case-control study, we analyzed and compared the bacterial characterization and associations in nasal, dermal, oral swab samples and dust samples in 62 children with physician-diagnosed AR(cases) and 51 age- and gender-matched healthy ones with no history of allergic diseases(controls). Full-length 16S rRNA sequencing(swabs) and shotgun metagenomics(dust) were applied. Bacterial diversity, composition, abundance difference characteristics and fast expectation-maximization for microbial source tracking(FEAST) analysis were performed and compared between cases and controls.
RESULTS: The α-diversity of dust microorganisms in AR was lower than that in control group (P = 0.034), and the β-diversity indices of microorganisms in nasal cavity (P = 0.020), skin (P = 0.001) and dust (P = 0.004) were significantly different from those in control group. At species levels, a total of 10, 15, 12, and 15 bacterial species were differentially enriched in either cases or controls in nasal, dermal, oral, and dust samples, respectively(Linear Discriminant Analysis(LDA) score > 2, P < 0.05). Staphylococcus epidermidis was the single species simultaneously more abundant in nasal, dermal and dust samples in AR children. By FEAST analysis, 8.85% and 10.11% of S. epidermidis in AR dermal and dust samples came from nasal cavity. These proportions were significantly higher than those in controls (2.70% and 3.86%) (P < 0.05). The same significantly higher transfer proportions(P < 0.05) were observed for Staphylococcus aureus enriched in the nasal cavity in AR children. Classification models by random forest regression at species levels showed, bacterial species enriched in indoor dust, nasal and dermal samples had substantial power in distinguishing AR children from healthy ones, with the highest power in the dust samples (AUC = 0.88) followed by nasal(AUC = 0.81) and dermal ones(AUC = 0.80).
CONCLUSIONS: Our study presented the microbial enrichment characteristics in AR children both in the living environment(dust) and body sites exposed to environment through inhalation(nasal cavity), contact(skin) and ingestion(oral cavity) pathways, respectively. Nasal S.epidermidis and S.aureus had dominant influences on dust and other body sites in AR children.},
}
@article {pmid39614246,
year = {2024},
author = {Marín-Sánchez, N and Paredes, R and Borgognone, A},
title = {Exploring potential associations between the human microbiota and reservoir of latent HIV.},
journal = {Retrovirology},
volume = {21},
number = {1},
pages = {21},
pmid = {39614246},
issn = {1742-4690},
support = {847943//European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *HIV Infections/virology/microbiology/immunology ; *Virus Latency ; *HIV-1/physiology ; *Microbiota ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Virus Replication ; Disease Reservoirs/virology/microbiology ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The rapid establishment and persistence of latent HIV-1 reservoirs is one of the main obstacles towards an HIV cure. While antiretroviral therapy supresses viral replication, it does not eradicate the latent reservoir of HIV-1-infected cells. Recent evidence suggests that the human microbiome, particularly the gut microbiome, may have the potential to modulate the HIV-1 reservoir. However, literature is limited and the exact mechanisms underlying the role of the microbiome in HIV immunity and potential regulation of the viral reservoir remain poorly understood.
RESULTS: Here, we review updated knowledge on the associations between the human microbiome and HIV reservoir across different anatomical sites, including the gut, the lungs and blood. We provide an overview of the predominant taxa associated with prominent microbiome changes in the context of HIV infection. Based on the current evidence, we summarize the main study findings, with specific focus on consistent bacterial and related byproduct associations. Specifically, we address the contribution of immune activation and inflammatory signatures on HIV-1 persistence. Furthermore, we discuss possible scenarios by which bacterial-associated inflammatory mediators, related metabolites and host immune signatures may modulate the HIV reservoir size. Finally, we speculate on potential implications of microbiome-based therapeutics for future HIV-1 cure strategies, highlighting challenges and limitations inherent in this research field.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite recent advances, this review underscores the need for further research to deepen the understanding of the complex interplay between the human microbiome and HIV reservoir. Further integrative multi-omics assessments and functional studies are crucial to test the outlined hypothesis and to identify potential therapeutic targets ultimately able to achieve an effective cure for HIV.},
}
@article {pmid39607341,
year = {2024},
author = {Merk, LN and Shur, AS and Jena, S and Munoz, J and Brubaker, DK and Murray, RM and Green, LN},
title = {Diagnostic and Therapeutic Microbial Circuit with Application to Intestinal Inflammation.},
journal = {ACS synthetic biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1021/acssynbio.3c00668},
pmid = {39607341},
issn = {2161-5063},
abstract = {Bacteria genetically engineered to execute defined therapeutic and diagnostic functions in physiological settings can be applied to colonize the human microbiome, providing in situ surveillance and conditional disease modulation. However, many engineered microbes can only respond to single-input environmental factors, limiting their tunability, precision, and effectiveness as living diagnostic and therapeutic systems. For engineering microbes to improve complex chronic disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease, the bacteria must respond to combinations of stimuli in the proper context and time. This work implements a previously characterized split activator AND logic gate in the probiotic Escherichia coli strain Nissle 1917 (EcN). Our system can respond to two input signals: the inflammatory biomarker tetrathionate and a second input signal, anhydrotetracycline (aTc), for manual control. We report 4-6 fold induction with a minimal leak when the two chemical signals are present. We model the AND gate dynamics using chemical reaction networks and tune parameters in silico to identify critical perturbations that affect our circuit's selectivity. Finally, we engineer the optimized AND gate to secrete a therapeutic anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-22 using the hemolysin secretion pathway in the probiotic E. coli strain. We used a germ-free transwell model of the human gut epithelium to show that our engineering bacteria produce similar host cytokine responses compared to recombinant cytokine. Our study presents a scalable workflow to engineer cytokine-secreting microbes driven by logical signal processing. It demonstrates the feasibility of IL-22 derived from probiotic EcN with minimal off-target effects in a gut epithelial context.},
}
@article {pmid39602306,
year = {2024},
author = {Pasolli, E and Mauriello, IE and Avagliano, M and Cavaliere, S and De Filippis, F and Ercolini, D},
title = {Bifidobacteriaceae diversity in the human microbiome from a large-scale genome-wide analysis.},
journal = {Cell reports},
volume = {43},
number = {12},
pages = {115027},
doi = {10.1016/j.celrep.2024.115027},
pmid = {39602306},
issn = {2211-1247},
abstract = {We performed a large-scale genome-wide analysis aiming to investigate the prevalence and strain-level diversity of Bifidobacteriaceae species in the human microbiome. We considered 9,528 publicly available human metagenomes and integrated them with 1,192 isolate genomes from different sources. The prevalence and abundance of Bifidobacteriaceae species in humans was linked to multiple host characteristics: they were reduced in older people and enriched in populations characterized by Westernized lifestyles with geography-specific patterns. Phylogenetic analysis highlighted 110 Bifidobacteriaceae species-level genome bins (SGBs), with 32 found in humans and 8 in food and probiotic sources. Functional annotation revealed a great diversity in carbohydrate-active enzyme families across these SGBs. We found potential subspecies for most of the SGBs prevalent in humans and identified patterns driven by age and geography. We provided evidence that strains used in probiotics were rarely identified in humans, with the only exception represented by Bifidobacterium animalis. We finally evaluated that the abundance of Bifidobacteriaceae species exhibited moderate and variable capabilities to predict health status in case-control studies.},
}
@article {pmid39600874,
year = {2024},
author = {Patjas, A and Jokiranta, TS and Kantele, A},
title = {Urinary tract infections: a retrospective cohort study of (mis)matching antimicrobial therapy and clinical outcome among Finnish adults.},
journal = {JAC-antimicrobial resistance},
volume = {6},
number = {6},
pages = {dlae188},
pmid = {39600874},
issn = {2632-1823},
abstract = {OBJECTIVES: With the global spread of antimicrobial resistance, treating urinary tract infections (UTIs) is becoming more challenging. Clinical data on UTI outcomes are scarce in cases with antimicrobial treatment mismatching the uropathogens' in vitro susceptibility profiles. We explored the association of (mis)matching antimicrobial treatment and clinical outcomes among patients with either ESBL-producing Enterobacterales (ESBL-PE) or non-ESBL-PE identified in urine samples.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: In 2015-2019, we recruited 18-65-year-old patients with laboratory-confirmed, community-acquired ESBL-PE (n = 130) or non-ESBL-PE (n = 187) UTI. Our study involved collecting data on in vitro susceptibility profiles, antimicrobial therapy (microbiological match/mismatch) and clinical outcomes, and a follow-up of relapses/reinfections.
RESULTS: Non-beta-lactam co-resistance was found more frequent among ESBL-PE than non-ESBL-PE isolates. The initial antimicrobial matched the in vitro susceptibility for 91.6% (164/179) of those with non-ESBL-PE and 46.9% (38/81) with ESBL-PE UTI (P < 0.001). The clinical cure rates in the non-ESBL-PE and ESBL-PE UTI groups were 82.6% (142/172) and 62.2% (74/119) (P < 0.001) for all, 87.3% (131/150) and 83.3% (30/36) for those treated with matching antimicrobials, and 33.3% (5/15) and 41.9% (18/43) for those given mismatching antimicrobials, respectively. Mismatching antimicrobial therapy was not associated with relapse/reinfection over the 3-month follow-up (P = 0.943).
CONCLUSIONS: In our data, (mis)matching microbiological susceptibility is only partially associated with the clinical outcome of UTI: microbiological matching appears to predict clinical cure better than mismatching predicts clinical failure.},
}
@article {pmid39600755,
year = {2024},
author = {Castro-Vidal, ZA and Mathew, F and Ibrahim, AA and Shubhangi, F and Cherian, RR and Choi, HK and Begum, A and Ravula, HK and Giri, H},
title = {The Role of Gastrointestinal Dysbiosis and Fecal Transplantation in Various Neurocognitive Disorders.},
journal = {Cureus},
volume = {16},
number = {10},
pages = {e72451},
pmid = {39600755},
issn = {2168-8184},
abstract = {This review explores the critical role of the human microbiome in neurological and neurodegenerative disorders, focusing on gut-brain axis dysfunction caused by dysbiosis, an imbalance in gut bacteria. Dysbiosis has been linked to diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple sclerosis (MS), and stroke. The gut microbiome influences the central nervous system (CNS) through signaling molecules, including short-chain fatty acids, neurotransmitters, and metabolites, impacting brain health and disease progression. Emerging therapies, such as fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), have shown promise in restoring microbial balance and alleviating neurological symptoms, especially in Alzheimer's and PD. Additionally, nutritional interventions such as probiotics, prebiotics, and specialized diets are being investigated for their ability to modify gut microbiota and improve patient outcomes. This review highlights the therapeutic potential of gut microbiota modulation but emphasizes the need for further clinical trials to establish the safety and efficacy of these interventions in neurological and mental health disorders.},
}
@article {pmid39596404,
year = {2024},
author = {Wang, Z and Kaplan, RC and Burk, RD and Qi, Q},
title = {The Oral Microbiota, Microbial Metabolites, and Immuno-Inflammatory Mechanisms in Cardiovascular Disease.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {25},
number = {22},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/ijms252212337},
pmid = {39596404},
issn = {1422-0067},
support = {K01 HL169019/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Cardiovascular Diseases/microbiology/immunology/metabolism ; *Mouth/microbiology ; Inflammation/microbiology/metabolism/immunology ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Microbiota ; Animals ; },
abstract = {Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality. Recent advancements in high-throughput omics techniques have enhanced our understanding of the human microbiome's role in the development of CVDs. Although the relationship between the gut microbiome and CVDs has attracted considerable research attention and has been rapidly evolving in recent years, the role of the oral microbiome remains less understood, with most prior studies focusing on periodontitis-related pathogens. In this review, we summarized previously reported associations between the oral microbiome and CVD, highlighting known CVD-associated taxa such as Porphyromonas gingivalis, Fusobacterium nucleatum, and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans. We also discussed the interactions between the oral and gut microbes. The potential mechanisms by which the oral microbiota can influence CVD development include oral and systemic inflammation, immune responses, cytokine release, translocation of oral bacteria into the bloodstream, and the impact of microbial-related products such as microbial metabolites (e.g., short-chain fatty acids [SCFAs], trimethylamine oxide [TMAO], hydrogen sulfide [H2S], nitric oxide [NO]) and specific toxins (e.g., lipopolysaccharide [LPS], leukotoxin [LtxA]). The processes driven by these mechanisms may contribute to atherosclerosis, endothelial dysfunction, and other cardiovascular pathologies. Integrated multi-omics methodologies, along with large-scale longitudinal population studies and intervention studies, will facilitate a deeper understanding of the metabolic and functional roles of the oral microbiome in cardiovascular health. This fundamental knowledge will support the development of targeted interventions and effective therapies to prevent or reduce the progression from cardiovascular risk to clinical CVD events.},
}
@article {pmid39595814,
year = {2024},
author = {Belnap, N and Ramsey, K and Carvalho, ST and Nearman, L and Haas, H and Huentelman, M and Lee, K},
title = {Exploring the Frontier: The Human Microbiome's Role in Rare Childhood Neurological Diseases and Epilepsy.},
journal = {Brain sciences},
volume = {14},
number = {11},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/brainsci14111051},
pmid = {39595814},
issn = {2076-3425},
abstract = {Emerging research into the human microbiome, an intricate ecosystem of microorganisms residing in and on our bodies, reveals that it plays a pivotal role in maintaining our health, highlighting the potential for microbiome-based interventions to prevent, diagnose, treat, and manage a myriad of diseases. The objective of this review is to highlight the importance of microbiome studies in enhancing our understanding of rare genetic epilepsy and related neurological disorders. Studies suggest that the gut microbiome, acting through the gut-brain axis, impacts the development and severity of epileptic conditions in children. Disruptions in microbial composition can affect neurotransmitter systems, inflammatory responses, and immune regulation, which are all critical factors in the pathogenesis of epilepsy. This growing body of evidence points to the potential of microbiome-targeted therapies, such as probiotics or dietary modifications, as innovative approaches to managing epilepsy. By harnessing the power of the microbiome, we stand to develop more effective and personalized treatment strategies for children affected by this disease and other rare neurological diseases.},
}
@article {pmid39595625,
year = {2024},
author = {Reshetova, M and Markin, P and Appolonova, S and Yunusov, I and Zolnikova, O and Bueverova, E and Dzhakhaya, N and Zharkova, M and Poluektova, E and Maslennikov, R and Ivashkin, V},
title = {Tryptophan Metabolites in the Progression of Liver Diseases.},
journal = {Biomolecules},
volume = {14},
number = {11},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/biom14111449},
pmid = {39595625},
issn = {2218-273X},
mesh = {Humans ; *Tryptophan/metabolism/blood ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Kynurenine/analogs & derivatives/metabolism/blood ; Disease Progression ; Liver Diseases, Alcoholic/metabolism/blood ; Serotonin/metabolism/blood ; Aged ; Fatty Liver/metabolism/blood ; Liver Cirrhosis/metabolism/blood ; },
abstract = {The aim of this study was to investigate the levels of various tryptophan metabolites in patients with alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) at different stages of the disease. The present study included 44 patients diagnosed with MAFLD, 40 patients diagnosed with ALD, and 14 healthy individuals in the control group. The levels of tryptophan and its 16 metabolites (3-OH anthranilic acid, 5-hydroxytryptophan, 5-methoxytryptamine, 6-hydroxymelatonin, indole-3-acetic acid, indole-3-butyric, indole-3-carboxaldehyde, indole-3-lactic acid, indole-3-propionic acid, kynurenic acid, kynurenine, melatonin, quinolinic acid, serotonin, tryptamine, and xanthurenic acid) in the serum were determined via high-performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry. In patients with cirrhosis resulting from MAFLD and ALD, there are significant divergent changes in the serotonin and kynurenine pathways of tryptophan catabolism as the disease progresses. All patients with cirrhosis showed a decrease in serotonin levels ([MAFLD]p = 0.038; [ALD]p < 0.001) and an increase in kynurenine levels ([MAFLD]p = 0.032; [ALD]p = 0.010). A negative correlation has been established between serotonin levels and the FIB-4 index (p < 0.001). The decrease in serotonin pathway metabolites was associated with manifestations of portal hypertension (p = 0.026), the development of hepatocellular insufficiency (p = 0.008) (hypoalbuminemia; hypocoagulation), and jaundice (p < 0.001), while changes in the kynurenine pathway metabolite xanthurenic acid were associated with the development of hepatic encephalopathy (p = 0.044). Depending on the etiological factors of cirrhosis, disturbances in the metabolic profile may be involved in various pathogenetic pathways.},
}
@article {pmid39589128,
year = {2024},
author = {Agnew, A and Humm, E and Zhou, K and Gunsalus, RP and Zhou, ZH},
title = {Structure and identification of the native PLP synthase complex from Methanosarcina acetivorans lysate.},
journal = {mBio},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0309024},
doi = {10.1128/mbio.03090-24},
pmid = {39589128},
issn = {2150-7511},
abstract = {Many protein-protein interactions behave differently in biochemically purified forms as compared to their in vivo states. As such, determining native protein structures may elucidate structural states previously unknown for even well-characterized proteins. Here, we apply the bottom-up structural proteomics method, cryoID, toward a model methanogenic archaeon. While they are keystone organisms in the global carbon cycle and active members of the human microbiome, there is a general lack of characterization of methanogen enzyme structure and function. Through the cryoID approach, we successfully reconstructed and identified the native Methanosarcina acetivorans pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) synthase (PdxS) complex directly from cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) images of fractionated cellular lysate. We found that the native PdxS complex exists as a homo-dodecamer of PdxS subunits, and the previously proposed supracomplex containing both the synthase (PdxS) and glutaminase (PdxT) was not observed in cellular lysate. Our structure shows that the native PdxS monomer fashions a single 8α/8β TIM-barrel domain, surrounded by seven additional helices to mediate solvent and interface contacts. A density is present at the active site in the cryo-EM map and is interpreted as ribose 5-phosphate. In addition to being the first reconstruction of the PdxS enzyme from a heterogeneous cellular sample, our results reveal a departure from previously published archaeal PdxS crystal structures, lacking the 37-amino-acid insertion present in these prior cases. This study demonstrates the potential of applying the cryoID workflow to capture native structural states at atomic resolution for archaeal systems, for which traditional biochemical sample preparation is nontrivial.IMPORTANCEArchaea are one of the three domains of life, classified as a phylogenetically distinct lineage. There is a paucity of known enzyme structures from organisms of this domain, and this is often exacerbated by characteristically difficult growth conditions and a lack of readily available molecular biology toolkits to study proteins in archaeal cells. As a result, there is a gap in knowledge concerning the mechanisms governing archaeal protein behavior and their impacts on both the environment and human health; case in point, the synthesis of the widely utilized cofactor pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP; a vitamer of vitamin B6, which humans cannot produce). By leveraging the power of single-particle cryo-EM and map-to-primary sequence identification, we determine the native structure of PLP synthase from cellular lysate. Our workflow allows the (i) rapid examination of new or less characterized systems with minimal sample requirements and (ii) discovery of structural states inaccessible by recombinant expression.},
}
@article {pmid39584055,
year = {2024},
author = {Kajova, M and Khawaja, T and Levonen, I and Pietilä, JP and Virtanen, J and Pakkanen, SH and Välimaa, H and Nousiainen, A and Hepojoki, J and Sironen, T and Vierikko, A and Ihalainen, J and Vapalahti, O and Kantele, A},
title = {Convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19 - Donor selection strategies and establishment of a plasma bank.},
journal = {New microbes and new infections},
volume = {62},
number = {},
pages = {101525},
pmid = {39584055},
issn = {2052-2975},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, convalescent plasma (CP) emerged as a potentially effective treatment neutralising SARS-CoV-2. Early CP therapy with high neutralising antibody (NAb) titre may benefit COVID-19 outpatients and, in sufficient quantities even some hospitalised patients. This study details the process of setting up a CP bank, containing high- and low-titre CP for a clinical trial.
STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: We identified 18-65-year-old convalescents with SARS-CoV-2 NAb titres of ≥1:40 in microneutralisation test (MNT). Following eligibility pre-screening, the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service (FRCBS) determined suitability as CP donors.
RESULTS: Of the 6466 COVID-19 convalescents contacted, 1481 provided serum, with 851 (57.5 %) exhibiting NAb titres ≥1:40. Participation barriers included reluctance, advanced age and, for women, insufficient body size. Of the volunteers, 125 were evaluated at FRCBS, with major exclusions for HLA antibodies (42 women), interferon antibodies (five men), and NAb titres waning below 1:20 (16 participants). Finally, 70 underwent plasmapheresis, resulting in 50 suitable CP donors (0.8 % of initial contacts and 3.4 % of those tested for NAb).
DISCUSSION: The process of setting up a CP bank proved challenging. Excessive laboratory workloads during a pandemic hamper their ability to conduct MNT, underscoring the need for rapid screening tests. Only a small proportion of our convalescents exhibited high-titre CP, this fraction declining over time because of waning immunity. Strict plasmapheresis criteria further constrained donor eligibility. Establishing a plasma bank requires meticulous planning to maximize efficiency. Detailed insights from current experiences may prove critical in future pandemics before other remedies and vaccines become available.},
}
@article {pmid39582897,
year = {2024},
author = {Wang, Z and Wu, X and Wang, Y and Wen, Q and Cui, B and Zhang, F},
title = {Colonic transendoscopic enteral tubing is revolutionizing intestinal therapeutics, diagnosis, and microbiome research.},
journal = {Therapeutic advances in gastroenterology},
volume = {17},
number = {},
pages = {17562848241301574},
pmid = {39582897},
issn = {1756-283X},
abstract = {The intestine, as a crucial organ of the human body, has remained enigmatic despite the remarkable advancements in modern medical technology. Over the past decades, the invention of endoscopic technology has made the noninvasive intervention of the intestine a reality, expanding diagnostic and therapeutic options for diseases. However, due to the single-treatment feature of endoscopic procedures, continuous or repeated medication administration, sampling, and decompression drainage within the intestine have yet to be fulfilled. These limitations persisted until the invention of colonic transendoscopic enteral tubing (TET) in 2014, which realized repeated fecal microbiota transplantation, medication administration, and decompression drainage for the treatment of colon perforation and intestinal obstruction, as well as in situ dynamic sampling. These breakthroughs have not gone unnoticed, gaining global attention and recommendations from guidelines and consensuses. TET has emerged as a novel microbial research tool that offers new paradigms for human microbiome research. This review aims to update the research progress based on TET.},
}
@article {pmid39581825,
year = {2024},
author = {Isali, I and Almassi, N and Nizam, A and Campbell, R and Weight, C and Gupta, S and Pooja, G and Fulmes, A and Mishra, K and Abbosh, P and Bukavina, L},
title = {State of the Art: The Microbiome in Bladder Cancer.},
journal = {Urologic oncology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.urolonc.2024.11.008},
pmid = {39581825},
issn = {1873-2496},
abstract = {This review assesses the current understanding of the relationship between the human microbiome and BCa. Recognizing how the microbiome affects the tumor microenvironment provides valuable insights into cancer biology, potentially uncovering interactions that could be leveraged to develop innovative therapeutic approaches. By clarifying these intricate microbial-tumor dynamics, novel targets for microbiome-based interventions can be identified, ultimately improving treatment effectiveness and patient outcomes. Current literature lacks comprehensive insights into the effects of BCa treatment on the microbiome and the prevalence of immunotherapy-related toxicities. Further research into the microbiome's role in BCa development could bridge the gap between fundamental research and therapeutic applications. Implementing microbiome surveillance, metagenomic sequencing, and metabolomics in clinical trials could deepen our understanding of BCa and its treatment. This review explores the existing understanding of the urine, tissue, and gut microbiomes and their connections to BCa. Enhanced knowledge of these relationships can pave the way for future research to identify reliable disease predictors, prognostic markers, and novel therapeutic targets.},
}
@article {pmid39575247,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhu, Y and Liang, X and Zhi, M and Li, L and Zhang, G and Chen, C and Wang, L and Wang, P and Zhong, N and Feng, Q and Li, Z},
title = {Succession of the multi-site microbiome along pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tumorigenesis.},
journal = {Frontiers in immunology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1487242},
pmid = {39575247},
issn = {1664-3224},
mesh = {Humans ; *Carcinoma, Pancreatic Ductal/microbiology/pathology ; *Pancreatic Neoplasms/microbiology/pathology ; Male ; Female ; Microbiota ; Middle Aged ; Saliva/microbiology ; Aged ; Carcinogenesis ; Bacteria/classification/genetics ; Pancreatitis, Chronic/microbiology ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; Adult ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: To investigate microbial characteristics across multibody sites from chronic pancreatitis (CP), through pancreatic benign tumors, to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) at different stages.
METHODS: 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) amplicon sequencing was conducted on saliva, duodenal fluid, and pancreatic tissue obtained via endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) of patients with CP, pancreatic benign tumors, PDAC in stage I/II, III, and IV. The neutral community model (NCM) assessed the microbial assembly contribution and MaAslin2 identified the differential microbes.
RESULTS: From CP to stage IV PDAC patients, there was a marked surge in influence of salivary and duodenal microbiota on constitution of pancreatic microbial communities. Our observations revealed a successive alteration in microbial species across various bodily sites during PDAC tumorigenesis. Notably, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Treponema denticola, Peptoanaerobacter stomatis, Propionibacterium acidifaciens, Porphyromonas endodontalis, Filifactor alocis, etc., sequentially increased along PDAC progression in pancreatic tissue, whereas bacteria commonly used as probiotics Bifidobacterium breve, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, etc., declined. Furthermore, the sequentially escalating trends of Peptoanaerobacter stomatis and Propionibacterium acidifaciens during PDAC tumorigenesis were mirrored in duodenal fluid and saliva. Porphyromonas gingivalis, Porphyromonas endodontalis, and Filifactor alocis, which intensified from CP to stage IV PDAC in pancreatic tissue, were also found to be enriched in saliva of patients with short-term survival (STS) compared with those with long-term survival (LTS).
CONCLUSIONS: Salivary and duodenal microorganisms were prominent factors in shaping pancreatic microbial landscape in PDAC context. Further exploration of these microbial entities is imperative to unravel their specific roles in PDAC pathogenesis, potentially yielding insights for future therapeutic strategies.},
}
@article {pmid39575165,
year = {2024},
author = {Teng, Z and Li, Q and Shen, XF},
title = {Correlations of Nasal Microbiome with Allergic Rhinitis and Its Symptoms Severity in Children Progression.},
journal = {Journal of asthma and allergy},
volume = {17},
number = {},
pages = {1187-1196},
pmid = {39575165},
issn = {1178-6965},
abstract = {OBJECTIVE: Human microbiome is involved in the pathogenesis of allergic diseases, but the impact of nasal microbiota on allergic rhinitis (AR) symptoms severity has not been evaluated. This study aimed to characterize nasal microbiome in AR children and its correlations with AR symptoms.
METHODS: According to diagnostic guidelines for AR, 45 AR children and 40 healthy subjects were recruited from July to August in 2023. Based on the total score of nasal symptoms (TNSS), the 45 AR patients were divided into a mild AR group (MAR) (n = 16) and a moderate or severe AR group (MSAR) (n = 29). Nasal swabs were collected for microbiome analysis using 16S-rDNA sequencing.
RESULTS: The Simpson and Shannon indices were significantly higher in the AR group compared to the health control group, indicating an increase of nasal microbiota at the species evenness level in AR children. Moreover, the species evenness was significantly increased in the MSAR group compared to the MAR group. Staphylococcus (member of the Firmicutes phylum) was significantly dominant in the AR group, but Moraxella (member of the Proteobacteria phylum) was significantly dominant in the CG group. The LEfSe analysis showed that the mean relative abundances of Ralstonia in the MSAR group was higher than that in the MAR group. Meanwhile, the abundance divided by Ralstonia of Spearman correlation coefficients was positively correlated with the TNSS of AR symptoms (r = 0.4, P = 0.009).
CONCLUSION: The elevation of species evenness in nasal microbiome was likely related to the aggravation of AR symptoms. The Ralstonia may play a pro-inflammatory role in AR.},
}
@article {pmid39574598,
year = {2024},
author = {Nguyen, UT and Salamzade, R and Sandstrom, S and Swaney, MH and Townsend, EC and Wu, S and Cheong, JZA and Sardina, JA and Ludwikoski, I and Rybolt, M and Wan, H and Carlson, CM and Zaronowaki, R and Andes, DR and Currie, C and Kalan, L},
title = {Large-scale investigation for antimicrobial activity reveals novel defensive species across the healthy skin microbiome.},
journal = {bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1101/2024.11.04.621544},
pmid = {39574598},
issn = {2692-8205},
abstract = {The human skin microbiome constitutes a dynamic barrier that can impede pathogen invasion by producing antimicrobial natural products. Gene clusters encoding for production of secondary metabolites, biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), that are enriched in the human skin microbiome relative to other ecological settings, position this niche as a promising source for new natural product mining. Here, we introduce a new human microbiome isolate collection, the EPithelial Isolate Collection (EPIC). It includes a large phylogenetically diverse set of human skin-derived bacterial strains from eight body sites. This skin collection, consisting of 980 strains is larger and more diverse than existing resources, includes hundreds of rare and low-abundance species, and hundreds of unique BGCs. Using a large-scale co-culture screen to assess 8,756 pairwise interactions between skin-associated bacteria and potential pathogens, we reveal broad antifungal activity by skin microbiome members. Integrating 287 whole isolate genomes and 268 metagenomes from sampling sites demonstrates that while the distribution of BGC types is stable across body sites, specific gene cluster families (GCFs), each predicted to encode for a distinct secondary metabolite, can substantially vary. Sites that are dry or rarely moist harbor the greatest potential for discovery of novel bioactive metabolites. Among our discoveries are four novel bacterial species, three of which exert significant and broad-spectrum antifungal activity. This comprehensive isolate collection advances our understanding of the skin microbiomes biosynthetic capabilities and pathogen-fighting mechanisms, opening new avenues towards antimicrobial drug discovery and microbiome engineering.},
}
@article {pmid39571733,
year = {2024},
author = {Yu, J and Feng, L and Luo, Z and Yang, J and Zhang, Q and Liu, C and Liang, D and Xie, Y and Li, H and Gong, J and He, Z and Lan, P},
title = {Interleukin-10 deficiency suppresses colorectal cancer metastasis by enriching gut Parabacteroides distasonis.},
journal = {Journal of advanced research},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.jare.2024.11.024},
pmid = {39571733},
issn = {2090-1224},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: The intricate interplay of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and gut microbiota influences tumor development and progression, yet the impacts on colorectal cancer (CRC) metastasis remain incompletely understood.
METHODS: The impact of Il10 deficiency on CRC metastasis was first evaluated in CRC metastasis tumor samples and mouse model. Antibiotic sterilization and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) experiment were used to assess the role of gut microbiota in IL-10 mediated CRC metastasis, and full-length 16S rDNA sequencing analysis further identified the potential target bacteria influencing CRC metastasis. The inhibitory effect of Parabacteroides distasonis (P. distasonis) on CRC metastasis was evaluated by oral administration in mice. Key metabolites involved in P. distasonis inhibition of CRC metastasis was identified by widely-targeted metabolome analysis and validated both in vivo and in vitro. The underlying mechanisms of P-hydroxyphenyl acetic acid (4-HPAA) inhibiting CRC metastasis was investigated via RNA-sequencing and validated in cellular experiments.
RESULTS: We revealed that serum IL-10 levels were markedly elevated in metastatic CRC patients compared to non-metastatic cases. In parallel, Il10-deficiency (Il10[-/]) in mice resulted in decreased CRC metastasis in a gut microbiota-dependent manner. Mechanistically, Il10[-/-] mice reshaped gut microbiota composition, notably enriching P. distasonis. The enriched P. distasonis produced 4-HPAA, which activated the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) and subsequently inhibited the expression of VEGFA, a typical oncogene, thereby sequentially suppressing CRC metastasis. Importantly, engineered bacteria capable of producing 4-HPAA effectively hindered CRC metastasis. Furthermore, AHR depletion significantly disrupted the 4-HPAA-induced reduction in CRC cell migration and the inhibition of metastasis in both in vitro and in vivo lung metastasis mouse models.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate the significance of IL-10 deficiency in suppressing CRC metastasis through the 4-HPPA-AHR-VEGFA axis mediated by gut P. distasonis, suggesting that P. distasonis or 4-HPAA supplementation could offer a promising therapeutic strategy for CRC metastasis prevention.},
}
@article {pmid39569373,
year = {2024},
author = {Talukdar, D and Sarkar, M and Ahrodia, T and Kumar, S and De, D and Nath, S and Jana, P and Verma, J and Mehta, O and Kothidar, A and Yodhaanjali, JR and Sharma, K and Bakshi, S and Singh, U and Kshetrapal, P and Wadhwa, N and Thiruvengadam, R and , and Nair, GB and Bhatnagar, S and Mukherjee, S and Das, B},
title = {Previse preterm birth in early pregnancy through vaginal microbiome signatures using metagenomics and dipstick assays.},
journal = {iScience},
volume = {27},
number = {11},
pages = {111238},
pmid = {39569373},
issn = {2589-0042},
abstract = {Annually, in India, 13% of all newborns are preterm, accounting for 23.4% of preterm birth (PTB) globally. The composition and diversity of the vaginal microbiome have a notable degree of ethnic inequality. For understanding differences in vaginal microbiome composition and functions between adverse and normal pregnancy, we have collected, processed and sequenced 600 high vaginal swab (HVS) samples across the three trimesters of pregnancy from 140 women who delivered at term and 60 women who delivered PTB, adopting a targeted metagenomics approach. The microbial signatures in HVS samples showed Lactobacillus genera to be highly abundant in term birth (TB), while in early pregnancy the abundances of Gardnerella, Atopobium, and Sneathia were found to be high in PTB. We further extended our analysis, identified specific microbial genomic signatures, and developed a dipstick assay for rapid identification of PTB-associated microbiota in HVS samples in low-resource settings.},
}
@article {pmid39565565,
year = {2024},
author = {Pino, A and Hiippala, K and Ronkainen, A and Vaccalluzzo, A and Caggia, C and Satokari, R and Randazzo, CL},
title = {Adhesion Properties and Pathogen Inhibition of Vaginal-Derived Lactobacilli.},
journal = {Probiotics and antimicrobial proteins},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39565565},
issn = {1867-1314},
abstract = {In the present study, twenty-seven (27) lactobacilli strains, isolated from the vagina of healthy Italian women of reproductive age, were screened for probiotic properties. The strains were evaluated for antagonistic activity against pathogens, adhesion abilities, and potential to displace and/or inhibit the adhesion of previously adhered pathogens as a primary strain selection criterion. Overall, all the tested lactobacilli inhibited at least three pathogens, and the majority of them exhibited antimicrobial activity against Enterobacter cloacae DSM 30054, Pseudomonas aeruginosa DSM 3227, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa DSM 1117. The complete neutralization of antimicrobial activity after cell-free supernatant (CFS) neutralization suggested a pivotal role for lactic acid or other organic acids secreted by the lactobacilli. The strains showed variability in their adhesion levels, but all tested strains adhered to both human colonic epithelial cells (HT-29) and vaginal cells (VK2/E6E7) with adhesion percentages exceeding 1%. The ability to displace or inhibit pathogens was dependent on the pathogen and the lactobacilli strain; the pathogen displacement levels ranged from 9 to 82%, while pathogen exclusion levels varied from 1 to 99%. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the protective effect of vaginal lactobacilli against pathogens and confirms the suitability of the vaginal microbiota as a source of potential probiotic strains. The selected lactobacilli hold promise for the formulation of supplements to enhance genitourinary tract health.},
}
@article {pmid39565308,
year = {2024},
author = {Dong, PT and Shi, W and He, X and Borisy, GG},
title = {Adhesive interactions within microbial consortia can be differentiated at the single-cell level through expansion microscopy.},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
volume = {121},
number = {48},
pages = {e2411617121},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2411617121},
pmid = {39565308},
issn = {1091-6490},
support = {DE022586//HHS | NIH (NIH)/ ; DE023810//HHS | NIH (NIH)/ ; DE030943//HHS | NIH (NIH)/ ; K99DE033794//HHS | NIH (NIH)/ ; },
mesh = {*Biofilms/growth & development ; *Microbial Consortia/physiology ; *Bacterial Adhesion/physiology ; Single-Cell Analysis/methods ; Microscopy/methods ; Streptococcus/physiology ; Streptococcus mutans/physiology ; Fusobacterium nucleatum/physiology ; },
abstract = {Investigating microbe-microbe interactions at the single-cell level is critical to unraveling the ecology and dynamics of microbial communities. In many situations, microbes assemble themselves into densely packed multispecies biofilms. The density and complexity pose acute difficulties for visualizing individual cells and analyzing their interactions. Here, we address this problem through an unconventional application of expansion microscopy, which allows for the "decrowding" of individual bacterial cells within a multispecies community. Expansion microscopy generally has been carried out under isotropic expansion conditions and used as a resolution-enhancing method. In our variation of expansion microscopy, we carry out expansion under heterotropic conditions; that is, we expand the space between bacterial cells but not the space within individual cells. The separation of individual bacterial cells from each other reflects the competition between the expansion force pulling them apart and the adhesion force holding them together. We employed heterotropic expansion microscopy to study the relative strength of adhesion in model biofilm communities. These included mono- and dual-species Streptococcus biofilms and a three-species synthetic community (Fusobacterium nucleatum, Streptococcus mutans, and Streptococcus sanguinis) under conditions that facilitated interspecies coaggregation. Using adhesion mutants, we investigated the interplay between F. nucleatum outer membrane protein RadD and different Streptococcus species. We also examined the Schaalia-TM7 epibiont association. Quantitative proximity analysis was used to evaluate the separation of individual microbial members. Our study demonstrates that heterotropic expansion microscopy can "decrowd" dense biofilm communities, improve visualization of individual bacterial members, and enable analysis of microbe-microbe adhesive interactions at the single-cell level.},
}
@article {pmid39563467,
year = {2024},
author = {Liu, R and Wang, Y and Cheng, D},
title = {Micro-DeMix: a mixture beta-multinomial model for investigating the heterogeneity of the stool microbiome compositions.},
journal = {Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/bioinformatics/btae667},
pmid = {39563467},
issn = {1367-4811},
abstract = {MOTIVATION: Extensive research has uncovered the critical role of the human gut microbiome in various aspects of health, including metabolism, nutrition, physiology, and immune function. Fecal microbiota is often used as a proxy for understanding the gut microbiome, but it represents an aggregate view, overlooking spatial variations across different gastrointestinal (GI) locations. Emerging studies with spatial microbiome data collected from specific GI regions offer a unique opportunity to better understand the spatial composition of the stool microbiome.
RESULTS: We introduce Micro-DeMix, a mixture beta-multinomial model that deconvolutes the fecal microbiome at the compositional level by integrating stool samples with spatial microbiome data. Micro-DeMix facilitates the comparison of microbial compositions across different GI regions within the stool microbiome through a hypothesis-testing framework. We demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of Micro-DeMix using multiple simulated data sets and the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) data from the NIH Integrative Human Microbiome Project.
The R package is available at https://github.com/liuruoqian/MicroDemix.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.},
}
@article {pmid39562050,
year = {2024},
author = {Li, N and Li, Y and Huang, Z and Cao, Z and Cao, C and Gao, X and Zuo, T},
title = {Faecal phageome transplantation alleviates intermittent intestinal inflammation in IBD and the timing of transplantation matters: a preclinical proof-of-concept study in mice.},
journal = {Gut},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1136/gutjnl-2024-333598},
pmid = {39562050},
issn = {1468-3288},
}
@article {pmid39561848,
year = {2024},
author = {Yang, J and Sun, S and Sun, N and Lu, L and Zhang, C and Shi, W and Zhao, Y and Jia, S},
title = {HMMER-extractor: An auxiliary toolkit for identifying genomic macromolecular metabolites based on hidden Markov models.},
journal = {International journal of biological macromolecules},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {137666},
doi = {10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.137666},
pmid = {39561848},
issn = {1879-0003},
abstract = {Human microbiome contains various microbial macromolecules with important biological functions. The Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) can overcome the problem of low similarity sequences with distant relationships and are widely implemented within various sequence alignment softwares. However, the HMM-based sequence alignments can generate a large number of results, how to quickly screen and batch extract target homologs from microbiomes is the major sticking points. It is necessary to develop an integrated gene filter and extraction pipeline to quickly and accurately screen homologs. Here, we introduced the HMMER-Extractor for amino acids or nucleotide sequences extraction, which was a supporting toolkit through provided filtering scores and an iterative keyword matching (IKM) logic. To make it more user-friendly and accessible, we further presented a visualized web server platform. An interactive HTML output provided a user-friendly way to browse homologous annotations and sequence extraction. The web server provided the community with a streamlined and user-friendly interface to analyze microbiomes. Through the HMMER-Extractor, we constructed a cardiovascular disease related gene dataset of the macromolecular metabolite trimethylamine (TMA) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) based on 46,699 bacterial genomes from human gut. Approximately 21,014 and 1961 bacterial strains were identified to contain the cnt or cut operon of TMA, and the waa gene cluster of LPS, respectively. The Escherichia coli occupied the largest proportion among all the bacterial species, which belonged to the phyla Firmicutes. The HMMER-Extractor toolkit is an integrated pipeline and has been proven to be accurate and fast in extracting target macromolecular encoding genes from microbial genomes.},
}
@article {pmid39556491,
year = {2024},
author = {Shete, O and Ghosh, TS},
title = {Normal Gut Microbiomes in Diverse Populations: Clinical Implications.},
journal = {Annual review of medicine},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1146/annurev-med-051223-031809},
pmid = {39556491},
issn = {1545-326X},
abstract = {The human microbiome is a sensor and modulator of physiology and homeostasis. Remarkable tractability underpins the promise of therapeutic manipulation of the microbiome. However, the definition of a normal or healthy microbiome has been elusive. This is in part due to the underrepresentation of minority groups and major global regions in microbiome studies to date. We review studies of the microbiome in different populations and highlight a commonality among health-associated microbiome signatures along with major drivers of variation. We also provide an overview of microbiome-associated therapeutic interventions for some widespread, widely studied diseases. We discuss sources of bias and the challenges associated with defining population-specific microbiome reference bases. We propose a roadmap for defining normal microbiome references that can be used for population-customized microbiome therapeutics and diagnostics.},
}
@article {pmid39555415,
year = {2024},
author = {Chen, XY and Liu, Y and Zhu, WB and Li, SH and Wei, S and Cai, J and Lin, Y and Liang, JK and Yan, GM and Guo, L and Hu, C},
title = {Arming oncolytic M1 virus with gasdermin E enhances antitumor efficacy in breast cancer.},
journal = {iScience},
volume = {27},
number = {11},
pages = {111148},
pmid = {39555415},
issn = {2589-0042},
abstract = {Pyroptosis, driven by the N-terminal domain of gasdermin proteins (GSDM), promotes antitumor immunity by attracting lymphocytes to the tumor microenvironment (TME). However, current pyroptosis-inducing therapies like drug injections and phototherapy are limited to localized treatments, making them unsuitable for widespread or microscopic metastatic lesions. This study engineered oncolytic M1 viruses (rM1-mGSDME_FL and rM1-mGSDME_NT) to selectively deliver GSDME to tumor cells. These modified viruses enhanced tumor cell death in breast cancer models, suppressed tumor growth, extended survival in mice, and boosted immune cell infiltration, demonstrating significant anticancer potential through pyroptosis induction.},
}
@article {pmid39547283,
year = {2024},
author = {Zelasko, S and Swaney, MH and Sandstrom, S and Lee, KE and Dixon, J and Riley, C and Watson, L and Godfrey, JJ and Ledrowski, N and Rey, F and Safdar, N and Seroogy, CM and Gern, JE and Kalan, L and Currie, C},
title = {Early-life Upper Airway Microbiota are Associated with Decreased Lower Respiratory Tract Infections.},
journal = {The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.jaci.2024.11.008},
pmid = {39547283},
issn = {1097-6825},
abstract = {Microbial interactions mediating colonization resistance play key roles within the human microbiome, shaping susceptibility to infection from birth. To gain insight into microbiome-mediated defenses and respiratory pathogen colonization dynamics, we sequenced and analyzed nasal (n=229) and oral (n=210) microbiomes with associated health/environmental data from our Wisconsin Infant Study Cohort at age 24-months. Participants with early-life lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) were more likely to be formula-fed, attend daycare, and experience wheezing. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing with detection of viral and bacterial respiratory pathogens revealed nasal microbiome composition to associate with prior LRTI - namely lower alpha diversity, depletion of Prevotella, and enrichment of Moraxella catarrhalis including drug-resistant strains. Prevotella originating from healthy microbiomes had higher biosynthetic gene cluster abundance and exhibited contact-independent inhibition of M. catarrhalis, suggesting interbacterial competition impacts nasal pathogen colonization. This work advances understanding of protective host-microbial interactions occurring in airway microbiomes that alter infection susceptibility in early-life.},
}
@article {pmid39545965,
year = {2024},
author = {Pawlik, MT and Rinneberg, G and Koch, A and Meyringer, H and Loew, TH and Kjellberg, A},
title = {Is there a rationale for hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the patients with Post COVID syndrome? : A critical review.},
journal = {European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39545965},
issn = {1433-8491},
abstract = {The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has resulted in 762 million infections worldwide from 2020 to date, of which approximately ten percent are suffering from the effects after infection in 2019 (COVID-19) [1, 40]. In Germany, it is now assumed that at least one million people suffer from post-COVID condition with long-term consequences. These have been previously reported in diseases like Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Symptoms show a changing variability and recent surveys in the COVID context indicate that 10-30 % of outpatients, 50 to 70% of hospitalised patients suffer from sequelae. Recent data suggest that only 13% of all ill people were completely free of symptoms after recovery [3, 9]. Current hypotheses consider chronic inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, latent viral persistence, autoimmunity, changes of the human microbiome or multilocular sequelae in various organ system after infection. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is applied since 1957 for heart surgery, scuba dive accidents, CO intoxication, air embolisms and infections with anaerobic pathogens. Under hyperbaric pressure, oxygen is physically dissolved in the blood in higher concentrations and reaches levels four times higher than under normobaric oxygen application. Moreover, the alternation of hyperoxia and normoxia induces a variety of processes at the cellular level, which improves oxygen supply in areas of locoregional hypoxia. Numerous target gene effects on new vessel formation, anti-inflammatory and anti-oedematous effects have been demonstrated [74]. The provision of intermittently high, local oxygen concentrations increases repair and regeneration processes and normalises the predominance of hyperinflammation. At present time only one prospective, randomized and placebo-controlled study exists with positive effects on global cognitive function, attention and executive function, psychiatric symptoms and pain interference. In conclusion, up to this date HBO is the only scientifically proven treatment in a prospective randomized controlled trial to be effective for cognitive improvement, regeneration of brain network and improvement of cardiac function. HBOT may have not only theoretical but also potential impact on targets of current pathophysiology of Post COVID condition, which warrants further scientific studies in patients.},
}
@article {pmid39545326,
year = {2024},
author = {Shah, AB and Shim, SH},
title = {Human microbiota peptides: important roles in human health.},
journal = {Natural product reports},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1039/d4np00042k},
pmid = {39545326},
issn = {1460-4752},
abstract = {Covering: 1974 to 2024Human microbiota consist of a diverse array of microorganisms, such as bacteria, Eukarya, archaea, and viruses, which populate various parts of the human body and live in a cooperatively beneficial relationship with the host. They play a crucial role in supporting the functional balance of the microbiome. The coevolutionary progression has led to the development of specialized metabolites that have the potential to substitute traditional antibiotics in combating global health challenges. Although there has been a lot of research on the human microbiota, there is a considerable lack of understanding regarding the wide range of peptides that these microbial populations produce. Particularly noteworthy are the antibiotics that are uniquely produced by the human microbiome, especially by bacteria, to protect against invasive infections. This review seeks to fill this knowledge gap by providing a thorough understanding of various peptides, along with their in-depth biological importance in terms of human disorders. Advancements in genomics and the understanding of molecular mechanisms that control the interactions between microbiota and hosts have made it easier to find peptides that come from the human microbiome. We hope that this review will serve as a basis for developing new therapeutic approaches and personalized healthcare strategies. Additionally, it emphasizes the significance of these microbiota in the field of natural product discovery and development.},
}
@article {pmid39543873,
year = {2024},
author = {Saraswat, I and Goel, A},
title = {Therapeutic Modulation of the Microbiome in Oncology: Current Trends and Future Directions.},
journal = {Current pharmaceutical biotechnology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.2174/0113892010353600241109132441},
pmid = {39543873},
issn = {1873-4316},
abstract = {Cancer is a predominant cause of mortality worldwide, necessitating the development of innovative therapeutic techniques. The human microbiome, particularly the gut microbiota, has become a significant element in cancer research owing to its essential role in sustaining health and influencing disease progression. This review examines the microbiome's makeup and essential functions, including immunological modulation and metabolic regulation, which may be evaluated using sophisticated methodologies such as metagenomics and 16S rRNA sequencing. The microbiome influences cancer development by promoting inflammation, modulating the immune system, and producing carcinogenic compounds. Dysbiosis, or microbial imbalance, can undermine the epithelial barrier and facilitate cancer. The microbiome influences chemotherapy and radiation results by modifying drug metabolism, either enhancing or reducing therapeutic efficacy and contributing to side effects and toxicity. Comprehending these intricate relationships emphasises the microbiome's significance in oncology and accentuates the possibility for microbiome-targeted therapeutics. Contemporary therapeutic approaches encompass the utilisation of probiotics and dietary components to regulate the microbiome, enhance treatment efficacy, and minimise unwanted effects. Advancements in research indicate that personalised microbiome-based interventions, have the potential to transform cancer therapy, by providing more effective and customised treatment alternatives. This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the microbiome's influence on the onset and treatment of cancer, while emphasising current trends and future possibilities for therapeutic intervention.},
}
@article {pmid39541945,
year = {2024},
author = {Wu, J and Zeng, W and Xie, H and Cao, M and Yang, J and Xie, Y and Luo, Z and Zhang, Z and Xu, H and Huang, W and Zhou, T and Tan, J and Wu, X and Yang, Z and Zhu, S and Mao, R and He, Z and Lan, P},
title = {Microbiota-induced alteration of kynurenine metabolism in macrophages drives formation of creeping fat in Crohn's disease.},
journal = {Cell host & microbe},
volume = {32},
number = {11},
pages = {1927-1943.e9},
doi = {10.1016/j.chom.2024.10.008},
pmid = {39541945},
issn = {1934-6069},
abstract = {Hyperplasia of mesenteric tissues in Crohn's disease, called creeping fat (CrF), is associated with surgical recurrence. Although microbiota translocation and colonization have been found in CrF, convincing mouse phenotypes and the underlying mechanisms of CrF formation remain unclear. Utilizing single-nucleus RNA (snRNA) sequencing of CrF and different mouse models, we demonstrate that the commensal Achromobacter pulmonis induces mesenteric adipogenesis through macrophage alteration. Targeted metabolome analysis reveals that L-kynurenine is the most enriched metabolite in CrF. Upregulation of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) enhances kynurenine metabolism and drives mesenteric adipogenesis. Leveraging single-cell RNA (scRNA) sequencing of mouse mesenteric tissues and macrophage-specific IDO1 knockout mice, we verify the role of macrophage-sourced L-kynurenine in mesenteric adipogenesis. Mechanistically, L-kynurenine-induced adipogenesis is mediated by the aryl hydrocarbon receptors in adipocytes. Administration of an IDO1 inhibitor or bacteria engineered to degrade L-kynurenine alleviates mesenteric adipogenesis in mice. Collectively, our study demonstrates that microbiota-induced modulation of macrophage metabolism potentiates CrF formation.},
}
@article {pmid39541940,
year = {2024},
author = {Monzel, E and Desai, MS},
title = {Bacterial small RNA makes a big impact for gut colonization.},
journal = {Cell host & microbe},
volume = {32},
number = {11},
pages = {1875-1877},
doi = {10.1016/j.chom.2024.10.010},
pmid = {39541940},
issn = {1934-6069},
abstract = {The functions of non-coding small RNAs (sRNAs) within the human microbiome remain largely unexplored. In this Cell Host & Microbe issue, El Mouali et al. identify Segatella RNA colonization factor (SrcF), a sRNA from a prevalent gut bacterium Segatella copri. SrcF promotes colonization of S. copri by regulating bacterial degradation of complex dietary carbohydrates.},
}
@article {pmid39540274,
year = {2024},
author = {Arcimowicz, M},
title = {Rational treatment of acute rhinosinusitis in the context of increasing antibiotic resistance.},
journal = {Otolaryngologia polska = The Polish otolaryngology},
volume = {78},
number = {6},
pages = {1-11},
doi = {10.5604/01.3001.0054.7506},
pmid = {39540274},
issn = {2300-8423},
mesh = {Humans ; *Sinusitis/drug therapy/microbiology ; *Rhinitis/drug therapy/microbiology ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use ; Acute Disease ; Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Adult ; COVID-19 ; Drug Resistance, Bacterial ; Rhinosinusitis ; },
abstract = {Acute rhinosinusitis is one of the most common diseases in the population, both in primary and specialist otolaryngological care. It is also responsible for a disturbingly high percentage of prescribed antibiotic therapy, regardless of the etiology of the disease. Despite the fact that acute viral and acute postviral rhinosinusitis dominate among the phenotypes of acute rhinosinusitis, and the development of acute bacterial rhinosinusitis occurs in only 0.5-2% of all cases in adults and 5-10% in children, antibiotics still remain an important element of treatment, despite alarming data on the growing antibiotic resistance and the adverse effect of antibiotics on the human microbiome, leading to dysbiosis. The discovery of antibiotics was one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine, but their inappropriate use leads to the gradual increase in the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance, considered one of the most serious public health problems, recognized by the WHO as one of the 10 greatest threats to human health in the 21[st] century. The unjustified use of antibiotics in outpatient care is the key to the growth of this problem, in parallel with the lack of patient compliance. The COVID pandemic has intensified this unfavourable trend. That is why the knowledge of antibiotic stewardship is so important. According to the guidelines, in the therapy of acute rhinosinusitis, symptomatic and anti-inflammatory treatment dominates, and antibiotic therapy has very strictly defined and limited indications. The latest guidelines also recommend herbal medicines, including BNO 1016, in the treatment of acute viral and postviral rhinosinusitis. Available studies indicate that it has a beneficial effect not only on shortening the duration of the disease and reducing symptoms, but also reduces the need for antibiotic treatment in acute rhinosinusitis. Complications of acute rhinosinusitis are relatively rare and are not related to taking antibiotics.},
}
@article {pmid39539377,
year = {2024},
author = {Efremova, I and Alieva, A and Maslennikov, R and Poluektova, E and Zharkova, M and Kudryavtseva, A and Krasnov, G and Zharikov, Y and Nerestyuk, Y and Karchevskaya, A and Ivashkin, V},
title = {Akkermansia muciniphila is associated with normal muscle mass and Eggerthella is related with sarcopenia in cirrhosis.},
journal = {Frontiers in nutrition},
volume = {11},
number = {},
pages = {1438897},
doi = {10.3389/fnut.2024.1438897},
pmid = {39539377},
issn = {2296-861X},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia and gut dysbiosis are common in cirrhosis. The aim is to study the correlations between the gut microbiota taxa and muscle mass level in cirrhosis.
METHODS: The study included 40 cirrhosis patients including 18 patients with sarcopenia. The gut microbiota composition was assessed using amplicon sequencing of the hypervariable V3-V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene. The skeletal muscle mass, subcutaneous and visceral fat levels were assessed with abdominal computed tomography as skeletal muscle, subcutaneous and visceral fat indices (SMI, SFI and VFI).
RESULTS: Patients with sarcopenia had more relative abundance (RA) of Agathobacter, Anaerostipes, Butyricicoccus, Dorea, Eggerthella, Microbacteriaceae, Veillonella and less RA of Akkermansiaceae, Akkermansia muciniphila, Verrucomicrobiae and Bilophila compared to patients with normal muscle mass. SMI directly correlated with RA of Akkermansia, Alistipes indistinctus, Anaerotruncus, Atopobiaceae, Bacteroides clarus, Bacteroides salyersiae, Barnesiellaceae, Bilophila wadsworthia, Pseudomonadota, Olsenella, and Parabacteroides distasonis, and negatively correlated with RA of Anaerostipes and Eggerthella. Sarcopenia was detected in 20.0% patients whose gut microbiota had Akkermansia but not Eggerthella, and in all the patients, whose gut microbiota had Eggerthella but not Akkermansia. The Akkermansia and Eggerthella abundances were independent determinants of SMI. RA of Akkermansia, Akkermansia muciniphila, Akkermansiaceae, Bacteroides salyersiae, Barnesiella, Bilophila, Desulfobacterota, Verrucomicrobiota and other taxa correlated positively and RA of Anaerovoracaceae, Elusimicrobiaceae, Elusimicrobium, Kiritimatiellae, Spirochaetota, and other taxa correlated negatively with the SFI. RA of Alistripes, Romboutsia, Succinivibrio, and Succinivibrionaceae correlated positively and RA of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron correlated negatively with VFI.
CONCLUSION: The muscle mass level in cirrhosis correlates with the abundance of several gut microbiota taxa, of which Akkermansia and Eggerthella seems to be the most important.},
}
@article {pmid39534501,
year = {2024},
author = {Koh, H},
title = {A general kernel machine regression framework using principal component analysis for jointly testing main and interaction effects: Applications to human microbiome studies.},
journal = {NAR genomics and bioinformatics},
volume = {6},
number = {4},
pages = {lqae148},
doi = {10.1093/nargab/lqae148},
pmid = {39534501},
issn = {2631-9268},
abstract = {The effect of a treatment on a health or disease response can be modified by genetic or microbial variants. It is the matter of interaction effects between genetic or microbial variants and a treatment. To powerfully discover genetic or microbial biomarkers, it is crucial to incorporate such interaction effects in addition to the main effects. However, in the context of kernel machine regression analysis of its kind, existing methods cannot be utilized in a situation, where a kernel is available but its underlying real variants are unknown. To address such limitations, I introduce a general kernel machine regression framework using principal component analysis for jointly testing main and interaction effects. It begins with extracting principal components from an input kernel through the singular value decomposition. Then, it employs the principal components as surrogate variants to construct three endogenous kernels for the main effects, interaction effects, and both of them, respectively. Hence, it works with a kernel as an input without knowing its underlying real variants, and also detects either the main effects, interaction effects, or both of them robustly. I also introduce its omnibus testing extension to multiple input kernels, named OmniK. I demonstrate its use for human microbiome studies.},
}
@article {pmid39531852,
year = {2024},
author = {Simbirtseva, KY and O'Toole, PW},
title = {Healthy and Unhealthy Aging and the Human Microbiome.},
journal = {Annual review of medicine},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1146/annurev-med-042423-042542},
pmid = {39531852},
issn = {1545-326X},
abstract = {An altered gut microbiome is a feature of many multifactorial diseases, and microbiome effects on host metabolism, immune function, and possibly neurological function are implicated. Increased biological age is accompanied by a change in the gut microbiome. However, age-related health loss does not occur uniformly across all subjects but rather depends on differential loss of gut commensals and gain of pathobionts. In this article, we summarize the known and possible effects of the gut microbiome on the hallmarks of aging and describe the most plausible mechanisms. Understanding and targeting these factors could lead to prolonging health span by rationally maintaining the gut microbiome.},
}
@article {pmid39529240,
year = {2024},
author = {Liu, S and Zhang, Z and Wang, X and Ma, Y and Ruan, H and Wu, X and Li, B and Mou, X and Chen, T and Lu, Z and Zhao, W},
title = {Biosynthetic potential of the gut microbiome in longevous populations.},
journal = {Gut microbes},
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {2426623},
doi = {10.1080/19490976.2024.2426623},
pmid = {39529240},
issn = {1949-0984},
mesh = {*Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Humans ; *Feces/microbiology ; Aged ; *Metagenomics ; Multigene Family ; Aged, 80 and over ; Terpenes/metabolism ; Longevity ; Akkermansia/metabolism ; Adult ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Cohort Studies ; Biological Products/metabolism ; Metagenome ; Young Adult ; },
abstract = {Gut microbiome plays a pivotal role in combating diseases and facilitating healthy aging, and natural products derived from biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) of the human microbiome exhibit significant biological activities. However, the natural products of the gut microbiome in long-lived populations remain poorly understood. Here, we integrated six cohorts of long-lived populations, encompassing a total of 1029 fecal metagenomic samples, and employed the metagenomic single sample assembled BGCs (MSSA-BGCs) analysis pipeline to investigate the natural products and their associated species. Our findings reveal that the BGC composition of the extremely long-lived group differed significantly from that of younger elderly and young individuals across five cohorts. Terpene and Type I PKS BGCs were enriched in the extremely long-lived, whereas cyclic-lactone-autoinducer BGCs were more prevalent in the young. Association analysis indicated that terpene BGCs were strongly associated with the abundance of Akkermansia muciniphila, which was also more abundant in the long-lived elderly across at least three cohorts. We assembled 18 A. muciniphila draft genomes using metagenomic data from the extremely long-lived group across six cohorts and discovered that they all harbor two classes of terpene BGCs, which aligns with the 97 complete genomes of A. muciniphila strains retrieved from the NCBI database. The core domains of these two BGC classes are squalene/phytoene synthases involved in the biosynthesis of tri- and tetraterpenes. Furthermore, the abundance of fecal A. muciniphila was significantly associated with eight types of triterpenoids. Targeted terpenoid metabolomic analysis revealed that two triterpenoids, Holstinone C and colubrinic acid, were enriched in the A. muciniphila culture solution compared to the medium, thereby confirming the production of triterpenoids by A. muciniphila. The natural products derived from the gut of long-lived populations provide intriguing indications of their potential beneficial roles in regulating health.},
}
@article {pmid39526038,
year = {2024},
author = {Feng, C and Jia, H and Wang, H and Wang, J and Lin, M and Hu, X and Yu, C and Song, H and Wang, L},
title = {MicroNet-MIMRF: a microbial network inference approach based on mutual information and Markov random fields.},
journal = {Bioinformatics advances},
volume = {4},
number = {1},
pages = {vbae167},
doi = {10.1093/bioadv/vbae167},
pmid = {39526038},
issn = {2635-0041},
abstract = {MOTIVATION: The human microbiome, comprises complex associations and communication networks among microbial communities, which are crucial for maintaining health. The construction of microbial networks is vital for elucidating these associations. However, existing microbial networks inference methods cannot solve the issues of zero-inflation and non-linear associations. Therefore, necessitating novel methods to improve the accuracy of microbial networks inference.
RESULTS: In this study, we introduce the Microbial Network based on Mutual Information and Markov Random Fields (MicroNet-MIMRF) as a novel approach for inferring microbial networks. Abundance data of microbes are modeled through the zero-inflated Poisson distribution, and the discrete matrix is estimated for further calculation. Markov random fields based on mutual information are used to construct accurate microbial networks. MicroNet-MIMRF excels at estimating pairwise associations between microbes, effectively addressing zero-inflation and non-linear associations in microbial abundance data. It outperforms commonly used techniques in simulation experiments, achieving area under the curve values exceeding 0.75 for all parameters. A case study on inflammatory bowel disease data further demonstrates the method's ability to identify insightful associations. Conclusively, MicroNet-MIMRF is a powerful tool for microbial network inference that handles the biases caused by zero-inflation and overestimation of associations.
The MicroNet-MIMRF is provided at https://github.com/Fionabiostats/MicroNet-MIMRF.},
}
@article {pmid39512939,
year = {2024},
author = {Costa, CFFA and Correia-de-Sá, T and Araujo, R and Barbosa, F and Burnet, PWJ and Ferreira-Gomes, J and Sampaio-Maia, B},
title = {The oral-gut microbiota relationship in healthy humans: identifying shared bacteria between environments and age groups.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1475159},
doi = {10.3389/fmicb.2024.1475159},
pmid = {39512939},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Although the oral cavity and the gut are anatomically continuous regions of the gastrointestinal tract, research on the relationship between oral and gut microbiota remains sparse. Oral-gut bacterial translocation is mostly studied in pathological contexts, thus evidence of translocation in healthy conditions is still scarce. Studying the oral-gut microbiota relationship in humans in different life stages is necessary in order to understand how these microbial communities might relate throughout life.
METHODS: In this study, saliva and fecal samples were collected from healthy participants (39 children, 97 adults). Microbiota analysis was carried out by sequencing the V4 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene, followed by amplicon sequence variant (ASV) analysis.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Although the oral and gut microbiota are vastly different, a subset of 61 ASVs were present in both the oral cavity and gut of the same individual, and represented 1.6% of all ASVs detected. From these, 26 ASVs (classified into 18 genera: Actinomyces, Rothia, Bacteroides, Porphyromonas, Prevotella, Alistipes, Fusobacterium, Neisseria, Haemophilus, Akkermansia, Solobacterium, Granulicatella, Streptococcus, Gemella, Mogibacterium, Dialister, Veillonella, Christensenellaceae R-7 group) were present in both children and adults, suggesting the possibility of persistent colonization of both habitats by these microorganisms, initiating in childhood. Additionally, 62% of shared ASVs were more abundant in the oral cavity, indicating that oral-to-gut translocation may be the main route of translocation between environments, and highlighting that this phenomenon might be more common than previously thought in healthy individuals of all ages.},
}
@article {pmid39507669,
year = {2024},
author = {Buytaers, FE and Berger, N and Van der Heyden, J and Roosens, NHC and De Keersmaecker, SCJ},
title = {The potential of including the microbiome as biomarker in population-based health studies: methods and benefits.},
journal = {Frontiers in public health},
volume = {12},
number = {},
pages = {1467121},
doi = {10.3389/fpubh.2024.1467121},
pmid = {39507669},
issn = {2296-2565},
mesh = {Humans ; *Biomarkers/analysis ; *Microbiota ; Population Health ; Health Status ; Public Health ; },
abstract = {The key role of our microbiome in influencing our health status, and its relationship with our environment and lifestyle or health behaviors, have been shown in the last decades. Therefore, the human microbiome has the potential to act as a biomarker or indicator of health or exposure to health risks in the general population, if information on the microbiome can be collected in population-based health surveys or cohorts. It could then be associated with epidemiological participant data such as demographic, clinical or exposure profiles. However, to our knowledge, microbiome sampling has not yet been included as biological evidence of health or exposure to health risks in large population-based studies representative of the general population. In this mini-review, we first highlight some practical considerations for microbiome sampling and analysis that need to be considered in the context of a population study. We then present some examples of topics where the microbiome could be included as biological evidence in population-based health studies for the benefit of public health, and how this could be developed in the future. In doing so, we aim to highlight the benefits of having microbiome data available at the level of the general population, combined with epidemiological data from health surveys, and hence how microbiological data could be used in the future to assess human health. We also stress the challenges that remain to be overcome to allow the use of this microbiome data in order to improve proactive public health policies.},
}
@article {pmid39506745,
year = {2024},
author = {Liechty, ZS and Agans, RT and Barbato, RA and Colston, SM and Christian, MR and Hammamieh, R and Kardish, MR and Karl, JP and Leary, DH and Mauzy, CA and de Goodfellow, IP and Racicot, K and Soares, JW and Stamps, BW and Sweet, CR and Tuck, SM and Whitman, JA and Goodson, MS},
title = {Meeting report of the seventh annual Tri-Service Microbiome Consortium Symposium.},
journal = {BMC proceedings},
volume = {18},
number = {Suppl 20},
pages = {25},
pmid = {39506745},
issn = {1753-6561},
abstract = {The Tri-Service Microbiome Consortium (TSMC) was founded to enhance collaboration, coordination, and communication of microbiome research among DoD organizations and to facilitate resource, material and information sharing among consortium members, which includes collaborators in academia and industry. The 2023 annual symposium was a hybrid meeting held in Washington DC on 26-27 September 2023 concurrent with the virtual attendance, with oral and poster presentations and discussions centered on microbiome-related topics within five broad thematic areas: 1) Environmental Microbiome Characterization; 2) Microbiome Analysis; 3) Human Microbiome Characterization; 4) Microbiome Engineering; and 5) In Vitro and In Vivo Microbiome Models. Collectively, the symposium provided an update on the scope of current DoD and DoD-affiliated microbiome research efforts and fostered collaborative opportunities. This report summarizes the presentations and outcomes of the 7th annual TSMC symposium.},
}
@article {pmid39505797,
year = {2024},
author = {Ji, Y and Sun, H and Wang, Y and Li, Y and Piao, R and Bu, L and Xu, H},
title = {Characterizing the oral and gastrointestinal microbiome associated with healthy aging: insights from long-lived populations in Northeastern China.},
journal = {GeroScience},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39505797},
issn = {2509-2723},
support = {2022JH2/101300031//Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province/ ; 2020YFA0907800//Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China/ ; 22-322-3-05//Natural Science Foundation of Shenyang Municipality/ ; },
abstract = {The oral and gastrointestinal (GI) tract microbiota in humans is susceptible to geographical influences and represents vital factors impacting healthy aging. The northeastern region of China, characterized by distinct dietary and climatic conditions, significantly influences the human microbiome composition. However, the microbial structure of the entire long-lived population in this area has not been evaluated. This study recruited a cohort of 142 individuals aged 55-102 residing in Northeast China, and their oral and gut microbiota were evaluated using full-length 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The results indicate that the oral and GI tract microbiota of long-lived individuals showed reduced microbial taxonomic richness and evenness compared to sub-longevity individuals. With aging, the core species experience a gradual decline in abundance, while subordinate species show an increase. The long-lived population exhibited a heightened ability to enrich beneficial bacteria including Akkermansia, Alistipes, Parabacteroides, and Eubacterium coprostanoligenes in the GI tract, which are associated with host metabolism and have the potential to act as probiotics, reducing the risks of unhealthy aging in the northeast population. Bifidobacterium sp. and Lactobacillus salivarius have been found to coexist in both the oral cavity and the GI tract of long-lived individuals. We hypothesize that beneficial bacterial taxa from the oral cavity colonize the GI tract more extensively in long-lived individuals compared to those with a shorter lifespan. These findings pave the way for identifying probiotic strains that can promote healthy aging in Northeast China.},
}
@article {pmid39505118,
year = {2024},
author = {Ferrara, F and Valacchi, G},
title = {Role of microbiota in the GUT-SKIN AXIS responses to outdoor stressors.},
journal = {Free radical biology & medicine},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2024.11.003},
pmid = {39505118},
issn = {1873-4596},
abstract = {Beside the respiratory tract, the skin and the gut represent the first defensive lines of our body against the external insults displaying many important biochemical features able to maintain the epithelial barrier integrity and to regulate the tissue immune responses. The human microbiome is essential in maintaining the tissue homeostasis and its dysregulation may lead to tissue conditions including inflammatory pathologies. Among all external insults, air pollutants have been shown to cause oxidative stress damage within the target tissues via an OxInflammatory response. Dysregulation of the gut microbiome (dysbiosis) by outdoor stressors, including air pollutants, may promote the exacerbation of the skin tissue damage via the interplay between the gut-skin axis. The intent of this review is to highlight the ability of exogenous stressors to modulate the human gut-skin axis via a redox regulated mechanism affecting the microbiome and therefore contributing to the development and aggravation of gut and skin conditions.},
}
@article {pmid39504483,
year = {2024},
author = {Chen, H and Chen, K},
title = {Predicting disease-associated microbes based on similarity fusion and deep learning.},
journal = {Briefings in bioinformatics},
volume = {25},
number = {6},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/bib/bbae550},
pmid = {39504483},
issn = {1477-4054},
support = {20242BAB25083//Jiangxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China/ ; },
mesh = {*Deep Learning ; Humans ; *Computational Biology/methods ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Algorithms ; },
abstract = {Increasing studies have revealed the critical roles of human microbiome in a wide variety of disorders. Identification of disease-associated microbes might improve our knowledge and understanding of disease pathogenesis and treatment. Computational prediction of microbe-disease associations would provide helpful guidance for further biomedical screening, which has received lots of research interest in bioinformatics. In this study, a deep learning-based computational approach entitled SGJMDA is presented for predicting microbe-disease associations. Specifically, SGJMDA first fuses multiple similarities of microbes and diseases using a nonlinear strategy, and extracts feature information from homogeneous networks composed of the fused similarities via a graph convolution network. Second, a heterogeneous microbe-disease network is built to further capture the structural information of microbes and diseases by employing multi-neighborhood graph convolution network and jumping knowledge network. Finally, potential microbe-disease associations are inferred through computing the linear correlation coefficients of their embeddings. Results from cross-validation experiments show that SGJMDA outperforms 6 state-of-the-art computational methods. Furthermore, we carry out case studies on three important diseases using SGJMDA, in which 19, 20, and 11 predictions out of their top 20 results are successfully checked by the latest databases, respectively. The excellent performance of SGJMDA suggests that it could be a valuable and promising tool for inferring disease-associated microbes.},
}
@article {pmid39255040,
year = {2024},
author = {Sanches Santos Rizzo Zuttion, M and Parimon, T and Bora, SA and Yao, C and Lagree, K and Gao, CA and Wunderink, RG and Kitsios, GD and Morris, A and Zhang, Y and McVerry, BJ and Modes, ME and Marchevsky, AM and Stripp, BR and Soto, CM and Wang, Y and Merene, K and Cho, S and Victor, BL and Vujkovic-Cvijin, I and Gupta, S and Cassel, SL and Sutterwala, FS and Devkota, S and Underhill, DM and Chen, P},
title = {Antibiotic use during influenza infection augments lung eosinophils that impair immunity against secondary bacterial pneumonia.},
journal = {The Journal of clinical investigation},
volume = {134},
number = {21},
pages = {},
pmid = {39255040},
issn = {1558-8238},
support = {R03 HL162655/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; F32 HL162377/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; U19 AI135964/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; P01 HL154998/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; U01 TR003528/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/United States ; UL1 TR001881/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/United States ; R01 HL164177/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; R01 HL159953/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; P01 HL114453/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; R01 LM013337/LM/NLM NIH HHS/United States ; R01 HL155759/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; R01 HL163646/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Animals ; Mice ; *Eosinophils/immunology ; Humans ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; *Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus/immunology ; *Lung/immunology/pathology ; *Influenza, Human/immunology/drug therapy ; Female ; *Orthomyxoviridae Infections/immunology/drug therapy ; Male ; Pneumonia, Bacterial/immunology/drug therapy ; Pneumonia, Staphylococcal/immunology/drug therapy ; },
abstract = {A leading cause of mortality after influenza infection is the development of a secondary bacterial pneumonia. In the absence of a bacterial superinfection, prescribing antibacterial therapies is not indicated but has become a common clinical practice for those presenting with a respiratory viral illness. In a murine model, we found that antibiotic use during influenza infection impaired the lung innate immunologic defenses toward a secondary challenge with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Antibiotics augment lung eosinophils, which have inhibitory effects on macrophage function through the release of major basic protein. Moreover, we demonstrated that antibiotic treatment during influenza infection caused a fungal dysbiosis that drove lung eosinophilia and impaired MRSA clearance. Finally, we evaluated 3 cohorts of hospitalized patients and found that eosinophils positively correlated with antibiotic use, systemic inflammation, and worsened outcomes. Altogether, our work demonstrates a detrimental effect of antibiotic treatment during influenza infection that has harmful immunologic consequences via recruitment of eosinophils to the lungs, thereby increasing the risk of developing a secondary bacterial infection.},
}
@article {pmid39486524,
year = {2024},
author = {Kapoor, B and Biswas, P and Gulati, M and Rani, P and Gupta, R},
title = {Gut microbiome and Alzheimer's disease: what we know and what remains to be explored.},
journal = {Ageing research reviews},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {102570},
doi = {10.1016/j.arr.2024.102570},
pmid = {39486524},
issn = {1872-9649},
abstract = {With advancement in human microbiome research, an increasing number of scientific evidences have endorsed the key role of gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease. Microbiome dysbiosis, characterized by altered diversity and composition, as well as rise of pathobionts influence not only various gut disorder but also central nervous system disorders such as AD. On the basis of accumulated evidences of past few years now it is quite clear that the gut microbiota can control the functions of the central nervous system (CNS) through the gut-brain axis, which provides a new prospective into the interactions between the gut and brain. The main focus of this review is on the molecular mechanism of the crosstalk between the gut microbiota and the brain through the gut-brain axis, and on the onset and development of neurological disorders triggered by the dysbiosis of gut microbiota. Due to microbiota dysbiosis the permeability of the gut and blood brain barrier is increased which may mediate or affect AD. Along with this, bacterial population of the gut microbiota can secrete amyloid proteins and lipopolysaccharides in a large quantity which may create a disturbance in the signaling pathways and the formation of proinflammatory cytokines associated with the pathogenesis of AD. These topics are followed by a critical analysis of potential intervention strategies targeting gut microbiota dysbiosis, including the use of probiotics, prebiotics, metabolites, diets and fecal microbiota transplantation. The main purpose of this review includes the summarization and discussion on the recent finding that may explain the role of the gut microbiota in the development of AD. Understanding of these fundamental mechanisms may provide a new insight into the novel therapeutic strategies for AD.},
}
@article {pmid39481381,
year = {2024},
author = {Zheludev, IN and Edgar, RC and Lopez-Galiano, MJ and de la Peña, M and Babaian, A and Bhatt, AS and Fire, AZ},
title = {Viroid-like colonists of human microbiomes.},
journal = {Cell},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2024.09.033},
pmid = {39481381},
issn = {1097-4172},
abstract = {Here, we describe "obelisks," a class of heritable RNA elements sharing several properties: (1) apparently circular RNA ∼1 kb genome assemblies, (2) predicted rod-like genome-wide secondary structures, and (3) open reading frames encoding a novel "Oblin" protein superfamily. A subset of obelisks includes a variant hammerhead self-cleaving ribozyme. Obelisks form their own phylogenetic group without detectable similarity to known biological agents. Surveying globally, we identified 29,959 distinct obelisks (clustered at 90% sequence identity) from diverse ecological niches. Obelisks are prevalent in human microbiomes, with detection in ∼7% (29/440) and ∼50% (17/32) of queried stool and oral metatranscriptomes, respectively. We establish Streptococcus sanguinis as a cellular host of a specific obelisk and find that this obelisk's maintenance is not essential for bacterial growth. Our observations identify obelisks as a class of diverse RNAs of yet-to-be-determined impact that have colonized and gone unnoticed in human and global microbiomes.},
}
@article {pmid39479472,
year = {2024},
author = {Mousa, WK and Shaikh, AY and Ghemrawi, R and Aldulaimi, M and Al Ali, A and Sammani, N and Khair, M and Helal, MI and Al-Marzooq, F and Oueis, E},
title = {Human microbiome derived synthetic antimicrobial peptides with activity against Gram-negative, Gram-positive, and antibiotic resistant bacteria.},
journal = {RSC medicinal chemistry},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39479472},
issn = {2632-8682},
abstract = {The prevalence of antibacterial resistance has become one of the major health threats of modern times, requiring the development of novel antibacterials. Antimicrobial peptides are a promising source of antibiotic candidates, mostly requiring further optimization to enhance druggability. In this study, a series of new antimicrobial peptides derived from lactomodulin, a human microbiome natural peptide, was designed, synthesized, and biologically evaluated. Within the most active region of the parent peptide, linear peptide LM6 with the sequence LSKISGGIGPLVIPV-NH2 and its cyclic derivatives LM13a and LM13b showed strong antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria, including resistant strains, and Gram-negative bacteria. The peptides were found to have a rapid onset of bactericidal activity and transmission electron microscopy clearly shows the disintegration of the cell membrane, suggesting a membrane-targeting mode of action.},
}
@article {pmid39478225,
year = {2024},
author = {Lu, Z and Mo, S and Xie, D and Zhai, X and Deng, S and Zhou, K and Wang, K and Kang, X and Zhang, H and Tong, J and Hou, L and Hu, H and Li, X and Zhou, D and Lee, LTO and Liu, L and Zhu, Y and Yu, J and Lan, P and Wang, J and He, Z and He, X and Hu, Z},
title = {Polyclonal-to-monoclonal transition in colorectal precancerous evolution.},
journal = {Nature},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39478225},
issn = {1476-4687},
abstract = {Unravelling the origin and evolution of precancerous lesions is crucial for effectively preventing malignant transformation, yet our current knowledge remains limited[1-3]. Here we used a base editor-enabled DNA barcoding system[4] to comprehensively map single-cell phylogenies in mouse models of intestinal tumorigenesis induced by inflammation or loss of the Apc gene. Through quantitative analysis of high-resolution phylogenies including 260,922 single cells from normal, inflamed and neoplastic intestinal tissues, we identified tens of independent cell lineages undergoing parallel clonal expansions within each lesion. We also found polyclonal origins of human sporadic colorectal polyps through bulk whole-exome sequencing and single-gland whole-genome sequencing. Genomic and clinical data support a model of polyclonal-to-monoclonal transition, with monoclonal lesions representing a more advanced stage. Single-cell RNA sequencing revealed extensive intercellular interactions in early polyclonal lesions, but there was significant loss of interactions during monoclonal transition. Therefore, our data suggest that colorectal precancer is often founded by many different lineages and highlight their cooperative interactions in the earliest stages of cancer formation. These findings provide insights into opportunities for earlier intervention in colorectal cancer.},
}
@article {pmid39478172,
year = {2024},
author = {Collado, MC and Devkota, S and Ghosh, TS},
title = {Gut microbiome: a biomedical revolution.},
journal = {Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39478172},
issn = {1759-5053},
}
@article {pmid39474048,
year = {2023},
author = {Wu, J and Zhang, S and Chen, Y and Zhao, J and Prosun, T and O'Brien, JW and Mueller, JF and Tscharke, BJ and Coin, LJM and Luby, SP and Hai, FI and Buchanan, T and Jiang, G},
title = {Associations between Wastewater Microbiome and Population Smoking Rate Identified Using Wastewater-Based Epidemiology.},
journal = {Environment & health (Washington, D.C.)},
volume = {1},
number = {6},
pages = {394-404},
pmid = {39474048},
issn = {2833-8278},
abstract = {Tobacco use is known to cause health damage, partly by changing the mouth, respiratory tract, and gut-related microbiomes. This study aims to identify the associations between the human microbiome detected in domestic wastewater and the population smoking rate. Metagenomic sequencing and a biomarker discovery algorithm were employed to identify microorganisms as potential microbial biomarkers of smoking through wastewater-based epidemiology. Wastewater samples were collected from selected catchments with low and high smoking rates, i.e., 11.2 ± 1.5% and 17.0 ± 1.6%, respectively. Using the linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) method, Neisseria, Desulfovibrio, Megamonas, Blautia, Fusicatenibacter, Granulicatella and Enterococcus were suggested as potential biomarker microorganisms. A higher abundance of pathogens, including Neisseria, Eikenella and Haemophilus, was associated with the high smoking rate, likely because of their colonization in smoking-disturbed human guts. The identified potential microbial biomarkers reflect the change of the human gut microbiome due to the long-term smoking behavior. The metagenomic analysis also indicates that smoking upregulates microbial gene expression of genetic information processing, environmental information processing, and cell wall peptidoglycan cleavage, while it downregulates amino acid, lipid, and galactose metabolisms. The findings demonstrate the potential of microbial biomarkers for the surveillance of smoking through a wastewater-based epidemiology approach.},
}
@article {pmid39472801,
year = {2024},
author = {Valiei, A and Dickson, AM and Aminian-Dehkordi, J and Mofrad, MRK},
title = {Bacterial community dynamics as a result of growth-yield trade-off and multispecies metabolic interactions toward understanding the gut biofilm niche.},
journal = {BMC microbiology},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
pages = {441},
pmid = {39472801},
issn = {1471-2180},
mesh = {*Bacteria/metabolism/classification/growth & development/genetics ; *Biofilms/growth & development ; Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Microbial Interactions ; Bacterial Physiological Phenomena ; Models, Biological ; Kinetics ; Symbiosis ; Ecosystem ; Nutrients/metabolism ; },
abstract = {Bacterial communities are ubiquitous, found in natural ecosystems, such as soil, and within living organisms, like the human microbiome. The dynamics of these communities in diverse environments depend on factors such as spatial features of the microbial niche, biochemical kinetics, and interactions among bacteria. Moreover, in many systems, bacterial communities are influenced by multiple physical mechanisms, such as mass transport and detachment forces. One example is gut mucosal communities, where dense, closely packed communities develop under the concurrent influence of nutrient transport from the lumen and fluid-mediated detachment of bacteria. In this study, we model a mucosal niche through a coupled agent-based and finite-volume modeling approach. This methodology enables us to model bacterial interactions affected by nutrient release from various sources while adjusting individual bacterial kinetics. We explored how the dispersion and abundance of bacteria are influenced by biochemical kinetics in different types of metabolic interactions, with a particular focus on the trade-off between growth rate and yield. Our findings demonstrate that in competitive scenarios, higher growth rates result in a larger share of the niche space. In contrast, growth yield plays a critical role in neutralism, commensalism, and mutualism interactions. When bacteria are introduced sequentially, they cause distinct spatiotemporal effects, such as deeper niche colonization in commensalism and mutualism scenarios driven by species intermixing effects, which are enhanced by high growth yields. Moreover, sub-ecosystem interactions dictate the dynamics of three-species communities, sometimes yielding unexpected outcomes. Competitive, fast-growing bacteria demonstrate robust colonization abilities, yet they face challenges in displacing established mutualistic systems. Bacteria that develop a cooperative relationship with existing species typically obtain niche residence, regardless of their growth rates, although higher growth yields significantly enhance their abundance. Our results underscore the importance of bacterial niche dynamics in shaping community properties and succession, highlighting a new approach to manipulating microbial systems.},
}
@article {pmid39470277,
year = {2024},
author = {Xie, J and Zhang, X and Cheng, L and Deng, Y and Ren, H and Mu, M and Zhao, L and Mu, C and Chen, J and Liu, K and Ma, R},
title = {Integrated multi-omics analysis of the microbial profile characteristics associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension in congenital heart disease.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0180824},
doi = {10.1128/spectrum.01808-24},
pmid = {39470277},
issn = {2165-0497},
abstract = {Dysregulation of immune and inflammatory cells around blood vessels and metabolic dysfunction are key mechanisms in the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The homeostasis of the human microbiome plays a crucial role in regulating immune responses and the progression of diseases. For pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with congenital heart disease involving body-lung shunt (PAH-CHD), the potential impact of the microbiome on the "gut-lung axis" remains underexplored. This study recruited 15 healthy individuals and 15 patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension due to congenital heart disease from Fuwai Yunnan Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and Kunming Children's Hospital. We performed differential analyses of metabolites and microbiota from both the gut and lower respiratory tract for these two groups. The goal was to investigate the "gut-lung axis" microbiome and metabolome profiles in children with PAH-CHD and to analyze the interrelationships between these profiles. Ultimately, we aim to propose the potential value of these profiles in aiding diagnosis. The results indicated that the gut and pulmonary microbiota of children with PAH-CHD are characterized by an increased abundance of beneficial symbionts, which are closely linked to changes in the metabolome. Metabolite functional enrichment analysis revealed energy metabolism reprogramming in the PAH-CHD group, with active metabolic pathways associated with bile acid secretion and carnitine homeostasis. Moreover, the differential expression of metabolites was correlated with right heart function and growth development.IMPORTANCEPrevious studies have primarily focused on the relationship between the gut microbiome and PAH. However, the impact of microbial homeostasis on the progression of PAH-CHD from the perspective of the gut-lung axis has not been adequately elucidated. Our study utilizes an integrated multi-omics approach to report on the differential characteristics of gut and lung microbiota between children with PAH-CHD and reference subjects. We found that microbiota influence the pathological changes and disease manifestations of PAH-CHD through their metabolic activity. Additionally, alterations in metabolites impact the microbial ecological structure. Our findings suggest that modulating the microbiome composition may have positive implications for maintaining and regulating the immune environment and pathological progression of PAH-CHD.},
}
@article {pmid39470241,
year = {2024},
author = {Bouchier, C and Touak, G and Rei, D and Clermont, D},
title = {Complete genome sequence of two Christensenella minuta strains CIP 112228 and CIP 112229, isolated from human fecal samples.},
journal = {Microbiology resource announcements},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0076624},
doi = {10.1128/mra.00766-24},
pmid = {39470241},
issn = {2576-098X},
abstract = {Christensenella minuta is one of the representative bacterial species of the human gut microbiome. We report the complete genome sequence of two strains, Christensenella minuta CIP 112228 and CIP 112229, isolated from two healthy volunteers.},
}
@article {pmid39470240,
year = {2024},
author = {Dumann, G and Rohland, O and Abdel-Glil, MY and Allen, RJ and Bauer, M and Busch, A},
title = {Draft genomes of the bile duct microbiome strains Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterococcus lactis isolated from bilioenteric drainages with biofilm-forming abilities.},
journal = {Microbiology resource announcements},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0020224},
doi = {10.1128/mra.00202-24},
pmid = {39470240},
issn = {2576-098X},
abstract = {We describe the genetic properties of two strains isolated from the elusive bile duct microbiome from solid organ transplant patients. Bacterial strains Enterococcus lactis (MS-STENT-08-E-001) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (MS-STENT-01-M-001) were isolated from the biofilms of bile duct catheters.},
}
@article {pmid39470190,
year = {2024},
author = {Toyomane, K and Kimura, Y and Fukagawa, T and Yamagishi, T and Watanabe, K and Akutsu, T and Asahi, A and Kubota, S and Sekiguchi, K},
title = {Metagenomic sequencing of CRISPRs as a new marker to aid in personal identification with low-biomass samples.},
journal = {mSystems},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0103824},
doi = {10.1128/msystems.01038-24},
pmid = {39470190},
issn = {2379-5077},
abstract = {The high specificity of the human skin microbiome is expected to provide a new marker for personal identification. Metagenomic sequencing of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs), which we call metaCRISPR typing, was shown to achieve personal identification accurately. However, the intra-individual variability observed in previous studies, which may be due to poor DNA yields from skin samples, has resulted in non-reproducible results. Furthermore, whether metaCRISPR typing can assist in the forensic human DNA analysis of low-biomass samples, from which the information obtained is insufficient, is unknown. In the present study, we sequenced serially diluted control streptococcal CRISPRs cloned into plasmids to determine the minimum copy number required to obtain reproducible results from metaCRISPR typing. We found that at least 10[2] copies of CRISPRs are necessary to obtain reproducible results. We then analyzed the skin swab samples using both metaCRISPR typing and human DNA typing. When the DNA extracted from the skin swabs was diluted, no information was obtained from six out of eight samples by human DNA typing. On the other hand, beta diversity indices of spacer sequences compared with reference samples were below 0.8 for three out of six samples, for which no information was obtained from human DNA analysis, indicating that the spacers observed in these samples were similar to those in the references. These results indicate that metaCRISPR typing may contribute to the identification of individuals from whom the samples were obtained, even in cases where human DNA yields are insufficient to perform human DNA analysis.IMPORTANCEPrevious studies have developed new personal identification methods utilizing personal differences in the skin microbiome. However, intra-individual diversity of skin microbiome may preclude the application of microbiome-based personal identification. Moreover, no study has compared microbiome-based personal identification and practical human DNA analysis. Here, we revealed that the results of metaCRISPR typing, a previously developed microbiome-based personal identification method, are stable if the copy number of the marker gene is sufficient. We then analyzed the skin swab samples using both metaCRISPR typing and human DNA analysis. Our results indicate that metaCRISPR typing may provide additional information for personal identification using low-biomass samples that cannot be used for conventional human DNA analysis.},
}
@article {pmid39466852,
year = {2024},
author = {Chen, H and Huang, S and Yao, S and Wang, J and Huang, J and Yu, Z},
title = {Multi-omics analyses of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens treated mice infected with Schistosoma japonicum reveal dynamics change of intestinal microbiome and its associations with host metabolism.},
journal = {PLoS neglected tropical diseases},
volume = {18},
number = {10},
pages = {e0012583},
pmid = {39466852},
issn = {1935-2735},
mesh = {Animals ; Mice ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Bacillus amyloliquefaciens/metabolism/genetics ; *Schistosoma japonicum/metabolism ; *Schistosomiasis japonica ; *Probiotics/administration & dosage ; Female ; Multiomics ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Schistosomiasis japonica is a serious threat to human health. It causes damage to the intestine and liver. Probiotic therapy has been shown to be effective in alleviating intestinal diseases and improving host health. Previous studies have found that Bacillus amyloliquefaciens could alleviate the pathological symptoms of schistosomiasis japonica, but the regulatory mechanism of alleviating schistosomiasis japonica is still unknown.
PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This study analyzed the dynamic changes of intestinal microbiome in mice infected with Schistosoma japonicum after the intervention of B. amyloliquefaciens and its connection to host metabolism by multi-omics sequencing technology. B. amyloliquefaciens was found to significantly regulate the homeostasis of intestinal microbiota by promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria and inhibiting potential pathogenic bacteria and protect the number of core microbes. Meanwhile, the genes related to the metabolism of glycerophospholipids and amino acid from intestinal microbiome changed significantly, and were shown to be significantly positively correlated with the associated metabolites of microbial origin. Moreover, host metabolism (lipid metabolism and steroid hormone biosynthesis) was also found to be significantly regulated.
CONCLUSIONS: The recovery of intestinal microbial homeostasis and the regulation of host metabolism revealed the potential probiotic properties of B. amyloliquefaciens, which also provided new ideas for the prevention and adjuvant treatment of schistosomiasis japonica.},
}
@article {pmid39465215,
year = {2024},
author = {Lam, MI and Gleason, K and Repp, AB and Yeo, S and Vojnits, K and MacNaughton, P and Pakpour, S},
title = {The spatial and temporal effect of electrochromic windows on indoor and human microbiome in an inpatient hospital.},
journal = {Antimicrobial stewardship & healthcare epidemiology : ASHE},
volume = {4},
number = {1},
pages = {e188},
pmid = {39465215},
issn = {2732-494X},
abstract = {OBJECTIVE: Improving the hospital environment and developing novel disinfection strategies are critical for infection control in healthcare settings. In this study, we explored the effects of electrochromic (EC) windows on indoor and patient microbiome in an inpatient hospital.
PATIENT AND SETTING: Hematology-Oncology patients at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
METHODS: We conducted a prospective study in ten occupied patient rooms. Five of the patient rooms had active EC windows that tint dynamically to control for heat and glare, and the other five rooms had deactivated EC windows that simulated traditional windows and blinds. Samples were collected one day before patient admission as baseline and on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th day of the patient stay. Total bacterial abundance and bacterial community structure were determined through quantitative PCR and 16s rRNA Illumina MiSeq sequencing, respectively.
RESULTS: Patient rooms with active EC windows had significantly lower light intensity and temperature than traditional patient rooms with blinds. The absolute bacterial abundance and diversities on windows were significantly lower in rooms with EC windows and the bacterial composition changed after one day EC window activation. Compared to baseline, relative abundance of the Staphylococcus genus was significantly lower on EC window surface during the five-day experiment. In contrast, the air microbiome was more diverse in rooms with EC windows.
CONCLUSION: Active electrochromic (EC) windows in patient rooms result in lower light intensity and temperature, reduced bacterial abundance and diversities on window surfaces, and a more diverse air microbiome, informing future healthcare design.},
}
@article {pmid39458569,
year = {2024},
author = {Toivio, L and Launonen, H and Lindén, J and Lehto, M and Vapaatalo, H and Salmenkari, H and Korpela, R},
title = {Correction: Toivio et al. Ketogenic Diet High in Saturated Fat Promotes Colonic Claudin Expression without Changes in Intestinal Permeability to Iohexol in Healthy Mice. Nutrients 2024, 16, 18.},
journal = {Nutrients},
volume = {16},
number = {20},
pages = {},
pmid = {39458569},
issn = {2072-6643},
abstract = {Text Correction [...].},
}
@article {pmid39458350,
year = {2024},
author = {Marangelo, C and Vernocchi, P and Del Chierico, F and Scanu, M and Marsiglia, R and Petrolo, E and Fucà, E and Guerrera, S and Valeri, G and Vicari, S and Putignani, L},
title = {Stratification of Gut Microbiota Profiling Based on Autism Neuropsychological Assessments.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {12},
number = {10},
pages = {},
pmid = {39458350},
issn = {2076-2607},
abstract = {Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Investigations of gut microbiota (GM) play an important role in deciphering disease severity and symptoms. Overall, we stratified 70 ASD patients by neuropsychological assessment, based on Calibrated Severity Scores (CSSs) of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Second edition (ADOS-2), Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and intelligent quotient/developmental quotient (IQ/DQ) parameters. Hence, metataxonomy and PICRUSt-based KEGG predictions of fecal GM were assessed for each clinical subset. Here, 60% of ASD patients showed mild to moderate autism, while the remaining 40% showed severe symptoms; 23% showed no clinical symptoms, 21% had a risk of behavior problems and 56% had clinical symptoms based on the CBCL, which assesses internalizing problems; further, 52% had no clinical symptoms, 21% showed risk, and 26% had clinical symptoms classified by CBCL externalizing problems. Considering the total CBCL index, 34% showed no clinical symptoms, 13% showed risk, and 52% had clinical symptoms. Here, 70% of ASD patients showed cognitive impairment/developmental delay (CI/DD). The GM of ASDs with severe autism was characterized by an increase in Veillonella, a decrease in Monoglobus pectinilyticus and a higher microbial dysbiosis index (MDI) when compared to mild-moderate ASDs. Patients at risk for behavior problems and showing clinical symptoms were characterized by a GM with an increase of Clostridium, Eggerthella, Blautia, Intestinibacter, Coprococcus, Ruminococcus, Onthenecus and Bariatricus, respectively. Peptidoglycan biosynthesis and biofilm formation KEGGs characterized patients with clinical symptoms, while potential microbiota-activated PPAR-γ-signaling was seen in CI/DD patients. This evidence derived from GM profiling may be used to further improve ASD understanding, leasing to a better comprehension of the neurological phenotype.},
}
@article {pmid39458307,
year = {2024},
author = {Krause, JL and Engelmann, B and Lallinger, DJD and Rolle-Kampczyk, U and von Bergen, M and Chang, HD},
title = {Multi-Omics Analysis Unravels the Impact of Stool Sample Logistics on Metabolites and Microbial Composition.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {12},
number = {10},
pages = {},
pmid = {39458307},
issn = {2076-2607},
support = {NNF21OC0066551//Novo Nordisk Foundation/ ; //Dr. Rolf M. Schwiete Stiftung/ ; 375876048//Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft/ ; 831434//Innovative Medicines Initiative/ ; },
abstract = {Human health and the human microbiome are inevitably intertwined, increasing their relevance in clinical research. However, the collection, transportation and storage of faecal samples may introduce bias due to methodological differences, especially since postal shipping is a common practise in large-scale clinical cohort studies. Using four different Omics layer, we determined the structural (16S rRNA sequencing, cytometric microbiota profiling) and functional integrity (SCFAs, global metabolome) of the microbiota in relation to different easy-to-handle conditions. These conditions were storage at -20 °C, -20 °C as glycerol stock, 4 °C and room temperature with and without oxygen exposure for a maximum of one week. Storage time affected the microbiota on all Omics levels. However, the magnitude was donor-dependent, highlighting the need for purpose-optimized sample collection in clinical multi-donor studies. The effects of oxygen exposure were negligible for all analyses. At ambient temperature, SCFA and compositional profiles were stable for 24 h and 48 h, respectively, while at 4 °C, SCFA profiles were maintained for 48 h. The global metabolome was highly susceptible, already changing at 24 h in non-frozen conditions. Thus, faecal microbiota was best preserved on all levels when transported as a native sample frozen within 24 h, leading to the least biased outcomes in the analysis. We conclude that the immediate freezing of native stool samples for transportation to the lab is best suited for planned multi-Omics analyses that include metabolomics to extend standard sequencing approaches.},
}
@article {pmid39455951,
year = {2024},
author = {Rastegar, S and Skurnik, M and Tadjrobehkar, O and Samareh, A and Samare-Najaf, M and Lotfian, Z and Khajedadian, M and Hosseini-Nave, H and Sabouri, S},
title = {Synergistic effects of bacteriophage cocktail and antibiotics combinations against extensively drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii.},
journal = {BMC infectious diseases},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
pages = {1208},
pmid = {39455951},
issn = {1471-2334},
support = {402000840//Hossein Hosseini-Nave/ ; },
mesh = {*Acinetobacter baumannii/virology/drug effects ; *Biofilms/drug effects/growth & development ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; *Bacteriophages/physiology ; *Acinetobacter Infections/microbiology/therapy ; Humans ; *Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial ; Phage Therapy/methods ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains of Acinetobacter baumannii have become a major cause of nosocomial infections, increasing morbidity and mortality worldwide. Many different treatments, including phage therapy, are attractive ways to overcome the challenges of antibiotic resistance.
METHODS: This study investigates the biofilm formation ability of 30 XDR A. baumannii isolates and the efficacy of a cocktail of four tempetate bacteriophages (SA1, Eve, Ftm, and Gln) and different antibiotics (ampicillin/sulbactam, meropenem, and colistin) in inhibiting and degrading the biofilms of these strains.
RESULTS: The majority (83.3%) of the strains exhibited strong biofilm formation. The bacteriophage cocktail showed varying degrees of effectiveness against A. baumannii biofilms, with higher concentrations generally leading to more significant inhibition and degradation rates. The antibiotics-bacteriophage cocktail combinations also enhanced the inhibition and degradation of biofilms.
CONCLUSION: The findings suggested that the bacteriophage cocktail is an effective tool in combating A. baumannii biofilms, with its efficacy depending on the concentration. Combining antibiotics with the bacteriophage cocktail improved the inhibition and removal of biofilms, indicating a promising strategy for managing A. baumannii infections. These results contribute to our understanding of biofilm dynamics and the potential of bacteriophage cocktails as a novel therapeutic approach to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.},
}
@article {pmid39452183,
year = {2024},
author = {Otava, UE and Tervo, L and Havela, R and Vuotari, L and Ylänne, M and Asplund, A and Patpatia, S and Kiljunen, S},
title = {Phage-Antibiotic Combination Therapy against Recurrent Pseudomonas Septicaemia in a Patient with an Arterial Stent.},
journal = {Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland)},
volume = {13},
number = {10},
pages = {},
pmid = {39452183},
issn = {2079-6382},
support = {336519//Research Council of Finland/ ; PROFI7//Research Council of Finland/ ; n.a.//Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation/ ; },
abstract = {Background: Intravascular stent infections are often associated with high risks of morbidity and mortality. We report here a case of a patient with an arterial stent and recurrent Pseudomonas septicaemias successfully treated with phage-meropenem combination therapy. Methods: A 75-year-old female with arteriosclerosis and comorbidities went through a femoropopliteal bypass with prosthesis in the right inguinal area. After the bypass, she developed a recurring Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection and also neutropenia during different antibiotics. A rapidly growing pseudoaneurysm in the right inguinal area led to an emergency intra-arterial stent placement during blood stream infection, later suspected to host a P. aeruginosa biofilm. Removing the stent was deemed precarious, and phage therapy was considered as a compassionate treatment option. A three-phage cocktail infecting the P. aeruginosa strain was prepared and administered intravenously together with meropenem for two weeks, after which, a ten-month follow-up was carried out. Results: No adverse reactions occurred during the phage therapy treatment, while infection markers were normalized. In addition, recovery was seen in a PET-CT scan. During the 10-month follow-up, no further P. aeruginosa septicaemias occurred. Conclusions: Phage-meropenem combination therapy was thus found safe and effective in the treatment of recurrent Pseudomonas septicaemia in a patient with an arterial stent.},
}
@article {pmid39450961,
year = {2024},
author = {Sansonetti, PJ and Doré, J},
title = {[The human microbiome proofed by the Anthropocene: from correlation to causality and intervention].},
journal = {Medecine sciences : M/S},
volume = {40},
number = {10},
pages = {757-765},
doi = {10.1051/medsci/2024121},
pmid = {39450961},
issn = {1958-5381},
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota/physiology ; Animals ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; *Dysbiosis/microbiology ; Biodiversity ; Causality ; Climate Change ; },
abstract = {The deleterious effects of human activities on biodiversity in the vegetal and animal world, and on climate changes are now well-established facts. However, little is yet known on the impact of human activities on microbial diversity on the planet and more specifically on the human microbiota Large implementation of metagenomics allows exaustive microbial cataloguing with broad spatio-temporal resolution of human microbiota. A reduction in bacterial richness and diversity in the human microbiota, particularly in the intestinal tract, is now established and particularly obvious in the most industrialized regions of the planet. Massive, uncontrolled use of antibiotics, drastic changes in traditional food habits and some elements of the "global exposome" that remain to identify are usually considered as stressors accounting for this situation of "missing microbes". As a consequence, a dysbiotic situation develops, a "dysbiosis" being characterized by the erosion of the central core of shared bacterial species across individuals and the development of opportunistic "pathobionts" in response to a weaker barrier capacity of these impoverished microbiota. The current challenge is to establish a causality link between the extension of these dysbiotic situations and the steady emergence of epidemic, non-communicable diseases such as asthma, allergy, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and some cancers. Experimental animal models combined with controlled, prospective clinical interventions are in demand to consolidate causality links, with the understanding that in the deciphering of the mechanisms of alteration of the human-microbiome symbiosis resides a novel exciting chapter of medicine: "microbial medicine".},
}
@article {pmid39447121,
year = {2024},
author = {Jia, B and Baek, JH and Lee, JK and Sun, Y and Kim, KH and Jung, JY and Jeon, CO},
title = {Expanding the β-Lactamase Family in the Human Microbiome.},
journal = {Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e2403563},
doi = {10.1002/advs.202403563},
pmid = {39447121},
issn = {2198-3844},
support = {2024SSY0104//Pioneer"and"Leading Goose"R&DProgram of Zhejiang/ ; 2023C4S01002//Xianghu Laboratory/ ; 2018R1A5A1025077//Xianghu Laboratory/ ; 2018R1A5A1025077//Ministry of Science and ICT of the Ministry of Science and ICT, Republic of Korea/ ; 2021003420003//Korea Environment Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) through the Project to make multi-ministerial national biological research resources more advanced, funded by Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE), Republic of Korea/ ; },
abstract = {β-lactams, the most common antibiotics globally, have resistance primarily determined by β-lactamases. Human microbiota and β-lactams influence mutually; however, β-lactamase variety and abundance in the human microbiome remain partially understood. This study aimed to elucidate the diversity, abundance, and substrate spectrum of β-lactamases. 1369 characterized β-lactamases and 16 204 putative sequences are collected from protein databases. Upon clustering analysis and biochemical assays, nine proteins exhibiting less than 35% identity to those previously characterized are confirmed as β-lactamases. These newly identified β-lactamases originated from eight distinct clusters comprising 1163 β-lactamases. Quantifying healthy participants (n = 2394) across 19 countries using functionally confirmed clusters revealed that Japan have the highest gut β-lactamase abundance (log2[reads per million (RPM)] = 6.52) and Fiji have the lowest (log2[RPM] = 2.31). The β-lactamase abundance is correlated with β-lactam consumption (R = 0.50, p = 0.029) and income (R = 0.51, p = 0.024). Comparing individuals with ailments with healthy participants, β-lactamase abundance in the gut is increased significantly in patients with colorectal cancer, cardiovascular diseases, breast cancer, and epilepsy. These outcomes provide insights into investigating antibiotic resistance, antibiotic stewardship, and gut microbiome-antibiotic interactions.},
}
@article {pmid39443987,
year = {2024},
author = {Levi Mortera, S and Marzano, V and Rapisarda, F and Marangelo, C and Pirona, I and Vernocchi, P and Di Michele, M and Del Chierico, F and Quintero, MA and Fernandez, I and Hazime, H and Killian, RM and Solis, N and Ortega, M and Damas, OM and Proksell, S and Kerman, DH and Deshpande, AR and Garces, L and Scaldaferri, F and Gasbarrini, A and Abreu, MT and Putignani, L},
title = {Metaproteomics reveals diet-induced changes in gut microbiome function according to Crohn's disease location.},
journal = {Microbiome},
volume = {12},
number = {1},
pages = {217},
pmid = {39443987},
issn = {2049-2618},
mesh = {Humans ; *Crohn Disease/microbiology ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Male ; Female ; *Feces/microbiology ; Adult ; *Proteomics ; Middle Aged ; Diet ; Dietary Fiber/administration & dosage ; Bacteria/classification/isolation & purification/genetics ; Colon/microbiology ; Young Adult ; Faecalibacterium/isolation & purification ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Crohn's disease (CD) is characterized by chronic intestinal inflammation. Diet is a key modifiable factor influencing the gut microbiome (GM) and a risk factor for CD. However, the impact of diet modulation on GM function in CD patients is understudied. Herein, we evaluated the effect of a high-fiber, low-fat diet (the Mi-IBD diet) on GM function in CD patients. All participants were instructed to follow the Mi-IBD diet for 8 weeks. One group of CD patients received one-time diet counseling only (Gr1); catered food was supplied for the other three groups, including CD patients (Gr2) and dyads of CD patients and healthy household controls (HHCs) residing within the same household (Gr3-HHC dyads). Stool samples were collected at baseline, week 8, and week 36, and analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
RESULTS: At baseline, the metaproteomic profiles of CD patients and HHCs differed. The Mi-IBD diet significantly increased carbohydrate and iron transport and metabolism. The predicted microbial composition underlying the metaproteomic changes differed between patients with ileal only disease (ICD) or colonic involvement: ICD was characterized by decreased Faecalibacterium abundance. Even on the Mi-IBD diet, the CD patient metaproteome displayed significant underrepresentation of carbohydrate and purine/pyrimidine synthesis pathways compared to that of HHCs. Human immune-related proteins were upregulated in CD patients compared to HHCs.
CONCLUSIONS: The Mi-IBD diet changed the microbial function of CD patients and enhanced carbohydrate metabolism. Our metaproteomic results highlight functional differences in the microbiome according to disease location. Notably, our dietary intervention yielded the most benefit for CD patients with colonic involvement compared to ileal-only disease. Video Abstract.},
}
@article {pmid39443812,
year = {2024},
author = {Joos, R and Boucher, K and Lavelle, A and Arumugam, M and Blaser, MJ and Claesson, MJ and Clarke, G and Cotter, PD and De Sordi, L and Dominguez-Bello, MG and Dutilh, BE and Ehrlich, SD and Ghosh, TS and Hill, C and Junot, C and Lahti, L and Lawley, TD and Licht, TR and Maguin, E and Makhalanyane, TP and Marchesi, JR and Matthijnssens, J and Raes, J and Ravel, J and Salonen, A and Scanlan, PD and Shkoporov, A and Stanton, C and Thiele, I and Tolstoy, I and Walter, J and Yang, B and Yutin, N and Zhernakova, A and Zwart, H and , and Doré, J and Ross, RP},
title = {Examining the healthy human microbiome concept.},
journal = {Nature reviews. Microbiology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39443812},
issn = {1740-1534},
abstract = {Human microbiomes are essential to health throughout the lifespan and are increasingly recognized and studied for their roles in metabolic, immunological and neurological processes. Although the full complexity of these microbial communities is not fully understood, their clinical and industrial exploitation is well advanced and expanding, needing greater oversight guided by a consensus from the research community. One of the most controversial issues in microbiome research is the definition of a 'healthy' human microbiome. This concept is complicated by the microbial variability over different spatial and temporal scales along with the challenge of applying a unified definition to the spectrum of healthy microbiome configurations. In this Perspective, we examine the progress made and the key gaps that remain to be addressed to fully harness the benefits of the human microbiome. We propose a road map to expand our knowledge of the microbiome-health relationship, incorporating epidemiological approaches informed by the unique ecological characteristics of these communities.},
}
@article {pmid39440978,
year = {2024},
author = {Soto Ocaña, J and Friedman, ES and Keenan, O and Bayard, NU and Ford, E and Tanes, C and Munneke, MJ and Beavers, WN and Skaar, EP and Bittinger, K and Zemel, BS and Wu, GD and Zackular, JP},
title = {Metal availability shapes early life microbial ecology and community succession.},
journal = {mBio},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0153424},
doi = {10.1128/mbio.01534-24},
pmid = {39440978},
issn = {2150-7511},
support = {R35 GM138369/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {The gut microbiota plays a critical role in human health and disease. Microbial community assembly and succession early in life are influenced by numerous factors. In turn, assembly of this microbial community is known to influence the host, including immune system development, and has been linked to outcomes later in life. To date, the role of host-mediated nutritional immunity and metal availability in shaping microbial community assembly and succession early in life has not been explored in depth. Using a human infant cohort, we show that the metal-chelating protein calprotectin is highly abundant in infants. Taxa previously shown to be successful early colonizers of the infant gut, such as Enterococcus, Enterobacteriaceae, and Bacteroides, are highly resistant to experimental metal starvation in culture. Lactobacillus, meanwhile, is highly susceptible to metal restriction, pointing to a possible mechanism by which host-mediated metal limitation shapes the fitness of early colonizing taxa in the infant gut. We further demonstrate that formula-fed infants harbor markedly higher levels of metals in their gastrointestinal tract compared to breastfed infants. Formula-fed infants with high levels of metals harbor distinct microbial communities compared to breastfed infants, with higher levels of Enterococcus, Enterobacter, and Klebsiella, taxa which show increased resistance to the toxic effects of high metal concentrations. These data highlight a new paradigm in microbial community assembly and suggest an unappreciated role for nutritional immunity and dietary metals in shaping the earliest colonization events of the microbiota.IMPORTANCEEarly life represents a critical window for microbial colonization of the human gastrointestinal tract. Surprisingly, we still know little about the rules that govern the successful colonization of infants and the factors that shape the success of early life microbial colonizers. In this study, we report that metal availability is an important factor in the assembly and succession of the early life microbiota. We show that the host-derived metal-chelating protein, calprotectin, is highly abundant in infants and successful early life colonizers can overcome metal restriction. We further demonstrate that feeding modality (breastmilk vs formula) markedly impacts metal levels in the gut, potentially influencing microbial community succession. Our work suggests that metals, a previously unexplored aspect of early life ecology, may play a critical role in shaping the early events of microbiota assembly in infants.},
}
@article {pmid39439268,
year = {2024},
author = {Weinkove, D},
title = {Folates, bacteria and ageing: insights from the model organism C. elegans in the study of nutrition and ageing.},
journal = {The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {1-5},
doi = {10.1017/S0029665124004890},
pmid = {39439268},
issn = {1475-2719},
abstract = {The relationship between nutrition and ageing is complex. The metabolism and synthesis of micronutrients within the gut microbiome can influence human health but is challenging to study. Furthermore, studying ageing in humans is time-consuming and difficult to control for environmental factors. Studies in model organisms can guide research efforts in this area. This review describes how the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans can be used to study how bacteria and diet influence ageing and inform follow-on studies in humans. It is known that certain bacteria accelerate ageing in C. elegans. This age-accelerating effect is prevented by inhibiting folate synthesis within the bacteria, and we propose that in the human microbiome, certain bacteria also accelerate ageing in a way that can be modulated by interfering with bacterial folate synthesis. Bacterial-derived folates do not promote ageing themselves; rather, ageing is accelerated by bacteria in some way, either through secondary metabolites or other bacterial activity, which is dependent on bacterial folate synthesis. In humans, it may be possible to inhibit bacterial folate synthesis in the human gut while maintaining healthy folate status in the body via food and supplementation. The supplement form of folic acid has a common breakdown product that can be used by bacteria to increase folate synthesis. Thus, supplementation with folic acid may not be good for health in certain circumstances such as in older people or those with an excess of proteobacteria in their microbiome. For these groups, alternative supplement strategies may be a safer way to ensure adequate folate levels.},
}
@article {pmid39435653,
year = {2024},
author = {Rastegar, S and Sabouri, S and Tadjrobehkar, O and Samareh, A and Niaz, H and Sanjari, N and Hosseini-Nave, H and Skurnik, M},
title = {Characterization of bacteriophage vB_AbaS_SA1 and its synergistic effects with antibiotics against clinical multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii isolates.},
journal = {Pathogens and disease},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/femspd/ftae028},
pmid = {39435653},
issn = {2049-632X},
abstract = {Acinetobacter baumannii is a major cause of nosocomial infections globally. The increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) A. baumannii has become an important public health concern. To combat drug resistance, alternative methods such as phage therapy have been suggested. In total, 30 MDR A. baumannii strains were isolated from clinical specimens, and their antibiotic susceptibilities were determined. The Acinetobacter phage vB_AbaS_SA1, isolated from hospital sewage, was characterized. In addition to its plaque size, particle morphology, and host range, its genome sequence was determined and annotated. Finally, the antibacterial effects of phage alone, antibiotics alone, and phage/antibiotic combinations were assessed against the A. baumannii strains. Phage vB_AbaS_SA1 had siphovirus morphology, showed a latent period of 20 minutes, and a 250 PFU/cell (plaque forming unit/cell) burst size. When combined with antibiotics, vB_AbaS_SA1 (SA1) showed a significant phage-antibiotic synergy (PAS) effect and reduced the overall effective concentration of antibiotics in time-kill assessments. The genome of SA1 is a linear double-stranded DNA of 50,108 bp in size with a GC content of 39.15%. Despite the potent antibacterial effect of SA1, it is necessary to perform additional research to completely elucidate the mechanisms of action and potential constraints associated with utilizing this bacteriophage.},
}
@article {pmid39429878,
year = {2024},
author = {Chen, J and Luo, J and Pouwels, S and Li, B and Wu, B and Abdelbaki, TN and Arcot, J and Yang, W},
title = {Dietary therapies interlinking with gut microbes toward human health: Past, present, and future.},
journal = {iMeta},
volume = {3},
number = {5},
pages = {e230},
pmid = {39429878},
issn = {2770-596X},
abstract = {Overview of personalized dietary therapies. This flow chart exhibits the future prospect for integrating human microbiome and bio-medical research to revolutionize the precise personalized dietary therapies. With the development of artificial intelligence (AI), incorporating database may achieve personalized dietary therapies with high precision.},
}
@article {pmid39425798,
year = {2024},
author = {Goladze, S and Patpatia, S and Tuomala, H and Ylänne, M and Gachechiladze, N and de Oliveira Patricio, D and Skurnik, M and Sundberg, LR},
title = {Isolation and characterization of Yersinia phage fMtkYen3-01.},
journal = {Archives of virology},
volume = {169},
number = {11},
pages = {226},
pmid = {39425798},
issn = {1432-8798},
support = {PHDF-21-2176//Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation/ ; #346772//Research Council of Finland/ ; },
mesh = {*Yersinia enterocolitica/virology/genetics ; *Genome, Viral/genetics ; *Bacteriophages/genetics/classification/isolation & purification/physiology ; Yersinia Infections/microbiology/therapy/virology ; Base Composition ; Humans ; Phage Therapy/methods ; },
abstract = {Yersinia enterocolitica causes yersiniosis, the third most common gastrointestinal infection in humans throughout Europe. The emergence of multidrug resistance and the lack of effective new antibiotics have drawn attention to phage therapy as a treatment option. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of phage fMtkYen3-01, which infects Y. enterocolitica serotype O:3 strains. This phage has a genome 40,415 bp in length with 45.1% GC content and 49 predicted genes. fMtkYen3-01 infected 9.5% of the 42 Y. enterocolitica strains tested and showed stability at 25-40 °C, as well as pH 5.0-10.0. These results suggest the therapeutic potential of this phage.},
}
@article {pmid39421627,
year = {2024},
author = {Beschastnov, VV and Shirokova, IY and Belyanina, NA and Pogodin, IE and Tulupov, AA and Tochilina, AG and Belova, IV and Tyumenkov, YO and Kovalishena, OV and Soloveva, IV},
title = {Evaluation of the Feasibility of Using Commercial Wound Coatings as a Carrier Matrix for Bacteriophages.},
journal = {Sovremennye tekhnologii v meditsine},
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {45-52},
pmid = {39421627},
issn = {2309-995X},
mesh = {Humans ; *Bacteriophages ; *Wound Infection/therapy ; Staphylococcus aureus/virology/drug effects ; Wound Healing ; Phage Therapy ; Bandages ; Feasibility Studies ; },
abstract = {UNLABELLED: The aim of the investigation is to study the possibility of applying commercial wound coatings for treating infected wounds as a carrier matrix for bacteriophages.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twelve varieties of commercial wound coverings based on biopolymers of natural and synthetic origin, a biological preparation Staphylophag produced by scientific-industrial association Microgen (Russia), registration certificate P N001973/01, and the S. aureus 3196 test strain (GenBank JARQZO000000000) isolated from a patient with a burn wound have been used in our work. The ability of commercial biological wound coatings to absorb solutions was examined by immersing them in a physiological solution (pH 7.0-7.2) followed by weighing. The lytic activity of three bacteriophage series against the test strain was studied using the Appelman method and a spot test. The lytic activity of the bacteriophage in the wound samples was studied within 7 days after its absorption by the wound coatings.
RESULTS: The greatest volume of fluid was absorbed by the LycoSorb, NEOFIX FibroSorb Ag, Biatravm, and Chitocol-S wound coatings. All bacteriophage series have been found to have a high lytic activity against the test strain. It has also been shown that Chitocol-S, Collachit-FA, Algipran, and Aquacel Ag Extra possessed their own inherent antibacterial activity under in vitro conditions stable for 7 days; moreover, the lysis zones of the test strain increased after their saturation with bacteriophage. On day 0, a high level of bacteriophage lytic activity with the maximum size of the test strain lysis zones from 49 to 59 mm have been found to remain in all samples of the wound coverings. The bacteriophage activity persisted for 1 day in the samples of Hydrofilm, Polypran, and NEOFIX FibroCold Ag coatings, up to 4 days in Algipran, Nano-Aseptica, and Biatravm coatings; and for 7 days in the Chitocol-S, Collachit-FA, Opsite Post-Op Visible, NEOFIX FibroSorb Ag, Aquacel Ag Extra, and LycoSorb samples.
CONCLUSION: Modern commercial wound dressings based on chitosan-collagen complex (Chitocol-S, Collachit-FA), polyurethane (Opsite Post-Op Visible, LycoSorb, NEOFIX FibroSorb Ag), and Hydrofiber (Aquacel Ag Extra) have a sufficient level of bacteriophage solution absorption, provide a stable preservation of the bacteriophage lytic activity under in vitro conditions up to 7 days. Thus, the in vitro studies prove the possibility of their use as a carrier matrix for bacteriophages.},
}
@article {pmid39421255,
year = {2024},
author = {Geerlings, SY and van der Ark, K and Nijsse, B and Boeren, S and van Loosdrecht, M and Belzer, C and de Vos, WM},
title = {Omics-based analysis of Akkermansia muciniphila cultivation in food-grade media.},
journal = {Microbiome research reports},
volume = {3},
number = {3},
pages = {36},
pmid = {39421255},
issn = {2771-5965},
abstract = {Background and Aim: Over the past years, the gut microbiota and its correlation to health and disease has been studied extensively. In terms of beneficial microbes, an increased interest in Akkermansia muciniphila (A. muciniphila) has been observed since its discovery. Direct evidence for the role of A. muciniphila in host health has been provided in both mice and human studies. However, for human interventions with A. muciniphila cells, industrial-scale fermentations are needed, and hence, the used cultivation media should be free of animal-derived components, food-grade, non-allergenic and allow for efficient growth to high densities to provide cost-effective production platforms. In this study, we assessed the growth and performance of A. muciniphila in batch bioreactors using newly developed plant-based media. Methods: The bioreactors were supplemented with varying carbon sources, including different ratios of N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) and glucose. We monitored the growth of A. muciniphila in the plant-based medium using optical density (OD600) measurements and microscopy. In addition, we used a combination of biochemical analysis as well as transcriptional and proteomics analysis to gain detailed insight into the physiology. Results: Comparisons between growth on these media and that on mucin revealed differences at both transcriptome and proteome levels, including differences in the expression of glycosyltransferases, signaling proteins, and stress response. Furthermore, elongated cells and higher OD600 values were observed using the plant-based media as compared to cultivation media containing mucin. Conclusion: These differences do not hamper growth, and therefore, our data suggest that the food-grade medium composition described here could be used to produce A. muciniphila with high yields for therapeutic purposes.},
}
@article {pmid39421250,
year = {2024},
author = {Puhlmann, ML and van de Rakt, E and Kerezoudi, EN and Rangel, I and Brummer, RJ and Smidt, H and Kaper, FS and de Vos, WM},
title = {Analysis of the fermentation kinetics and gut microbiota modulatory effect of dried chicory root reveals the impact of the plant-cell matrix rationalizing its conversion in the distal colon.},
journal = {Microbiome research reports},
volume = {3},
number = {3},
pages = {28},
pmid = {39421250},
issn = {2771-5965},
abstract = {Aim: The cell matrix of plant foods has received little attention in prebiotic fiber research. We aimed to understand the impact of the plant cell matrix in dried chicory root on its breakdown in the human gut to explain its reported beneficial effects on gut and metabolic health. Methods: We applied in vitro digestion and fermentation models together with an ex vivo gut barrier integrity model. Plant cell matrix intactness in the upper gastrointestinal tract was investigated by scanning electron microscopy. Colonic breakdown of inulin, and chicory root cubes and powder was assessed by gut microbiota analysis using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and determining the kinetics of changes in pH, gas, and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production. Finally, effects on gut barrier integrity were explored by exposing colonic biopsies to fermentation supernatants in an Ussing chamber model. Results: The plant cell matrix of dried chicory root cubes remained intact throughout upper gastrointestinal transit. Dried chicory root fermentation resulted in higher final relative abundances of pectin-degrading Monoglobus and butyrate-producing Roseburia spp. compared to inulin and a seven-fold increase in Bifidobacterium spp. in donors where these species were present. Dried chicory root cubes yielded similar total SCFAs but higher final butyrate levels than chicory root powder or isolated inulin with less gas produced. No uniform but donor-specific effects of fermentation supernatants on the maintenance of gut barrier integrity were detected. Conclusion: The intact plant cell matrix of dried chicory root affected its colonic breakdown kinetics and microbiota, underpinning its beneficial effect in vivo.},
}
@article {pmid39419193,
year = {2024},
author = {Chen, H and Zeng, M and Batool, SS and Zhao, Y and Yu, Z and Zhou, J and Liu, K and Huang, J},
title = {Metagenomic analysis reveals effects of gut microbiome in response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in advanced rectal cancer.},
journal = {Genomics},
volume = {116},
number = {6},
pages = {110951},
doi = {10.1016/j.ygeno.2024.110951},
pmid = {39419193},
issn = {1089-8646},
abstract = {Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy can enhance survival rate of patients with advanced rectal cancer, but its effectiveness varies considerably. Previous studies have indicated that gut microbes may serve as biomarkers for predicting treatment efficacy. However, the specific roles of the gut microbiome in patients who have good response to nCRT remains unclear. In this study, shotgun metagenomic sequencing technology was used to analyze the fecal microbiome of patients with varying responses to nCRT. Our findings revealed that beneficial intestinal bacteria and genes from different metabolic pathways (carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and sulfur metabolism) were significantly enriched in patients with good response. Additionally, causal relationship in which microbial-derived GDP-D-rhamnose and butyrate could influence the response to nCRT was clarified. Our results offered new insights into the different response to nCRT, and provided valuable reference points for improving the effectiveness of nCRT in patients with advanced colorectal cancer.},
}
@article {pmid39484071,
year = {2024},
author = {Nurkolis, F and Utami, TW and Alatas, AI and Wicaksono, D and Kurniawan, R and Ratmandhika, SR and Sukarno, KT and Pahu, YGP and Kim, B and Tallei, TE and Tjandrawinata, RR and Alhasyimi, AA and Surya, R and Helen, H and Halim, P and Muhar, AM and Syahputra, RA},
title = {Can salivary and skin microbiome become a biodetector for aging-associated diseases? Current insights and future perspectives.},
journal = {Frontiers in aging},
volume = {5},
number = {},
pages = {1462569},
pmid = {39484071},
issn = {2673-6217},
abstract = {Growth and aging are fundamental elements of human development. Aging is defined by a decrease in physiological activities and higher illness vulnerability. Affected by lifestyle, environmental, and hereditary elements, aging results in disorders including cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and neurological diseases, which accounted for 16.1 million worldwide deaths in 2019. Stress-induced cellular senescence, caused by DNA damage, can reduce tissue regeneration and repair, promoting aging. The root cause of many age-related disorders is inflammation, encouraged by the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Aging's metabolic changes and declining immune systems raise illness risk via promoting microbiome diversity. Stable, individual-specific skin and oral microbiomes are essential for both health and disease since dysbiosis is linked with periodontitis and eczema. Present from birth to death, the human microbiome, under the influence of diet and lifestyle, interacts symbiotically with the body. Poor dental health has been linked to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases since oral microorganisms and systemic diseases have important interactions. Emphasizing the importance of microbiome health across the lifetime, this study reviews the understanding of the microbiome's role in aging-related diseases that can direct novel diagnosis and treatment approaches.},
}
@article {pmid39483755,
year = {2024},
author = {Pita, S and Myers, PN and Johansen, J and Russel, J and Nielsen, MC and Eklund, AC and Nielsen, HB},
title = {CHAMP delivers accurate taxonomic profiles of the prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and bacteriophages in the human microbiome.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1425489},
pmid = {39483755},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Accurate taxonomic profiling of the human microbiome composition is crucial for linking microbial species to health outcomes. Therefore, we created the Clinical Microbiomics Human Microbiome Profiler (CHAMP), a comprehensive tool designed for the profiling of prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and viruses across all body sites.
METHODS: CHAMP uses a reference database derived from 30,382 human microbiome samples, covering 6,567 prokaryotic and 244 eukaryotic species, as well as 64,003 viruses. We benchmarked CHAMP against established profiling tools (MetaPhlAn 4, Bracken 2, mOTUs 3, and Phanta) using a diverse set of in silico metagenomes and DNA mock communities.
RESULTS: CHAMP demonstrated unparalleled species recall, F1 score, and significantly reduced false positives compared to all other tools benchmarked. The false positive relative abundance (FPRA) for CHAMP was, on average, 50-fold lower than the second-best performing profiler. CHAMP also proved to be more robust than other tools at low sequencing depths, highlighting its application for low biomass samples.
DISCUSSION: Taken together, this establishes CHAMP as a best-in-class human microbiome profiler of prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and viruses in diverse and complex communities across low and high biomass samples. CHAMP profiling is offered as a service by Clinical Microbiomics A/S and is available for a fee at https://cosmosidhub.com.},
}
@article {pmid39415150,
year = {2024},
author = {Ma, J and Wang, F and Zhu, Y and Tian, Y and Du, C and Yan, L and Ding, C and Wang, D},
title = {Oral microbiome dysbiosis may be associated with intra cranial aneurysms.},
journal = {BMC oral health},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
pages = {1235},
pmid = {39415150},
issn = {1472-6831},
support = {2021J01217//Fujian Provincial Nature Foundation/ ; 2021Y2001//Technology Platform Construction Project of Fujian Province/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Intracranial Aneurysm/microbiology ; Female ; Male ; Middle Aged ; *Dysbiosis/microbiology ; *Microbiota ; Case-Control Studies ; *Saliva/microbiology ; Mouth/microbiology ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/analysis ; Adult ; Aged ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Although the etiology of aneurysms remains elusive, recent advances in high-throughput sequencing technology and ongoing human microbiome investigations suggest a potential link between microbiome composition and the onset of various human diseases.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to utilize high-throughput 16 S rRNA gene sequencing to analyze the oral flora bacterial profiles of individuals, comparing patients with intracranial aneurysms to a healthy control group. Importantly, we sought to identify differences in the oral microbiota and offer novel insights and methods for early diagnosis and identification of intracranial aneurysms.
METHOD: Saliva samples were collected from 60 patients with cerebral aneurysms (case group) and 130 healthy individuals (control group). The V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16 S rRNA gene was amplified and sequenced using the HiSeq high-throughput sequencing platform to establish the bacterial profile. Sequencing data were analyzed using QIIME2 and Metastats software to compare composition differences and relative abundance at the phylum and genus levels in the oral microbiota of the two groups.
RESULTS: Significant differences in oral microbiota composition were observed between patients in the case and control groups (P < 0.05). Genus-level identification highlighted key positions occupied by Eubacterium, Saccharimonadaceae, Rothia, Gemella, Streptococcus, Lactobacillales, Phocaeicola, Bacteroides, Saccharimonadales, and Abiotrophia.
CONCLUSION: This study revealed noteworthy distinctions in the composition, abundance, and diversity of oral microbiota between intracranial aneurysm patients and healthy controls. These disparities suggest a potential correlation between oral microbiota and the development of intracranial aneurysms, offering new avenues for early diagnosis and intervention. However, limitations such as a small sample size, lack of prospective design, and absence of causal inference warrant further validation and exploration.},
}
@article {pmid39408199,
year = {2024},
author = {Iannotti, L and Rueda García, AM and Palma, G and Fontaine, F and Scherf, B and Neufeld, LM and Zimmerman, R and Fracassi, P},
title = {Terrestrial Animal Source Foods and Health Outcomes for Those with Special Nutrient Needs in the Life Course.},
journal = {Nutrients},
volume = {16},
number = {19},
pages = {},
pmid = {39408199},
issn = {2072-6643},
mesh = {Humans ; Animals ; *Eggs ; Pregnancy ; Female ; Meat ; Milk ; Dairy Products ; Diet ; Food Hypersensitivity/prevention & control ; Child ; Adult ; Nutrients/analysis ; },
abstract = {Background. Animal source foods are under scrutiny for their role in human health, yet some nutritionally vulnerable populations are largely absent from consideration. Methods. Applying a Population Intervention/Exposure Comparator Outcome (PICO/PECO) framework and prioritizing systematic review and meta-analyses, we reviewed the literature on terrestrial animal source foods (TASFs) and human health, by life course phase. Results. There were consistent findings for milk and dairy products on positive health outcomes during pregnancy and lactation, childhood, and among older adults. Eggs were found to promote early childhood growth, depending on context. Unprocessed meat consumption was associated with a reduced risk for anemia during pregnancy, improved cognition among school-age children, and muscle health in older adults. Milk and eggs represent a risk for food sensitivities/allergies, though prevalence is low, and individuals tend to outgrow the allergies. TASFs affect the human microbiome and associated metabolites with both positive and negative health repercussions, varying by type and quantity. Conclusions. There were substantial gaps in the evidence base for studies limiting our review, specifically for studies in populations outside high-income countries and for several TASF types (pig, poultry, less common livestock species, wild animals, and insects). Nonetheless, sufficient evidence supports an important role for TASFs in health during certain periods of the life course.},
}
@article {pmid39406893,
year = {2024},
author = {Ioannou, A and Berkhout, MD and Geerlings, SY and Belzer, C},
title = {Akkermansia muciniphila: biology, microbial ecology, host interactions and therapeutic potential.},
journal = {Nature reviews. Microbiology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39406893},
issn = {1740-1534},
abstract = {Akkermansia muciniphila is a gut bacterium that colonizes the gut mucosa, has a role in maintaining gut health and shows promise for potential therapeutic applications. The discovery of A. muciniphila as an important member of our gut microbiome, occupying an extraordinary niche in the human gut, has led to new hypotheses on gut health, beneficial microorganisms and host-microbiota interactions. This microorganism has established a unique position in human microbiome research, similar to its role in the gut ecosystem. Its unique traits in using mucin sugars and mechanisms of action that can modify host health have made A. muciniphila a subject of enormous attention from multiple research fields. A. muciniphila is becoming a model organism studied for its ability to modulate human health and gut microbiome structure, leading to commercial products, a genetic model and possible probiotic formulations. This Review provides an overview of A. muciniphila and Akkermansia genus phylogeny, ecophysiology and diversity. Furthermore, the Review discusses perspectives on ecology, strategies for harnessing beneficial effects of A. muciniphila for human mucosal metabolic and gut health, and its potential as a biomarker for diagnostics and prognostics.},
}
@article {pmid39403892,
year = {2024},
author = {Wang, B and Shen, Y and Fang, J and Su, X and Xu, ZZ},
title = {DeepPhylo: Phylogeny-Aware Microbial Embeddings Enhanced Predictive Accuracy in Human Microbiome Data Analysis.},
journal = {Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e2404277},
doi = {10.1002/advs.202404277},
pmid = {39403892},
issn = {2198-3844},
support = {2022YFA1304200//National Key RD Program of China/ ; },
abstract = {Microbial data analysis poses significant challenges due to its high dimensionality, sparsity, and compositionality. Recent advances have shown that integrating abundance and phylogenetic information is an effective strategy for uncovering robust patterns and enhancing the predictive performance in microbiome studies. However, existing methods primarily focus on the hierarchical structure of phylogenetic trees, overlooking the evolutionary distances embedded within them. This study introduces DeepPhylo, a novel method that employs phylogeny-aware amplicon embeddings to effectively integrate abundance and phylogenetic information. DeepPhylo improves both the unsupervised discriminatory power and supervised predictive accuracy of microbiome data analysis. Compared to the existing methods, DeepPhylo demonstrates superiority in informing biologically relevant insights across five real-world microbiome use cases, including clustering of skin microbiomes, prediction of host chronological age and gender, diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) across 15 studies, and multilabel disease classification.},
}
@article {pmid39401296,
year = {2024},
author = {Wang, S and Ilves, M and Mäenpää, K and Zhao, L and El-Nezami, H and Karisola, P and Alenius, H},
title = {ZnO Nanoparticles as Potent Inducers of Dermal Immunosuppression in Contact Hypersensitivity in Mice.},
journal = {ACS nano},
volume = {18},
number = {43},
pages = {29479-29491},
pmid = {39401296},
issn = {1936-086X},
mesh = {Animals ; *Zinc Oxide/chemistry/pharmacology ; Mice ; *Dermatitis, Contact/immunology/pathology ; Humans ; Female ; Skin/drug effects/immunology/pathology ; Nanoparticles/chemistry ; Oxazolone ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; THP-1 Cells ; Disease Models, Animal ; Metal Nanoparticles/chemistry ; },
abstract = {Nanosized zinc oxide (nZnO) metal particles are used in skin creams and sunscreens to enhance their texture and optical properties as UV filters. Despite their common use, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of nZnO exposure on damaged skin. We studied the effects of topically applied nZnO particles on allergic skin inflammation in an oxazolone (OXA)-induced contact hypersensitivity (CHS) mouse model. We investigated whether exposure to nZnO during the sensitization or challenge phase would induce immunological changes and modulate transcriptional responses. We followed skin thickness, cellular infiltration, and changes in the local transcriptome up to 28 days after the challenge. The responses peaked at 24 h and were fully resolved by 28 days. Co-exposure to nZnO and hapten did not interfere with the formation of the sensitization process. Conversely, during the hapten challenge, the application of nZnO fully suppressed the development of the CHS response by the inhibition of pro-inflammatory pathways, secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and proliferation of immune cells. In differentiated and stimulated THP-1 cells and the CHS mouse model, we found that nZnO particles and Zn ions contributed to anti-inflammatory responses. The immunosuppressive properties of nZnO in inflamed skin are mediated by impaired IL-1R-, CXCR2-, and LTB4-mediated pathways. nZnO-induced dermal immunosuppression may be beneficial for individuals with contact allergies who use nZnO-containing cosmetic products. Our findings also provide a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of nZnO, which could be considered when developing nanoparticle-containing skin products.},
}
@article {pmid39396734,
year = {2024},
author = {Kajova, M and Khawaja, T and Kainulainen, K and Kantele, A},
title = {Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales emerging in Finland's capital region over 2010-2023: increasing proportion of CPE cases first detected in clinical samples.},
journal = {Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.cmi.2024.10.005},
pmid = {39396734},
issn = {1469-0691},
}
@article {pmid39387683,
year = {2024},
author = {Li, Z and Wang, Q and Huang, X and Wu, Y and Shan, D},
title = {Microbiome's role in musculoskeletal health through the gut-bone axis insights.},
journal = {Gut microbes},
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {2410478},
pmid = {39387683},
issn = {1949-0984},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; *Bone and Bones/microbiology ; *Musculoskeletal Diseases/microbiology/physiopathology ; Animals ; Osteoarthritis/microbiology/therapy ; Osteoporosis/microbiology ; Bone Density ; Musculoskeletal System/microbiology ; },
abstract = {The interplay between the human microbiome and the musculoskeletal system represents a burgeoning field of research with profound implications for understanding and treating musculoskeletal disorders. This review articulates the pivotal role of the microbiome in modulating bone health, highlighting the gut-bone axis as a critical nexus for potential therapeutic intervention. Through a meticulous analysis of recent clinical research, we underscore the microbiome's influence on osteoporosis, sarcopenia, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis, delineating both the direct and indirect mechanisms by which microbiota could impact musculoskeletal integrity and function. Our investigation reveals novel insights into the microbiota's contribution to bone density regulation, hormone production, immune modulation, and nutrient absorption, laying the groundwork for innovative microbiome-based strategies in musculoskeletal disease management. Significantly, we identify the challenges hindering the translation of research into clinical practice, including the limitations of current microbial sequencing techniques and the need for standardized methodologies in microbiome studies. Furthermore, we highlight promising directions for future research, particularly in the realm of personalized medicine, where the microbiome's variability offers unique opportunities for tailored treatment approaches. This review sets a new agenda for leveraging gut microbiota in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of musculoskeletal conditions, marking a pivotal step toward integrating microbiome science into clinical musculoskeletal care.},
}
@article {pmid39394961,
year = {2024},
author = {Branck, T and Hu, Z and Nickols, WA and Walsh, AM and Bhosle, A and Short, MI and Nearing, JT and Asnicar, F and McIver, LJ and Maharjan, S and Rahnavard, A and Louyakis, AS and Badri, DV and Brockel, C and Thompson, KN and Huttenhower, C},
title = {Comprehensive profile of the companion animal gut microbiome integrating reference-based and reference-free methods.},
journal = {The ISME journal},
volume = {18},
number = {1},
pages = {},
pmid = {39394961},
issn = {1751-7370},
mesh = {Animals ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; Dogs/microbiology ; Cats ; *Pets/microbiology ; *Feces/microbiology ; *Phylogeny ; *Metagenome ; Humans ; *Metagenomics ; Bacteria/genetics/classification/isolation & purification ; },
abstract = {The gut microbiome of companion animals is relatively underexplored, despite its relevance to animal health, pet owner health, and basic microbial community biology. Here, we provide the most comprehensive analysis of the canine and feline gut microbiomes to date, incorporating 2639 stool shotgun metagenomes (2272 dog and 367 cat) spanning 14 publicly available datasets (n = 730) and 8 new study populations (n = 1909). These are compared with 238 and 112 baseline human gut metagenomes from the Human Microbiome Project 1-II and a traditionally living Malagasy cohort, respectively, processed in a manner identical to the animal metagenomes. All microbiomes were characterized using reference-based taxonomic and functional profiling, as well as de novo assembly yielding metagenomic assembled genomes clustered into species-level genome bins. Companion animals shared 184 species-level genome bins not found in humans, whereas 198 were found in all three hosts. We applied novel methodology to distinguish strains of these shared organisms either transferred or unique to host species, with phylogenetic patterns suggesting host-specific adaptation of microbial lineages. This corresponded with functional divergence of these lineages by host (e.g. differences in metabolic and antibiotic resistance genes) likely important to companion animal health. This study provides the largest resource to date of companion animal gut metagenomes and greatly contributes to our understanding of the "One Health" concept of a shared microbial environment among humans and companion animals, affecting infectious diseases, immune response, and specific genetic elements.},
}
@article {pmid39392836,
year = {2024},
author = {Daisley, BA and Allen-Vercoe, E},
title = {Microbes as medicine.},
journal = {Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1111/nyas.15237},
pmid = {39392836},
issn = {1749-6632},
support = {950-232131//Canada Research Chairs/ ; PDF-402947//Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada/ ; //Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada/ ; 2023//Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada/ ; },
abstract = {Over the last two decades, advancements in sequencing technologies have significantly deepened our understanding of the human microbiome's complexity, leading to increased concerns about the detrimental effects of antibiotics on these intricate microbial ecosystems. Concurrently, the rise in antimicrobial resistance has intensified the focus on how beneficial microbes can be harnessed to treat diseases and improve health and offer potentially promising alternatives to traditional antibiotic treatments. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of both established and emerging microbe-centric therapies, from probiotics to advanced microbial ecosystem therapeutics, examine the sophisticated ways in which microbes are used medicinally, and consider their impacts on microbiome homeostasis and health outcomes through a microbial ecology lens. In addition, we explore the concept of rewilding the human microbiome by reintroducing "missing microbes" from nonindustrialized societies and personalizing microbiome modulation to fit individual microbial profiles-highlighting several promising directions for future research. Ultimately, the advancements in sequencing technologies combined with innovative microbial therapies and personalized approaches herald a new era in medicine poised to address antibiotic resistance and improve health outcomes through targeted microbiome management.},
}
@article {pmid39386965,
year = {2024},
author = {Muhi, S and Marshall, JL and O'Brien, DP and Johnson, PDR and Ross, G and Ramakrishnan, A and Mackay, LK and Doerflinger, M and McCarthy, JS and Jamrozik, E and Osowicki, J and Stinear, TP},
title = {A human model of Buruli ulcer: Provisional protocol for a Mycobacterium ulcerans controlled human infection study.},
journal = {Wellcome open research},
volume = {9},
number = {},
pages = {488},
pmid = {39386965},
issn = {2398-502X},
support = {/WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom ; },
abstract = {Critical knowledge gaps have impeded progress towards reducing the global burden of disease due to Mycobacterium ulcerans, the cause of the neglected tropical disease Buruli ulcer (BU). Development of a controlled human infection model of BU has been proposed as an experimental platform to explore host-pathogen interactions and evaluate tools for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. We have previously introduced the use case for a new human model and identified M. ulcerans JKD8049 as a suitable challenge strain. Here, we present a provisional protocol for an initial study, for transparent peer review during the earliest stages of protocol development. Following simultaneous scientific peer review and community/stakeholder consultation of this provisional protocol, we aim to present a refined protocol for institutional review board (IRB) evaluation.},
}
@article {pmid39383990,
year = {2024},
author = {Wang, C and Song, Y and Liang, J and Wang, Y and Zhang, D and Zhao, Z},
title = {Antibiotic resistance genes are transferred from manure-contaminated water bodies to the gut microbiota of animals through the food chain.},
journal = {Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987)},
volume = {363},
number = {Pt 1},
pages = {125087},
doi = {10.1016/j.envpol.2024.125087},
pmid = {39383990},
issn = {1873-6424},
abstract = {Fecal-contaminated water may enter the food chain and become an important route for the transmission of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) to the human microbiome. However, little is known about the spread of ARGs from fecal contamination in water bodies along the aquatic food chain. In this study, laboratory-raised Daphnia magna and Aristichthys nobilis were used to investigate the effects of the addition of manure on target ARGs in water and their intestinal contents to determine the potential transmission route of ARGs in the aquatic food chain system. The abundance of target ARGs in water as well as D. magna and A. nobilis intestinal contents significantly increased when fecal contamination was present. ARGs bioaccumulated along the food chain, with four ARGs (tetM-01, tetX, qnrS, and sul2) detected regularly. Mn and Cr were key environmental factors that promoted the transfer of ARGs along the food chain. Fecal addition significantly changed the structure of microbial communities in water, D. magna gut, and A. nobilis gut. The ARG spectrum was significantly correlated with the composition and structure of the bacterial community. Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes were identified as the main host bacteria and were likely to act as carriers of ARGs to promote the spread of antibiotic resistance in the food chain. The composition and structure of bacterial communities, along with mobile genetic elements, were two key drivers of ARG transfer. These findings provide new insights into the distribution and spread of ARGs along the freshwater food chain.},
}
@article {pmid39378356,
year = {2024},
author = {Yang, I and Alford, T and Brewster, G and Geurs, N and Wharton, W and Yeager, K and Houser, M},
title = {Oral Microbiome and Cognition Among Black Cancer Caregivers.},
journal = {Nursing research},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1097/NNR.0000000000000785},
pmid = {39378356},
issn = {1538-9847},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Despite known links between oral health and dementia and the growing understanding of the role of the human microbiome in health, few studies have explored the relationship between the oral microbiome and cognition. Additionally, there is a notable absence of research on how the oral microbiome is associated with cognitive function in Black adult caregivers of cancer patients despite their elevated risk for both oral disease and cognitive impairment.
OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to characterize the oral microbiome of Black caregivers of people living with cancer and explore the association of the oral microbiome with cognitive performance.
METHODS: Thirty-one self-identified Black or African American caregivers of cancer patients in the greater metropolitan Atlanta area participated in the study. They provided oral microbiome samples. Cognitive performance was assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), depressive symptoms with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, and individual race-related stress with the Index of Race-Related Stress-Brief. Salivary microbiome diversity was analyzed using alpha and beta diversity metrics, and taxa associated with cognition were identified through differential abundance testing, adjusting for potential confounders.
RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 54.8 years. MoCA scores ranged from 18 to 30, with a mean of 25. Participants were categorized into normal cognition (MoCA ≥26, n = 12) and low cognition (MoCA <26, n = 16) groups. Education level and individual race-related stress were associated with cognition group and were controlled for in the oral microbiome analysis. Alpha and beta diversity analyses showed no significant overall differences between cognition groups. Differential abundance testing suggested 48 taxa were associated with cognition status, many of which are known to be associated with periodontal disease and cognition.
DISCUSSION: This study revealed associations between cognition status and specific oral bacteria, many of which are known to be associated with periodontal disease and cognitive impairment. These findings underscore the complex relationship between oral health and cognitive function, suggesting a need for further research to develop oral microbiome profiles capable of identifying individuals at risk for cognitive decline and guiding targeted interventions for promoting overall well-being and cognitive health.},
}
@article {pmid39377779,
year = {2024},
author = {Porreca, A and Ibrahimi, E and Maturo, F and Marcos Zambrano, LJ and Meto, M and Lopes, MB},
title = {Robust prediction of colorectal cancer via gut microbiome 16S rRNA sequencing data.},
journal = {Journal of medical microbiology},
volume = {73},
number = {10},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1099/jmm.0.001903},
pmid = {39377779},
issn = {1473-5644},
mesh = {*RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; *Colorectal Neoplasms/microbiology ; Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; *Machine Learning ; *Feces/microbiology ; Bacteria/genetics/classification/isolation & purification ; },
abstract = {Introduction. The study addresses the challenge of utilizing human gut microbiome data for the early detection of colorectal cancer (CRC). The research emphasizes the potential of using machine learning techniques to analyze complex microbiome datasets, providing a non-invasive approach to identifying CRC-related microbial markers.Hypothesis/Gap Statement. The primary hypothesis is that a robust machine learning-based analysis of 16S rRNA microbiome data can identify specific microbial features that serve as effective biomarkers for CRC detection, overcoming the limitations of classical statistical models in high-dimensional settings.Aim. The primary objective of this study is to explore and validate the potential of the human microbiome, specifically in the colon, as a valuable source of biomarkers for colorectal cancer (CRC) detection and progression. The focus is on developing a classifier that effectively predicts the presence of CRC and normal samples based on the analysis of three previously published faecal 16S rRNA sequencing datasets.Methodology. To achieve the aim, various machine learning techniques are employed, including random forest (RF), recursive feature elimination (RFE) and a robust correlation-based technique known as the fuzzy forest (FF). The study utilizes these methods to analyse the three datasets, comparing their performance in predicting CRC and normal samples. The emphasis is on identifying the most relevant microbial features (taxa) associated with CRC development via partial dependence plots, i.e. a machine learning tool focused on explainability, visualizing how a feature influences the predicted outcome.Results. The analysis of the three faecal 16S rRNA sequencing datasets reveals the consistent and superior predictive performance of the FF compared to the RF and RFE. Notably, FF proves effective in addressing the correlation problem when assessing the importance of microbial taxa in explaining the development of CRC. The results highlight the potential of the human microbiome as a non-invasive means to detect CRC and underscore the significance of employing FF for improved predictive accuracy.Conclusion. In conclusion, this study underscores the limitations of classical statistical techniques in handling high-dimensional information such as human microbiome data. The research demonstrates the potential of the human microbiome, specifically in the colon, as a valuable source of biomarkers for CRC detection. Applying machine learning techniques, particularly the FF, is a promising approach for building a classifier to predict CRC and normal samples. The findings advocate for integrating FF to overcome the challenges associated with correlation when identifying crucial microbial features linked to CRC development.},
}
@article {pmid39375475,
year = {2024},
author = {Turocy, T and Crawford, JM},
title = {Bacterial small molecule metabolites implicated in gastrointestinal cancer development.},
journal = {Nature reviews. Microbiology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39375475},
issn = {1740-1534},
abstract = {Numerous associations have been identified between cancer and the composition and function of the human microbiome. As cancer remains the second leading global cause of mortality, investigating the carcinogenic contributions of microbiome members could advance our understanding of cancer risk and support potential therapeutic interventions. Although fluctuations in bacterial species have been associated with cancer progression, studying their small molecule metabolites offers one avenue to establish support for causal relationships and the molecular mechanisms governing host-microorganism interactions. In this Review, we explore the expanding repertoire of small molecule metabolites and their mechanisms implicated in the risk of developing gastrointestinal cancers.},
}
@article {pmid39368472,
year = {2024},
author = {El Mouali, Y and Tawk, C and Huang, KD and Amend, L and Lesker, TR and Ponath, F and Vogel, J and Strowig, T},
title = {The RNA landscape of the human commensal Segatella copri reveals a small RNA essential for gut colonization.},
journal = {Cell host & microbe},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.chom.2024.09.008},
pmid = {39368472},
issn = {1934-6069},
abstract = {The bacterium Segatella copri is a prevalent member of the human gut microbiota associated with health and disease states. However, the intrinsic factors that determine its ability to colonize the gut effectively remain largely unknown. By extensive transcriptome mapping of S. copri and examining human-derived samples, we discover a small RNA, which we name Segatella RNA colonization factor (SrcF), and show that SrcF is essential for S. copri gut colonization in gnotobiotic mice. SrcF regulates genes involved in nutrient acquisition, and complex carbohydrates, particularly fructans, control its expression. Furthermore, SrcF expression is strongly influenced by human microbiome composition and by the breakdown of fructans by cohabitating commensals, suggesting that the breakdown of complex carbohydrates mediates interspecies signaling among commensals beyond its established function in generating energy. Together, this study highlights the contribution of a small RNA as a critical regulator in gut colonization.},
}
@article {pmid39365053,
year = {2024},
author = {Silk, ET and Bayer, SB and Foster, M and Roy, NC and Taylor, MW and Vatanen, T and Gearry, RB},
title = {Advancing microbiome research in Māori populations: insights from recent literature exploring the gut microbiomes of underrepresented and Indigenous peoples.},
journal = {mSystems},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0090924},
doi = {10.1128/msystems.00909-24},
pmid = {39365053},
issn = {2379-5077},
abstract = {The gut microbiome plays vital roles in human health, including mediating metabolism, immunity, and the gut-brain axis. Many ethnicities remain underrepresented in gut microbiome research, with significant variation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples due to dietary, socioeconomic, health, and urbanization differences. Although research regarding the microbiomes of Indigenous peoples is increasing, Māori microbiome literature is lacking despite widespread inequities that Māori populations face. These inequities likely contribute to gut microbiome differences that exacerbate negative health outcomes. Characterizing the gut microbiomes of underrepresented populations is necessary to inform efforts to address health inequities. However, for microbiome research to be culturally responsible and meaningful, study design must improve to better protect the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples. Here, we discuss barriers to Indigenous participation in research and the role disparities may play in shaping the gut microbiomes of Indigenous peoples, with a particular focus on implications for Māori and areas for improvement.},
}
@article {pmid39362115,
year = {2024},
author = {Tian, H and Tang, R},
title = {Prediction of Crohn's disease based on deep feature recognition.},
journal = {Computational biology and chemistry},
volume = {113},
number = {},
pages = {108231},
doi = {10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2024.108231},
pmid = {39362115},
issn = {1476-928X},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Crohn's disease is a complex genetic disease that involves chronic gastrointestinal inflammation and results from a complex set of genetic, environmental, and immunological factors. By analyzing data from the human microbiome, genetic information can be used to predict Crohn's disease. Recent advances in deep learning have demonstrated its effectiveness in feature extraction and the use of deep learning to decode genetic information for disease prediction.
METHODS: In this paper, we present a deep learning-based model that utilizes a sequential convolutional attention network (SCAN) for feature extraction, incorporates adaptive additive interval losses to enhance these features, and employs support vector machines (SVM) for classification. To address the challenge of unbalanced Crohn's disease samples, we propose a random noise one-hot encoding data augmentation method.
RESULTS: Data augmentation with random noise accelerates training convergence, while SCAN-SVM effectively extracts features with adaptive additive interval loss enhancing differentiation. Our approach outperforms benchmark methods, achieving an average accuracy of 0.80 and a kappa value of 0.76, and we validate the effectiveness of feature enhancement.
CONCLUSIONS: In summary, we use deep feature recognition to effectively analyze the potential information in genes, which has a good application potential for gene analysis and prediction of Crohn's disease.},
}
@article {pmid39359681,
year = {2024},
author = {Tian, S and Ding, T and Li, H},
title = {Oral microbiome in human health and diseases.},
journal = {mLife},
volume = {3},
number = {3},
pages = {367-383},
pmid = {39359681},
issn = {2770-100X},
abstract = {The oral cavity contains the second-largest microbiota in the human body. The cavity's anatomically and physiologically diverse niches facilitate a wide range of symbiotic bacteria living at distinct oral sites. Consequently, the oral microbiota exhibits site specificity, with diverse species, compositions, and structures influenced by specific aspects of their placement. Variations in oral microbiota structure caused by changes in these influencing factors can impact overall health and lead to the development of diseases-not only in the oral cavity but also in organs distal to the mouth-such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease. Conversely, diseases can exacerbate the imbalance of the oral microbiota, creating a vicious cycle. Understanding the heterogeneity of both the oral microbiome and individual humans is important for investigating the causal links between the oral microbiome and diseases. Additionally, understanding the intricacies of the oral microbiome's composition and regulatory factors will help identify the potential causes of related diseases and develop interventions to prevent and treat illnesses in this domain. Therefore, turning to the extant research in this field, we systematically review the relationship between oral microbiome dynamics and human diseases.},
}
@article {pmid39358771,
year = {2024},
author = {Kawano-Sugaya, T and Arikawa, K and Saeki, T and Endoh, T and Kamata, K and Matsuhashi, A and Hosokawa, M},
title = {A single amplified genome catalog reveals the dynamics of mobilome and resistome in the human microbiome.},
journal = {Microbiome},
volume = {12},
number = {1},
pages = {188},
pmid = {39358771},
issn = {2049-2618},
mesh = {Humans ; *Bacteria/genetics/classification ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; *Metagenome ; *Mouth/microbiology ; *Genome, Bacterial ; Interspersed Repetitive Sequences/genetics ; Microbiota/genetics ; Drug Resistance, Bacterial/genetics ; Metagenomics/methods ; Phylogeny ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The increase in metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) has advanced our understanding of the functional characterization and taxonomic assignment within the human microbiome. However, MAGs, as population consensus genomes, often aggregate heterogeneity among species and strains, thereby obfuscating the precise relationships between microbial hosts and mobile genetic elements (MGEs). In contrast, single amplified genomes (SAGs) derived via single-cell genome sequencing can capture individual genomic content, including MGEs.
RESULTS: We introduce the first substantial SAG dataset (bbsag20) from the human oral and gut microbiome, comprising 17,202 SAGs above medium-quality without co-assembly. This collection unveils a diversity of bacterial lineages across 312 oral and 647 gut species, demonstrating different taxonomic compositions from MAGs. Moreover, the SAGs showed cellular-level evidence of the translocation of oral bacteria to the gut. We also identified broad-host-range MGEs harboring antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), which were not detected in the MAGs.
CONCLUSIONS: The difference in taxonomic composition between SAGs and MAGs indicates that combining both methods would be effective in expanding the genome catalog. By connecting mobilomes and resistomes in individual samples, SAGs could meticulously chart a dynamic network of ARGs on MGEs, pinpointing potential ARG reservoirs and their spreading patterns in the microbial community. Video Abstract.},
}
@article {pmid39358005,
year = {2024},
author = {Manning, S and Sinha, R and Rees, CJ},
title = {Need for standardised approaches to human microbiome research using the example of colorectal neoplasia research.},
journal = {Gut},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1136/gutjnl-2024-333765},
pmid = {39358005},
issn = {1468-3288},
}
@article {pmid39352141,
year = {2024},
author = {Coclet, C and Camargo, AP and Roux, S},
title = {MVP: a modular viromics pipeline to identify, filter, cluster, annotate, and bin viruses from metagenomes.},
journal = {mSystems},
volume = {9},
number = {10},
pages = {e0088824},
pmid = {39352141},
issn = {2379-5077},
mesh = {*Metagenome/genetics ; *Genome, Viral/genetics ; *Metagenomics/methods ; *Viruses/genetics/classification/isolation & purification ; Software ; Virome/genetics ; Computational Biology/methods ; Molecular Sequence Annotation ; },
abstract = {While numerous computational frameworks and workflows are available for recovering prokaryote and eukaryote genomes from metagenome data, only a limited number of pipelines are designed specifically for viromics analysis. With many viromics tools developed in the last few years alone, it can be challenging for scientists with limited bioinformatics experience to easily recover, evaluate quality, annotate genes, dereplicate, assign taxonomy, and calculate relative abundance and coverage of viral genomes using state-of-the-art methods and standards. Here, we describe Modular Viromics Pipeline (MVP) v.1.0, a user-friendly pipeline written in Python and providing a simple framework to perform standard viromics analyses. MVP combines multiple tools to enable viral genome identification, characterization of genome quality, filtering, clustering, taxonomic and functional annotation, genome binning, and comprehensive summaries of results that can be used for downstream ecological analyses. Overall, MVP provides a standardized and reproducible pipeline for both extensive and robust characterization of viruses from large-scale sequencing data including metagenomes, metatranscriptomes, viromes, and isolate genomes. As a typical use case, we show how the entire MVP pipeline can be applied to a set of 20 metagenomes from wetland sediments using only 10 modules executed via command lines, leading to the identification of 11,656 viral contigs and 8,145 viral operational taxonomic units (vOTUs) displaying a clear beta-diversity pattern. Further, acting as a dynamic wrapper, MVP is designed to continuously incorporate updates and integrate new tools, ensuring its ongoing relevance in the rapidly evolving field of viromics. MVP is available at https://gitlab.com/ccoclet/mvp and as versioned packages in PyPi and Conda.IMPORTANCEThe significance of our work lies in the development of Modular Viromics Pipeline (MVP), an integrated and user-friendly pipeline tailored exclusively for viromics analyses. MVP stands out due to its modular design, which ensures easy installation, execution, and integration of new tools and databases. By combining state-of-the-art tools such as geNomad and CheckV, MVP provides high-quality viral genome recovery and taxonomy and host assignment, and functional annotation, addressing the limitations of existing pipelines. MVP's ability to handle diverse sample types, including environmental, human microbiome, and plant-associated samples, makes it a versatile tool for the broader microbiome research community. By standardizing the analysis process and providing easily interpretable results, MVP enables researchers to perform comprehensive studies of viral communities, significantly advancing our understanding of viral ecology and its impact on various ecosystems.},
}
@article {pmid39351241,
year = {2024},
author = {Lu, S and Wang, C and Ma, J and Wang, Y},
title = {Metabolic mediators: microbial-derived metabolites as key regulators of anti-tumor immunity, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy.},
journal = {Frontiers in immunology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1456030},
pmid = {39351241},
issn = {1664-3224},
mesh = {Humans ; *Neoplasms/immunology/therapy/metabolism/drug therapy ; *Immunotherapy/methods ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/immunology ; *Tumor Microenvironment/immunology ; Animals ; *Fatty Acids, Volatile/metabolism ; *Tryptophan/metabolism ; Methylamines/metabolism/immunology ; Antineoplastic Agents/therapeutic use ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome has recently emerged as a focal point in cancer research, specifically in anti-tumor immunity, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy. This review explores microbial-derived metabolites, emphasizing their crucial roles in shaping fundamental aspects of cancer treatment. Metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), Trimethylamine N-Oxide (TMAO), and Tryptophan Metabolites take the spotlight, underscoring their diverse origins and functions and their profound impact on the host immune system. The focus is on SCFAs' remarkable ability to modulate immune responses, reduce inflammation, and enhance anti-tumor immunity within the intricate tumor microenvironment (TME). The review critically evaluates TMAO, intricately tied to dietary choices and gut microbiota composition, assessing its implications for cancer susceptibility, progression, and immunosuppression. Additionally, the involvement of tryptophan and other amino acid metabolites in shaping immune responses is discussed, highlighting their influence on immune checkpoints, immunosuppression, and immunotherapy effectiveness. The examination extends to their dynamic interaction with chemotherapy, emphasizing the potential of microbial-derived metabolites to alter treatment protocols and optimize outcomes for cancer patients. A comprehensive understanding of their role in cancer therapy is attained by exploring their impacts on drug metabolism, therapeutic responses, and resistance development. In conclusion, this review underscores the pivotal contributions of microbial-derived metabolites in regulating anti-tumor immunity, immunotherapy responses, and chemotherapy outcomes. By illuminating the intricate interactions between these metabolites and cancer therapy, the article enhances our understanding of cancer biology, paving the way for the development of more effective treatment options in the ongoing battle against cancer.},
}
@article {pmid39349378,
year = {2024},
author = {Palmer, D and Henze, L and Murua Escobar, H and Walter, U and Kowald, A and Fuellen, G},
title = {Multicohort study testing the generalisability of the SASKit-ML stroke and PDAC prognostic model pipeline to other chronic diseases.},
journal = {BMJ open},
volume = {14},
number = {9},
pages = {e088181},
pmid = {39349378},
issn = {2044-6055},
mesh = {Humans ; *Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/complications ; Prognosis ; Female ; Male ; *Pancreatic Neoplasms ; *Stroke ; Middle Aged ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; Machine Learning ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; Aged ; Longitudinal Studies ; Chronic Disease ; Prospective Studies ; Biomarkers/blood ; Cohort Studies ; },
abstract = {OBJECTIVES: To validate and test the generalisability of the SASKit-ML pipeline, a prepublished feature selection and machine learning pipeline for the prediction of health deterioration after a stroke or pancreatic adenocarcinoma event, by using it to identify biomarkers of health deterioration in chronic disease.
DESIGN: This is a validation study using a predefined protocol applied to multiple publicly available datasets, including longitudinal data from cohorts with type 2 diabetes (T2D), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and various cancers. The datasets were chosen to mimic as closely as possible the SASKit cohort, a prospective, longitudinal cohort study.
DATA SOURCES: Public data were used from the T2D (77 patients with potential pre-diabetes and 18 controls) and IBD (49 patients with IBD and 12 controls) branches of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), RA Map (RA-MAP, 92 patients with RA, 22 controls) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA, 16 cancers).
METHODS: Data integration steps were performed in accordance with the prepublished study protocol, generating features to predict disease outcomes using 10-fold cross-validated random survival forests.
OUTCOME MEASURES: Health deterioration was assessed using disease-specific clinical markers and endpoints across different cohorts. In the HMP-T2D cohort, the worsening of glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) levels (5.7% or more HbA1c in the blood), fasting plasma glucose (at least 100 mg/dL) and oral glucose tolerance test (at least 140) results were considered. For the HMP-IBD cohort, a worsening by at least 3 points of a disease-specific severity measure, the "Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index" or "Harvey-Bradshaw Index" indicated an event. For the RA-MAP cohort, the outcome was defined as the worsening of the "Disease Activity Score 28" or "Simple Disease Activity Index" by at least five points, or the worsening of the "Health Assessment Questionnaire" score or an increase in the number of swollen/tender joints were evaluated. Finally, the outcome for all TCGA datasets was the progression-free interval.
RESULTS: Models for the prediction of health deterioration in T2D, IBD, RA and 16 cancers were produced. The T2D (C-index of 0.633 and Integrated Brier Score (IBS) of 0.107) and the RA (C-index of 0.654 and IBS of 0.150) models were modestly predictive. The IBD model was uninformative. TCGA models tended towards modest predictive power.
CONCLUSIONS: The SASKit-ML pipeline produces informative and useful features with the power to predict health deterioration in a variety of diseases and cancers; however, this performance is disease-dependent.},
}
@article {pmid39345212,
year = {2024},
author = {Basting, CM and Langat, R and Broedlow, CA and Guerrero, CR and Bold, TD and Bailey, M and Velez, A and Schroeder, T and Short-Miller, J and Cromarty, R and Mayer, ZJ and Southern, PJ and Schacker, TW and Safo, SE and Bramante, CT and Tignanelli, CJ and Schifanella, L and Klatt, NR},
title = {SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with intestinal permeability, systemic inflammation, and microbial dysbiosis in hospitalized patients.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0068024},
doi = {10.1128/spectrum.00680-24},
pmid = {39345212},
issn = {2165-0497},
abstract = {Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and its associated severity have been linked to uncontrolled inflammation and may be associated with changes in the microbiome of mucosal sites including the gastrointestinal tract and oral cavity. These sites play an important role in host-microbe homeostasis, and disruption of epithelial barrier integrity during COVID-19 may potentially lead to exacerbated inflammation and immune dysfunction. Outcomes in COVID-19 are highly disparate, ranging from asymptomatic to fatal, and the impact of microbial dysbiosis on disease severity is unclear. Here, we obtained plasma, rectal swabs, oropharyngeal swabs, and nasal swabs from 86 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and 12 healthy volunteers. We performed 16S rRNA sequencing to characterize the microbial communities in the mucosal swabs and measured concentrations of circulating cytokines, markers of gut barrier integrity, and fatty acids in the plasma samples. We compared these plasma concentrations and microbiomes between healthy volunteers and COVID-19 patients, some of whom had unfortunately died by the end of the study enrollment, and performed a correlation analysis between plasma variables and bacterial abundances. Rectal swabs of COVID-19 patients had reduced abundances of several commensal bacteria including Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and an increased abundance of the opportunistic pathogens Eggerthella lenta and Hungatella hathewayi. Furthermore, the oral pathogen Scardovia wiggsiae was more abundant in the oropharyngeal swabs of COVID-19 patients who died. The abundance of both H. hathewayi and S. wiggsiae correlated with circulating inflammatory markers including IL-6, highlighting the possible role of the microbiome in COVID-19 severity and providing potential therapeutic targets for managing COVID-19.IMPORTANCEOutcomes in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are highly disparate and are associated with uncontrolled inflammation; however, the individual factors that lead to this uncontrolled inflammation are not fully understood. Here, we report that severe COVID-19 is associated with systemic inflammation, microbial translocation, and microbial dysbiosis. The rectal and oropharyngeal microbiomes of COVID-19 patients were characterized by a decreased abundance of commensal bacteria and an increased abundance of opportunistic pathogens, which positively correlated with markers of inflammation and microbial translocation. These microbial perturbations may, therefore, contribute to disease severity in COVID-19 and highlight the potential for microbiome-based interventions in improving COVID-19 outcomes.},
}
@article {pmid39342083,
year = {2024},
author = {Wang, X and Yao, S and Yang, X and Li, Y and Yu, Z and Huang, J and Wang, J},
title = {Peritoneal dialysis promotes microbial-driven biosynthesis pathways of sesquiterpenes and triterpenes compounds in end-stage renal disease patients.},
journal = {BMC microbiology},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
pages = {377},
pmid = {39342083},
issn = {1471-2180},
support = {32170071//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 32300051//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 2022JJ40663//Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province/ ; C2023045//Hunan Province Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Program Project/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Kidney Failure, Chronic/therapy/metabolism/microbiology ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Peritoneal Dialysis ; *Sesquiterpenes/metabolism ; Male ; Female ; *Feces/microbiology ; Middle Aged ; *Triterpenes/metabolism ; Bacteria/metabolism/classification/genetics/isolation & purification ; Biosynthetic Pathways ; Adult ; Metagenomics ; Aged ; },
abstract = {The concept of the gut-kidney axis is gaining significant attention due to the close relationship between gut microbiota and kidney disease. Peritoneal dialysis is recognized as a crucial renal replacement therapy for end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The alterations in gut microbiota and related mechanisms after receiving this dialysis method are not fully understood. This study conducted shotgun metagenomic sequencing on fecal samples from 11 end-stage renal disease patients who did not receive dialysis (ESRD_N) and 7 patients who received peritoneal dialysis (ESRD_P). After quality control and correlation analysis of the data, our study is aimed at exploring the impact of peritoneal dialysis on the gut microbiota and health of ESRD patients. Our research findings indicate that the complexity and aggregation characteristics of gut microbiota interactions increase in ESRD_P. In addition, the gut microbiota drives the biosynthesis pathways of sesquiterpenes and triterpenes in ESRD_P patients, which may contribute to blood purification and improve circulation. Therefore, our research will lay the foundation for the prevention and treatment of ESRD.},
}
@article {pmid39341037,
year = {2024},
author = {Vogs, C and Lindqvist, D and Wai Tang, S and Gugescu, L and Alenius, H and Wincent, E},
title = {Transcriptomic and functional effects from a chemical mixture based on the exposure profile in Baltic Sea salmon, on metabolic and immune functions in zebrafish embryo.},
journal = {Environment international},
volume = {192},
number = {},
pages = {109018},
doi = {10.1016/j.envint.2024.109018},
pmid = {39341037},
issn = {1873-6750},
mesh = {Animals ; *Zebrafish ; *Water Pollutants, Chemical/toxicity ; *Transcriptome/drug effects ; *Salmon ; Embryo, Nonmammalian/drug effects ; Hydrocarbons, Halogenated/toxicity ; Gene Expression Profiling ; },
abstract = {The Baltic Sea is one of the world's most contaminated seas with long-standing adverse health status of its wildlife such as the Baltic Sea salmon, resulting in reduced fecundity and increased mortality. While adverse health effects have been reported among wild fish from the Baltic Sea, the toxicity mechanisms underlying these adversities, and the chemical effect drivers mediating them are poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we utilized the zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryo model to determine molecular and functional effects brought on by exposure to a technical mixture including 9 organohalogen compounds detected in serum from wild-caught Baltic Sea salmon. To align with the salmon exposure scenario, an internal dose regimen was opted to establish same relative proportions of the compounds in the zebrafish (whole body) as observed in the salmon serum. Through transcriptomic profiling, we identified dose-dependent effects on immune system and metabolism as two critical functions overlapping with adverse effects observed in wild fish from the Baltic Sea. We then determined likely effect drivers by comparing gene responses of the mixture with those of individual mixture components. Aligned with our transcriptome results, the number of total macrophages was reduced and the zebrafish's ability to respond to a tissue damage suppressed in a dose-dependent manner. This study brings forth a key advancement in delineating the impact of chemical pollutants on the health of wild fish in the Baltic Sea.},
}
@article {pmid39340867,
year = {2024},
author = {Moghaddam, HS and Abkar, L and Fowler, SJ},
title = {Making waves: From tap to gut- exploring the impact of drinking water on gut microbiota.},
journal = {Water research},
volume = {267},
number = {},
pages = {122503},
doi = {10.1016/j.watres.2024.122503},
pmid = {39340867},
issn = {1879-2448},
abstract = {Drinking water (DW) harbours diverse microbial species and chemical attributes. Water comprises the greatest portion of our daily diet, ingested both on its own and used in the preparation of food. DW is our major source of liquids, which is vital to maintaining homeostasis, and can also supply essential minerals. Limited evidence suggests that DW plays a role in shaping the gut microbiome, which implies that it may impact human health. Despite its significant contribution to diet, DW is often overlooked in studies examining dietary influences on the gut microbiota. This perspective explores our current understanding of the link between DW and the gut microbiota - an area of human microbiome science that has been surprisingly understudied. Existing studies reveal links between DW source, microbiota composition, and gut health, emphasizing the need for comprehensive investigations. Understanding the interplay between DW and gut microbiota holds potential for tailored interventions to enhance human health.},
}
@article {pmid39339787,
year = {2024},
author = {Fraiz, GM and Bonifácio, DB and Lacerda, UV and Cardoso, RR and Corich, V and Giacomini, A and Martino, HSD and Echeverría, SE and Barros, FAR and Milagro, FI and Bressan, J},
title = {Green Tea Kombucha Impacts Inflammation and Salivary Microbiota in Individuals with Excess Body Weight: A Randomized Controlled Trial.},
journal = {Nutrients},
volume = {16},
number = {18},
pages = {},
pmid = {39339787},
issn = {2072-6643},
support = {CAPE 507/2019 - APQ-00035-20//Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais/ ; CB12/03/30002//Spanish Biomedical Research Centre in Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition/ ; 001//Coordenação de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Saliva/microbiology ; Male ; Female ; *Inflammation ; Adult ; *Microbiota ; Kombucha Tea ; Middle Aged ; Weight Loss ; Tea ; Overweight/microbiology ; Body Mass Index ; Caloric Restriction ; Body Composition ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Green tea kombucha (GTK) is a fermented beverage with promising health benefits, but few studies proved its impact on human health. Thus, we aimed to investigate the impact of GTK on weight loss, inflammation, and salivary microbiota in individuals with excess body weight.
METHODS: This is a randomized controlled clinical trial that lasted 10 weeks with two groups of individuals with excess body weight: control (CG; n = 29; caloric restriction) and kombucha (KG; n = 30; caloric restriction + 200 mL GTK). Body composition, anthropometry, saliva, and blood collection were performed in the beginning and end of the intervention. Plasma interleukins were determined by flow cytometry. Salivary microbiota was analyzed by 16S rRNA sequencing.
RESULTS: Both groups decreased weight, BMI, and body fat (p < 0.001) after the intervention, but there were no differences between groups. The KG reduced lipid accumulation product (LAP) (p = 0.029). Both groups decreased IL-1β and IL-8, but IL-6 increased in the CG (p = 0.023) compared to the kombucha group. Alpha and beta diversity of salivary microbiota increased in the KG. Moreover, the KG presented lower Bacillota/Bacteroidota ratio (p = 0.028), and BMI was positively associated with the Bacillota phylum.
CONCLUSIONS: GTK did not enhance weight loss, but it decreased the LAP. GTK helped in the inflammatory profile and induced positive changes in oral microbiota composition.},
}
@article {pmid39337688,
year = {2024},
author = {Fleshner, L and Roster, K and Farabi, B and Hirani, R and Tepper, K and Pitchumoni, CS and Safai, B and Marmon, S},
title = {Follicular Skin Disorders, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and the Microbiome: A Systematic Review.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {25},
number = {18},
pages = {},
pmid = {39337688},
issn = {1422-0067},
mesh = {Humans ; *Dysbiosis/microbiology ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Hidradenitis Suppurativa/microbiology ; *Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/microbiology ; Microbiota ; Skin/microbiology ; Skin Diseases/microbiology ; },
abstract = {Follicular skin disorders, including hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), frequently coexist with systemic autoinflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and its subtypes, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Previous studies suggest that dysbiosis of the human gut microbiome may serve as a pathogenic link between HS and IBD. However, the role of the microbiome (gut, skin, and blood) in the context of IBD and various follicular disorders remains underexplored. Here, we performed a systematic review to investigate the relationship between follicular skin disorders, IBD, and the microbiome. Of the sixteen included studies, four evaluated the impact of diet on the microbiome in HS patients, highlighting a possible link between gut dysbiosis and yeast-exclusion diets. Ten studies explored bacterial colonization and HS severity with specific gut and skin microbiota, including Enterococcus and Veillonella. Two studies reported on immunological or serological biomarkers in HS patients with autoinflammatory disease, including IBD, and identified common markers including elevated cytokines and T-lymphocytes. Six studies investigated HS and IBD patients concurrently. Our systematic literature review highlights the complex interplay between the human microbiome, IBD, and follicular disorders with a particular focus on HS. The results indicate that dietary modifications hold promise as a therapeutic intervention to mitigate the burden of HS and IBD. Microbiota analyses and the identification of key serological biomarkers are crucial for a deeper understanding of the impact of dysbiosis in these conditions. Future research is needed to more thoroughly delineate the causal versus associative roles of dysbiosis in patients with both follicular disorders and IBD.},
}
@article {pmid39337215,
year = {2024},
author = {Falara, E and Metallinou, D and Nanou, C and Vlachou, M and Diamanti, A},
title = {Perinatal Exposure to Tobacco Smoke and Its Association with the Maternal and Offspring Microbiome: A Systematic Review.},
journal = {Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland)},
volume = {12},
number = {18},
pages = {},
pmid = {39337215},
issn = {2227-9032},
support = {The APC was partially funded by the "Special Account for Research Grants" of the University of West Attica, Athens, Greece.//The APC was partially funded by the "Special Account for Research Grants" of the University of West Attica, Athens, Greece./ ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The human microbiome, comprising trillions of microorganisms, significantly influences human health and disease. During critical periods like the perinatal phase, the microbiome undergoes significant changes, impacting lifelong health. Tobacco smoke, a known environmental pollutant, has adverse effects on health, particularly during pregnancy. Despite this, its association with the perinatal microbiome remains understudied.
METHODS: We conducted a systematic review to integrate findings on perinatal tobacco smoke exposure and its association with the maternal and neonatal microbiomes. We conducted a comprehensive literature search in the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases from January 2000 to February 2024. We selected studies that met predefined inclusion criteria and performed data extraction.
RESULTS: The review included eight studies that revealed diverse associations of perinatal tobacco exposure with the maternal and neonatal microbiome. Active smoking during pregnancy was linked to alterations in microbiome composition and diversity in children. Maternal smoking correlated with increased Firmicutes abundance and decreased Akkermansia muciniphila abundance in offspring. Additionally, exposure to thirdhand smoke in neonatal intensive care units was related to infant microbiome diversity. Infants exposed to tobacco smoke showed various microbial changes, suggesting potential implications for childhood health outcomes, including obesity risk.
CONCLUSIONS: Perinatal exposure to tobacco smoke exerts significant influence on the maternal and neonatal microbiomes, with potential implications for long-term health outcomes. Addressing socioeconomic and psychological barriers to smoking cessation, implementing stricter smoking regulations, and promoting public health campaigns are essential steps towards reducing tobacco-related harm during the perinatal period. Further longitudinal studies and standardized assessment methods are needed to validate these findings and guide the development of effective preventive measures.},
}
@article {pmid39335616,
year = {2024},
author = {Xiang, B and Zhang, Q and Wu, H and Lin, J and Xu, Z and Zhang, M and Zhu, L and Hu, J and Zhi, M},
title = {Impact of Mild COVID-19 History on Oral-Gut Microbiota and Serum Metabolomics in Adult Patients with Crohn's Disease: Potential Beneficial Effects.},
journal = {Biomedicines},
volume = {12},
number = {9},
pages = {},
pmid = {39335616},
issn = {2227-9059},
support = {2014008 (MZ)//the Sun Yat-sen University Clinical Research 5010 Program/ ; 82270544 (MZ)//the National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; SL2022B03J00237 (MZ)//the Bureau of Science and Technology of Guangzhou Municipality/ ; 2022JBGS06 (MZ)//"Jie Bang Gua Shuai" project of The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University/ ; 2019ZT08Y464 (LZ)//Guangdong Province "Pearl River Talent Plan" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Team Project/ ; 2020B1111170004 (MZ)//the program of Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Digestive Diseases/ ; },
abstract = {The impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) history on Crohn's disease (CD) is unknown. This investigation aimed to examine the effect of COVID-19 history on the disease course, oral-gut microbiota, and serum metabolomics in patients with CD. In this study, oral-gut microbiota and serum metabolomic profiles in 30 patients with CD and a history of mild COVID-19 (positive group, PG), 30 patients with CD without COVID-19 history (negative group, NG), and 60 healthy controls (HC) were assessed using 16S rDNA sequencing and targeted metabolomics. During follow-up, the CD activity index showed a stronger decrease in the PG than in the NG (p = 0.0496). PG patients demonstrated higher α-diversity and distinct β-diversity clustering in both salivary and fecal microbiota compared to NG and HC individuals. Notably, the gut microbiota composition in the PG patients showed a significantly greater similarity to that of HC than NG individuals. The interaction between oral and intestinal microbiota in the PG was reduced. Moreover, serum metabolome analysis revealed significantly increased anti-inflammatory metabolites, including short-chain fatty acids and N-Acetylserotonin, among PG patients; meanwhile, inflammation-related metabolites such as arachidonic acid were significantly reduced in this group. Our data suggest that the gut microbiota mediates a potential beneficial effect of a mild COVID-19 history in CD patients.},
}
@article {pmid39334849,
year = {2024},
author = {Mukherjee, S and Verma, A and Kong, L and Rengan, AK and Cahill, DM},
title = {Advancements in Green Nanoparticle Technology: Focusing on the Treatment of Clinical Phytopathogens.},
journal = {Biomolecules},
volume = {14},
number = {9},
pages = {},
pmid = {39334849},
issn = {2218-273X},
mesh = {*Nanoparticles/chemistry/therapeutic use ; Humans ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology/chemistry/therapeutic use ; Green Chemistry Technology/methods ; Plant Diseases/microbiology/prevention & control ; },
abstract = {Opportunistic pathogenic microbial infections pose a significant danger to human health, which forces people to use riskier, more expensive, and less effective drugs compared to traditional treatments. These may be attributed to several factors, such as overusing antibiotics in medicine and lack of sanitization in hospital settings. In this context, researchers are looking for new options to combat this worrying condition and find a solution. Nanoparticles are currently being utilized in the pharmaceutical sector; however, there is a persistent worry regarding their potential danger to human health due to the usage of toxic chemicals, which makes the utilization of nanoparticles highly hazardous to eukaryotic cells. Multiple nanoparticle-based techniques are now being developed, offering essential understanding regarding the synthesis of components that play a crucial role in producing anti-microbial nanotherapeutic pharmaceuticals. In this regard, green nanoparticles are considered less hazardous than other forms, providing potential options for avoiding the extensive harm to the human microbiome that is prevalent with existing procedures. This review article aims to comprehensively assess the current state of knowledge on green nanoparticles related to antibiotic activity as well as their potential to assist antibiotics in treating opportunistic clinical phytopathogenic illnesses.},
}
@article {pmid39333709,
year = {2024},
author = {Crunkhorn, S},
title = {Identifying antimicrobials in the human microbiome.},
journal = {Nature reviews. Drug discovery},
volume = {23},
number = {11},
pages = {816},
pmid = {39333709},
issn = {1474-1784},
}
@article {pmid39333588,
year = {2024},
author = {Garcia-Vello, P and Tytgat, HLP and Elzinga, J and Van Hul, M and Plovier, H and Tiemblo-Martin, M and Cani, PD and Nicolardi, S and Fragai, M and De Castro, C and Di Lorenzo, F and Silipo, A and Molinaro, A and de Vos, WM},
title = {The lipooligosaccharide of the gut symbiont Akkermansia muciniphila exhibits a remarkable structure and TLR signaling capacity.},
journal = {Nature communications},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {8411},
pmid = {39333588},
issn = {2041-1723},
support = {AdG 250172//EC | EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation H2020 | H2020 Priority Excellent Science | H2020 European Research Council (H2020 Excellent Science - European Research Council)/ ; },
mesh = {*Lipopolysaccharides ; *Akkermansia ; Animals ; *Signal Transduction ; *Toll-Like Receptor 4/metabolism ; Humans ; *Toll-Like Receptor 2/metabolism ; Mice ; Symbiosis ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Lipid A/metabolism/chemistry ; Interleukin-10/metabolism ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Liver/metabolism/microbiology ; Female ; },
abstract = {The cell-envelope of Gram-negative bacteria contains endotoxic lipopolysaccharides (LPS) that are recognized by the innate immune system via Toll-Like Receptors (TLRs). The intestinal mucosal symbiont Akkermansia muciniphila is known to confer beneficial effects on the host and has a Gram-negative architecture. Here we show that A. muciniphila LPS lacks the O-polysaccharide repeating unit, with the resulting lipooligosaccharide (LOS) having unprecedented structural and signaling properties. The LOS consists of a complex glycan chain bearing two distinct undeca- and hexadecasaccharide units each containing three 2-keto-3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonic acid (Kdo) residues. The lipid A moiety appears as a mixture of differently phosphorylated and acylated species and carries either linear or branched acyl moieties. Peritoneal injection of the LOS in mice increased higher gene expression of liver TLR2 than TLR4 (100-fold) and induced high IL-10 gene expression. A. muciniphila LOS was found to signal both through TLR4 and TLR2, whereas lipid A only induced TLR2 in a human cell line. We propose that the unique structure of the A. muciniphila LOS allows interaction with TLR2, thus generating an anti-inflammatory response as to compensate for the canonical inflammatory signaling associated with LOS and TLR4, rationalizing its beneficial host interaction.},
}
@article {pmid39333143,
year = {2024},
author = {Wang, B and Wang, T and Du, X and Li, J and Wang, J and Wu, P},
title = {Microbe-drug association prediction model based on graph convolution and attention networks.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {14},
number = {1},
pages = {22327},
pmid = {39333143},
issn = {2045-2322},
support = {145209125//Basic scientific research operations of universities affiliated with Heilongjiang Province/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Deep Learning ; Microbiota ; Computational Biology/methods ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Drug Discovery/methods ; Pharmaceutical Preparations ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome plays a key role in drug development and precision medicine, but understanding its complex interactions with drugs remains a challenge. Identifying microbe-drug associations not only enhances our understanding of their mechanisms but also aids in drug discovery and repurposing. Traditional experiments are expensive and time-consuming, making computational methods for predicting microbe-drug associations a new trend. Currently, computational methods specifically designed for this task are still scarce. Therefore, to address the shortcomings of traditional experimental methods in predicting potential microbe-drug associations, this paper proposes a new prediction model named GCNATMDA. The model combines two deep learning models, Graph Convolutional Network and Graph Attention Network, and aims to reveal potential relationships between microbes and drugs by learning related features. Thus improve the efficiency and accuracy of prediction. We first integrated the microbe-drug association matrix from the existing dataset, and then combined the calculated microbe-drug characteristic matrix as the model input. The GCN module is used to dig deeper into the potential characterization of microbes and drugs, while the GAT module further learns the more complex interactions between them and generates the corresponding score matrix. The experimental results show that the GCNATMDA model achieves 96.59% and 93.01% in AUC and AUPR evaluation indexes, respectively, which is significantly better than the existing prediction models. In addition, the reliability of the prediction results is verified by a series of experiments.},
}
@article {pmid39333099,
year = {2024},
author = {Hickman, B and Salonen, A and Ponsero, AJ and Jokela, R and Kolho, KL and de Vos, WM and Korpela, K},
title = {Gut microbiota wellbeing index predicts overall health in a cohort of 1000 infants.},
journal = {Nature communications},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {8323},
pmid = {39333099},
issn = {2041-1723},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; Infant ; *Feces/microbiology ; Female ; Male ; Infant, Newborn ; Cohort Studies ; Longitudinal Studies ; Child, Preschool ; Bifidobacterium/isolation & purification ; Bacteroides/isolation & purification ; },
abstract = {The human gut microbiota is central in regulating all facets of host physiology, and in early life it is thought to influence the host's immune system and metabolism, affecting long-term health. However, longitudinally monitored cohorts with parallel analysis of faecal samples and health data are scarce. In our observational study we describe the gut microbiota development in the first 2 years of life and create a gut microbiota wellbeing index based on the microbiota development and health data in a cohort of nearly 1000 infants using clustering and trajectory modelling. We show that infants' gut microbiota development is highly predictable, following one of five trajectories, dependent on infant exposures, and predictive of later health outcomes. We characterise the natural healthy gut microbiota trajectory and several different dysbiotic trajectories associated with different health outcomes. Bifidobacterium and Bacteroides appear as early keystone organisms, directing microbiota development and consistently predicting positive health outcomes. A microbiota wellbeing index, based on the healthy development trajectory, is predictive of general health over the first 5 years. The results indicate that gut microbiota succession is part of infant physiological development, predictable, and malleable. This information can be utilised to improve the predictions of individual health risks.},
}
@article {pmid39331660,
year = {2024},
author = {Pasqualini, J and Facchin, S and Rinaldo, A and Maritan, A and Savarino, E and Suweis, S},
title = {Emergent ecological patterns and modelling of gut microbiomes in health and in disease.},
journal = {PLoS computational biology},
volume = {20},
number = {9},
pages = {e1012482},
pmid = {39331660},
issn = {1553-7358},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology/genetics ; Models, Biological ; Computational Biology ; Dysbiosis/microbiology ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; },
abstract = {Recent advancements in next-generation sequencing have revolutionized our understanding of the human microbiome. Despite this progress, challenges persist in comprehending the microbiome's influence on disease, hindered by technical complexities in species classification, abundance estimation, and data compositionality. At the same time, the existence of macroecological laws describing the variation and diversity in microbial communities irrespective of their environment has been recently proposed using 16s data and explained by a simple phenomenological model of population dynamics. We here investigate the relationship between dysbiosis, i.e. in unhealthy individuals there are deviations from the "regular" composition of the gut microbial community, and the existence of macro-ecological emergent law in microbial communities. We first quantitatively reconstruct these patterns at the species level using shotgun data, and addressing the consequences of sampling effects and statistical errors on ecological patterns. We then ask if such patterns can discriminate between healthy and unhealthy cohorts. Concomitantly, we evaluate the efficacy of different statistical generative models, which incorporate sampling and population dynamics, to describe such patterns and distinguish which are expected by chance, versus those that are potentially informative about disease states or other biological drivers. A critical aspect of our analysis is understanding the relationship between model parameters, which have clear ecological interpretations, and the state of the gut microbiome, thereby enabling the generation of synthetic compositional data that distinctively represent healthy and unhealthy individuals. Our approach, grounded in theoretical ecology and statistical physics, allows for a robust comparison of these models with empirical data, enhancing our understanding of the strengths and limitations of simple microbial models of population dynamics.},
}
@article {pmid39327438,
year = {2024},
author = {Schmartz, GP and Rehner, J and Gund, MP and Keller, V and Molano, LG and Rupf, S and Hannig, M and Berger, T and Flockerzi, E and Seitz, B and Fleser, S and Schmitt-Grohé, S and Kalefack, S and Zemlin, M and Kunz, M and Götzinger, F and Gevaerd, C and Vogt, T and Reichrath, J and Diehl, L and Hecksteden, A and Meyer, T and Herr, C and Gurevich, A and Krug, D and Hegemann, J and Bozhueyuek, K and Gulder, TAM and Fu, C and Beemelmanns, C and Schattenberg, JM and Kalinina, OV and Becker, A and Unger, M and Ludwig, N and Seibert, M and Stein, ML and Hanna, NL and Martin, MC and Mahfoud, F and Krawczyk, M and Becker, SL and Müller, R and Bals, R and Keller, A},
title = {Decoding the diagnostic and therapeutic potential of microbiota using pan-body pan-disease microbiomics.},
journal = {Nature communications},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {8261},
pmid = {39327438},
issn = {2041-1723},
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota/genetics ; *Metagenome/genetics ; *Metagenomics/methods ; Bacteria/genetics/isolation & purification/classification ; Feces/microbiology ; Male ; Female ; Multigene Family ; Saliva/microbiology ; Adult ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome emerges as a promising reservoir for diagnostic markers and therapeutics. Since host-associated microbiomes at various body sites differ and diseases do not occur in isolation, a comprehensive analysis strategy highlighting the full potential of microbiomes should include diverse specimen types and various diseases. To ensure robust data quality and comparability across specimen types and diseases, we employ standardized protocols to generate sequencing data from 1931 prospectively collected specimens, including from saliva, plaque, skin, throat, eye, and stool, with an average sequencing depth of 5.3 gigabases. Collected from 515 patients, these samples yield an average of 3.7 metagenomes per patient. Our results suggest significant microbial variations across diseases and specimen types, including unexpected anatomical sites. We identify 583 unexplored species-level genome bins (SGBs) of which 189 are significantly disease-associated. Of note, the existence of microbial resistance genes in one specimen was indicative of the same resistance genes in other specimens of the same patient. Annotated and previously undescribed SGBs collectively harbor 28,315 potential biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), with 1050 significant correlations to diseases. Our combinatorial approach identifies distinct SGBs and BGCs, emphasizing the value of pan-body pan-disease microbiomics as a source for diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.},
}
@article {pmid39322959,
year = {2024},
author = {Wirbel, J and Essex, M and Forslund, SK and Zeller, G},
title = {A realistic benchmark for differential abundance testing and confounder adjustment in human microbiome studies.},
journal = {Genome biology},
volume = {25},
number = {1},
pages = {247},
pmid = {39322959},
issn = {1474-760X},
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota ; *Benchmarking ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; Computer Simulation ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: In microbiome disease association studies, it is a fundamental task to test which microbes differ in their abundance between groups. Yet, consensus on suitable or optimal statistical methods for differential abundance testing is lacking, and it remains unexplored how these cope with confounding. Previous differential abundance benchmarks relying on simulated datasets did not quantitatively evaluate the similarity to real data, which undermines their recommendations.
RESULTS: Our simulation framework implants calibrated signals into real taxonomic profiles, including signals mimicking confounders. Using several whole meta-genome and 16S rRNA gene amplicon datasets, we validate that our simulated data resembles real data from disease association studies much more than in previous benchmarks. With extensively parametrized simulations, we benchmark the performance of nineteen differential abundance methods and further evaluate the best ones on confounded simulations. Only classic statistical methods (linear models, the Wilcoxon test, t-test), limma, and fastANCOM properly control false discoveries at relatively high sensitivity. When additionally considering confounders, these issues are exacerbated, but we find that adjusted differential abundance testing can effectively mitigate them. In a large cardiometabolic disease dataset, we showcase that failure to account for covariates such as medication causes spurious association in real-world applications.
CONCLUSIONS: Tight error control is critical for microbiome association studies. The unsatisfactory performance of many differential abundance methods and the persistent danger of unchecked confounding suggest these contribute to a lack of reproducibility among such studies. We have open-sourced our simulation and benchmarking software to foster a much-needed consolidation of statistical methodology for microbiome research.},
}
@article {pmid39322314,
year = {2024},
author = {Van Hul, M and Cani, PD and Petitfils, C and De Vos, WM and Tilg, H and El-Omar, EM},
title = {What defines a healthy gut microbiome?.},
journal = {Gut},
volume = {73},
number = {11},
pages = {1893-1908},
pmid = {39322314},
issn = {1468-3288},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; Dysbiosis/microbiology ; Probiotics/therapeutic use ; Fecal Microbiota Transplantation ; },
abstract = {The understanding that changes in microbiome composition can influence chronic human diseases and the efficiency of therapies has driven efforts to develop microbiota-centred therapies such as first and next generation probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics, microbiota editing and faecal microbiota transplantation. Central to microbiome research is understanding how disease impacts microbiome composition and vice versa, yet there is a problematic issue with the term 'dysbiosis', which broadly links microbial imbalances to various chronic illnesses without precision or definition. Another significant issue in microbiome discussions is defining 'healthy individuals' to ascertain what characterises a healthy microbiome. This involves questioning who represents the healthiest segment of our population-whether it is those free from illnesses, athletes at peak performance, individuals living healthily through regular exercise and good nutrition or even elderly adults or centenarians who have been tested by time and achieved remarkable healthy longevity.This review advocates for delineating 'what defines a healthy microbiome?' by considering a broader range of factors related to human health and environmental influences on the microbiota. A healthy microbiome is undoubtedly linked to gut health. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to pinpoint a universally accepted definition of 'gut health' due to the complexities of measuring gut functionality besides the microbiota composition. We must take into account individual variabilities, the influence of diet, lifestyle, host and environmental factors. Moreover, the challenge in distinguishing causation from correlation between gut microbiome and overall health is presented.The review also highlights the resource-heavy nature of comprehensive gut health assessments, which hinders their practicality and broad application. Finally, we call for continued research and a nuanced approach to better understand the intricate and evolving concept of gut health, emphasising the need for more precise and inclusive definitions and methodologies in studying the microbiome.},
}
@article {pmid39320132,
year = {2024},
author = {Bosland, MC and Gordon, T and Solomon, JJ and Shore, RE and Lippmann, M},
title = {Seventy-five years of impactful environmental and occupational health research at the Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine at New York University.},
journal = {Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences},
volume = {1540},
number = {1},
pages = {147-165},
doi = {10.1111/nyas.15226},
pmid = {39320132},
issn = {1749-6632},
mesh = {Humans ; Academies and Institutes/history ; Biomedical Research/history/trends ; *Environmental Health/history ; *Environmental Medicine/history/trends ; History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; New York ; New York City ; *Occupational Health/history ; Universities/history ; },
abstract = {Founded in 1947 as the Institute of Industrial Medicine, the Nelson Institute and Department of Environmental Medicine at New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine (NYUGSOM) was supported by a National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS) Center Grant for over 56 years. Nelson Institute researchers generated 75 years of impactful research in environmental and occupational health, radiation effects, toxicology, and cancer. Environmental health research is continuing at NYUGSOM in its departments of medicine and population health. The objective of this historical commentary is to highlight the major achievements of the Nelson Institute and the department in the context of its history at facilities in Sterling Forest, Tuxedo, NY and Manhattan, NY. Aspects of our discussion include leadership, physical facilities, and research in many areas, including air pollution, health effects of environmental radiation exposures, inhalation toxicology methodology, carcinogenesis by chemicals, metals, and hormones, cancer chemoprevention, human microbiome, ecotoxicology, epidemiology, biostatistics, and community health concerns. The research of the institute and department benefited from unique facilities, strong leadership focused on team-based science, and outstanding investigators, students, and staff. A major lasting contribution has been the training of hundreds of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, many of whom have been and are training the next generation of environmental and occupational health researchers at various institutions.},
}
@article {pmid39315152,
year = {2024},
author = {Zheng, B and Xu, J and Zhang, Y and Qin, J and Yuan, D and Fan, T and Wu, W and Chen, Y and Jiang, Y},
title = {MBCN: A novel reference database for Effcient Metagenomic analysis of human gut microbiome.},
journal = {Heliyon},
volume = {10},
number = {18},
pages = {e37422},
pmid = {39315152},
issn = {2405-8440},
abstract = {Metagenomic shotgun sequencing data can identify microbes and their proportions. But metagenomic shotgun data profiling results obtained from multiple projects using different reference databases are difficult to compare and apply meta-analysis. Our work aims to create a novel collection of human gut prokaryotic genomes, named Microbiome Collection Navigator (MBCN). 2379 human gut metagenomic samples are screened, and 16,785 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) are assembled using a standardized pipeline. In addition, MAGs are combined with the representative genomes from public prokaryotic genomes collections to cluster, and pan-genomes for each cluster's genomes are constructed to build Kraken2 and Bracken databases. The databases built by MBCN are more comprehensive and accurate for profiling metagenomic reads comparing with other collections on simulated reads and virtual bio-projects. We profile 1082 human gut metagenomic samples with MBCN database and organize profiles and metadata on the web program. Meanwhile, using MBCN as a reference database, we also develop a unified, standardized, and systematic metagenomic analysis pipeline and platform, named MicrobiotaCN (http://www.microbiota.cn) and common statistical and visualization tools for microbiome research are integrated into the web program. Taken together, MBCN and MicrobiotaCN can be a valuable resource and a powerful tool that allows researchers to perform metagenomic analysis by a unified pipeline efficiently.},
}
@article {pmid39313228,
year = {2024},
author = {Kirtipal, N and Seo, Y and Son, J and Lee, S},
title = {Systems Biology of Human Microbiome for the Prediction of Personal Glycaemic Response.},
journal = {Diabetes & metabolism journal},
volume = {48},
number = {5},
pages = {821-836},
pmid = {39313228},
issn = {2233-6087},
support = {//Ministry of Science ICT/ ; 2021R1C1C1006336//National Research Foundation of Korea/ ; 2021M3A9G8022959//National Research Foundation of Korea/ ; RS-2024-00419699//National Research Foundation of Korea/ ; //Korea Health Industry Development Institute/ ; HR22C141105//Ministry of Health and Welfare/ ; 2024-ER2108-00//Korea National Institute of Health/ ; 2024-ER0608-00//Korea National Institute of Health/ ; //GIST Research Institute/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; *Precision Medicine/methods ; *Systems Biology/methods ; Machine Learning ; Dysbiosis ; Blood Glucose/analysis ; Diabetes Mellitus/microbiology ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/microbiology ; Hypoglycemic Agents/therapeutic use ; },
abstract = {The human gut microbiota is increasingly recognized as a pivotal factor in diabetes management, playing a significant role in the body's response to treatment. However, it is important to understand that long-term usage of medicines like metformin and other diabetic treatments can result in problems, gastrointestinal discomfort, and dysbiosis of the gut flora. Advanced sequencing technologies have improved our understanding of the gut microbiome's role in diabetes, uncovering complex interactions between microbial composition and metabolic health. We explore how the gut microbiota affects glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity by examining a variety of -omics data, including genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and metagenomics. Machine learning algorithms and genome-scale modeling are now being applied to find microbiological biomarkers associated with diabetes risk, predicted disease progression, and guide customized therapy. This study holds promise for specialized diabetic therapy. Despite significant advances, some concerns remain unanswered, including understanding the complex relationship between diabetes etiology and gut microbiota, as well as developing user-friendly technological innovations. This mini-review explores the relationship between multiomics, precision medicine, and machine learning to improve our understanding of the gut microbiome's function in diabetes. In the era of precision medicine, the ultimate goal is to improve patient outcomes through personalized treatments.},
}
@article {pmid39307902,
year = {2024},
author = {Ma, Z and Zuo, T and Frey, N and Rangrez, AY},
title = {A systematic framework for understanding the microbiome in human health and disease: from basic principles to clinical translation.},
journal = {Signal transduction and targeted therapy},
volume = {9},
number = {1},
pages = {237},
pmid = {39307902},
issn = {2059-3635},
support = {RA 2717/4-1//Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation)/ ; 1289/17-1//Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation)/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Probiotics/therapeutic use ; Symbiosis/genetics ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome is a complex and dynamic system that plays important roles in human health and disease. However, there remain limitations and theoretical gaps in our current understanding of the intricate relationship between microbes and humans. In this narrative review, we integrate the knowledge and insights from various fields, including anatomy, physiology, immunology, histology, genetics, and evolution, to propose a systematic framework. It introduces key concepts such as the 'innate and adaptive genomes', which enhance genetic and evolutionary comprehension of the human genome. The 'germ-free syndrome' challenges the traditional 'microbes as pathogens' view, advocating for the necessity of microbes for health. The 'slave tissue' concept underscores the symbiotic intricacies between human tissues and their microbial counterparts, highlighting the dynamic health implications of microbial interactions. 'Acquired microbial immunity' positions the microbiome as an adjunct to human immune systems, providing a rationale for probiotic therapies and prudent antibiotic use. The 'homeostatic reprogramming hypothesis' integrates the microbiome into the internal environment theory, potentially explaining the change in homeostatic indicators post-industrialization. The 'cell-microbe co-ecology model' elucidates the symbiotic regulation affecting cellular balance, while the 'meta-host model' broadens the host definition to include symbiotic microbes. The 'health-illness conversion model' encapsulates the innate and adaptive genomes' interplay and dysbiosis patterns. The aim here is to provide a more focused and coherent understanding of microbiome and highlight future research avenues that could lead to a more effective and efficient healthcare system.},
}
@article {pmid39306588,
year = {2024},
author = {Sahin, TK and Sonmezer, MC},
title = {The role of the microbiome in head and neck squamous cell cancers.},
journal = {European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39306588},
issn = {1434-4726},
abstract = {The human microbiome has garnered tremendous interest in the field of oncology, and microbiota studies in head and neck oncology has also flourished. Given the increasing incidence and mortality of HNSCC, as well as the suboptimal outcomes of available treatments, there is an urgent need for innovative approaches involving the microbiome. This review evaluates the intricate relationship between the microbiome and HNSCC, highlighting the potential of the microbiome as a marker for cancer detection, its role in malignancy, and its impact on the efficacy of conventional treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The review also explores the effects of treatment modalities on the microbiome and discusses the potential of microbiome alterations to predict and influence treatment toxicities such as mucositis and xerostomia. Further research is warranted to characterize the microbiome-HNSCC association, which holds promise for advancing early diagnosis, enhancing prognostic accuracy, and personalizing treatment strategies to improve patient outcomes. The exploration of the microbiome in clinical trials indicates a burgeoning subject of microbiome-focused therapies, heralding a new frontier in most cancer care.},
}
@article {pmid39304775,
year = {2024},
author = {Ray, K},
title = {A resource for the food microbiome and its links with the human microbiome.},
journal = {Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology},
volume = {21},
number = {11},
pages = {746},
pmid = {39304775},
issn = {1759-5053},
}
@article {pmid39303118,
year = {2024},
author = {Doré, J and Sansonetti, PJ},
title = {[The human microbiome: 340 years of history, 140 years of interrogations, technological innovations and emergence of "microbial medicine"].},
journal = {Medecine sciences : M/S},
volume = {40},
number = {8-9},
pages = {654-660},
doi = {10.1051/medsci/2024101},
pmid = {39303118},
issn = {1958-5381},
mesh = {Humans ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; Inventions/history/trends ; *Microbiota/physiology ; Symbiosis ; History, 17th Century ; },
abstract = {For 350 years, we have known that the human body hosts microbes, then called "animalcules". For over a century, following the demonstration of the role of some of these microbes in diseases, questions have arisen about the role of the largely predominant ones colonizing human skin and mucous surfaces, particularly the rich microbial ecosystem of the intestine, the gut microbiota. From the invention of germ-free life - axenism - which experimentally validated the human-microbe symbiosis, resulting from a long coevolution, to the development of anaerobic culture methods, then to the invention of molecular diagnosis, deep sequencing opening up metagenomic and omics approaches in general, a remarkable race has taken place between technological innovations and conceptual advances. This race, beyond the exhaustive description of the microbiota in its intra- and inter-human diversity, and the essential symbiotic functions of the microbiome, has paved the way for a new field of medicine: microbial medicine.},
}
@article {pmid39300165,
year = {2024},
author = {Bisht, V and Das, B and Hussain, A and Kumar, V and Navani, NK},
title = {Understanding of probiotic origin antimicrobial peptides: a sustainable approach ensuring food safety.},
journal = {NPJ science of food},
volume = {8},
number = {1},
pages = {67},
pmid = {39300165},
issn = {2396-8370},
abstract = {The practice of preserving and adding value to food dates back to over 10,000 BCE, when unintentional microbial-driven chemical reactions imparted flavor and extended the shelf life of fermented foods. The process evolved, and with the urbanization of society, significant shifts in dietary habits emerged, accompanied by sporadic food poisoning incidents. The repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic have intensified the search for antibiotic alternatives owing to the rise in antibiotic-resistant pathogens, emphasizing the exploration of probiotic-origin antimicrobial peptides to alleviate human microbiome collateral damage. Often termed 'molecular knives', these peptides outstand as potent antimicrobials due to their compatibility with innate microflora, amenability to bioengineering, target specificity, versatility and rapidity in molecular level mode of action. This review centres on bacteriocins sourced from lactic acid bacteria found in ethnic fermented foods, accentuating their desirable attributes, technological applications as nanobiotics and potential future applications in the modern context of ensuring food safety.},
}
@article {pmid39298326,
year = {2024},
author = {Gordon, JI and Barratt, MJ and Hibberd, MC and Rahman, M and Ahmed, T},
title = {Establishing human microbial observatory programs in low- and middle-income countries.},
journal = {Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences},
volume = {1540},
number = {1},
pages = {13-20},
doi = {10.1111/nyas.15224},
pmid = {39298326},
issn = {1749-6632},
support = {//Fondazione Internazionale Premio Balzan/ ; //Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation/ ; /NH/NIH HHS/United States ; /NH/NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Developing Countries ; Global Health ; *Microbiota ; },
abstract = {Studies of the human microbiome are progressing rapidly but have largely focused on populations living in high-income countries. With increasing evidence that the microbiome contributes to the pathogenesis of diseases that affect infants, children, and adults in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and with profound and rapid ongoing changes occurring in our lifestyles and biosphere, understanding the origins of and developing microbiome-directed therapeutics for treating a number of global health challenges requires the development of programs for studying human microbial ecology in LMICs. Here, we discuss how the establishment of long-term human microbial observatory programs in selected LMICs could provide one timely approach.},
}
@article {pmid39292000,
year = {2024},
author = {Kilgore, PB and Sha, J and Hendrix, EK and Neil, BH and Lawrence, WS and Peel, JE and Hittle, L and Woolston, J and Sulakvelidze, A and Schwartz, JA and Chopra, AK},
title = {A bacteriophage cocktail targeting Yersinia pestis provides strong post-exposure protection in a rat pneumonic plague model.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0094224},
doi = {10.1128/spectrum.00942-24},
pmid = {39292000},
issn = {2165-0497},
abstract = {Yersinia pestis, one of the deadliest bacterial pathogens ever known, is responsible for three plague pandemics and several epidemics, with over 200 million deaths during recorded history. Due to high genomic plasticity, Y. pestis is amenable to genetic mutations as well as genetic engineering that can lead to the emergence or intentional development of pan-drug-resistant strains. Indeed, antibiotic-resistant strains (e.g., strains carrying multidrug-resistant or MDR plasmids) have been isolated in various countries and endemic areas. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop novel, safe, and effective treatment approaches for managing Y. pestis infections. This includes infections by antigenically distinct strains for which vaccines (none FDA approved yet) may not be effective and those that cannot be managed by currently available antibiotics. Lytic bacteriophages provide one such alternative approach. In this study, we examined post-exposure efficacy of a bacteriophage cocktail, YPP-401, to combat pneumonic plague caused by Y. pestis CO92. YPP-401 is a four-phage preparation effective against a panel of at least 68 genetically diverse Y. pestis strains. Using a pneumonic plague aerosol challenge model in gender-balanced Brown Norway rats, YPP-401 demonstrated ~88% protection when delivered 18 h post-exposure for each of two administration routes (i.e., intraperitoneal and intranasal) in a dose-dependent manner. Our studies provide proof-of-concept that YPP-401 could be an innovative, safe, and effective approach for managing Y. pestis infections, including those caused by naturally occurring or intentionally developed multidrug-resistant strains.IMPORTANCECurrently, there are no FDA-approved plague vaccines. Since antibiotic-resistant strains of Y. pestis have emerged or are being intentionally developed to be used as a biothreat agent, new treatment modalities are direly needed. Phage therapy provides a viable option against potentially antibiotic-resistant strains. Additionally, phages are nontoxic and have been approved by the FDA for use in the food industry. Our study provides the first evidence of the protective effect of a cocktail of four phages against pneumonic plague, the most severe form of disease. When treatment was initiated 18 h post infection by either the intranasal or intraperitoneal route in Brown Norway rats, up to 87.5% protection was observed. The phage cocktail had a minimal impact on a representative human microbiome panel, unlike antibiotics. This study provides strong proof-of-concept data for the further development of phage-based therapy to treat plague.},
}
@article {pmid39283061,
year = {2024},
author = {McBurney, MI and Cho, CE},
title = {Understanding the role of the human gut microbiome in overweight and obesity.},
journal = {Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences},
volume = {1540},
number = {1},
pages = {61-88},
doi = {10.1111/nyas.15215},
pmid = {39283061},
issn = {1749-6632},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; *Obesity/microbiology/metabolism ; *Overweight/microbiology ; Probiotics ; Prebiotics/administration & dosage ; Fecal Microbiota Transplantation ; Diet ; },
abstract = {The gut microbiome may be related to the prevalence of overweight and obesity, but high interindividual variability of the human microbiome complicates our understanding. Obesity often occurs concomitantly with micronutrient deficiencies that impair energy metabolism. Microbiota composition is affected by diet. Host-microbiota interactions are bidirectional. We propose three pathways whereby these interactions may modulate the gut microbiome and obesity: (1) ingested compounds or derivatives affecting small intestinal transit, endogenous secretions, digestion, absorption, microbiome balance, and gut barrier function directly affect host metabolism; (2) substrate availability affecting colonic microbial composition and contact with the gut barrier; and (3) microbial end products affecting host metabolism. The quantity/concentration, duration, and/or frequency (circadian rhythm) of changes in these pathways can alter the gut microbiome, disrupt the gut barrier, alter host immunity, and increase the risk of and progression to overweight and obesity. Host-specific characteristics (e.g., genetic variations) may further affect individual sensitivity and/or resilience to diet- and microbiome-associated perturbations in the colonic environment. In this narrative review, the effects of selected interventions, including fecal microbiota transplantation, dietary calorie restriction, dietary fibers and prebiotics, probiotics and synbiotics, vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids, on the gut microbiome, body weight, and/or adiposity are summarized to help identify mechanisms of action and research opportunities.},
}
@article {pmid39273475,
year = {2024},
author = {Larson, J and Sather, B and Wang, L and Westrum, J and Tokmina-Lukaszewska, M and Pauley, J and Copié, V and McDermott, TR and Bothner, B},
title = {Metalloproteomics Reveals Multi-Level Stress Response in Escherichia coli When Exposed to Arsenite.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {25},
number = {17},
pages = {},
pmid = {39273475},
issn = {1422-0067},
support = {P42ES031007//University of North Carolina's Superfund Program/ ; DE-SC0020246//U.S. Department of Energy/ ; S10 OD028650/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; MCB 1714556//National Science Foundation/ ; P42 ES031007/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; R24 GM137786/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; R24GM137786/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; P20 GM103474/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {*Arsenites/toxicity ; *Escherichia coli/genetics/metabolism/drug effects ; *Escherichia coli Proteins/genetics/metabolism ; *Proteomics/methods ; *Stress, Physiological ; *Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial/drug effects ; *Operon/genetics ; Metalloproteins/metabolism/genetics ; Humans ; },
abstract = {The arsRBC operon encodes a three-protein arsenic resistance system. ArsR regulates the transcription of the operon, while ArsB and ArsC are involved in exporting trivalent arsenic and reducing pentavalent arsenic, respectively. Previous research into Agrobacterium tumefaciens 5A has demonstrated that ArsR has regulatory control over a wide range of metal-related proteins and metabolic pathways. We hypothesized that ArsR has broad regulatory control in other Gram-negative bacteria and set out to test this. Here, we use differential proteomics to investigate changes caused by the presence of the arsR gene in human microbiome-relevant Escherichia coli during arsenite (As[III]) exposure. We show that ArsR has broad-ranging impacts such as the expression of TCA cycle enzymes during As[III] stress. Additionally, we found that the Isc [Fe-S] cluster and molybdenum cofactor assembly proteins are upregulated regardless of the presence of ArsR under these same conditions. An important finding from this differential proteomics analysis was the identification of response mechanisms that were strain-, ArsR-, and arsenic-specific, providing new clarity to this complex regulon. Given the widespread occurrence of the arsRBC operon, these findings should have broad applicability across microbial genera, including sensitive environments such as the human gastrointestinal tract.},
}
@article {pmid39271424,
year = {2024},
author = {Bokulich, NA and Robeson, MS},
title = {Bioinformatics challenges for profiling the microbiome in cancer: pitfalls and opportunities.},
journal = {Trends in microbiology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.tim.2024.08.011},
pmid = {39271424},
issn = {1878-4380},
abstract = {Increasing evidence suggests that the human microbiome plays an important role in cancer risk and treatment. Untargeted 'omics' techniques have accelerated research into microbiome-cancer interactions, supporting the discovery of novel associations and mechanisms. However, these techniques require careful selection and use to avoid biases and other pitfalls. In this essay, we discuss selected challenges involved in the analysis of microbiome data in the context of cancer, including the application of machine learning (ML). We focus on DNA sequencing-based (e.g., metagenomics) methods, but many of the pitfalls and opportunities generalize to other omics technologies as well. We advocate for extended training opportunities, community standards, and best practices for sharing data and code to advance transparency and reproducibility in cancer microbiome research.},
}
@article {pmid39256307,
year = {2024},
author = {Rastegar, S and Skurnik, M and Niaz, H and Tadjrobehkar, O and Samareh, A and Hosseini-Nave, H and Sabouri, S},
title = {Isolation, characterization, and potential application of Acinetobacter baumannii phages against extensively drug-resistant strains.},
journal = {Virus genes},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39256307},
issn = {1572-994X},
support = {KMU.AC.IR.400000652//Hossein Hosseini-Nave1/ ; },
abstract = {One of the significant issues in treating bacterial infections is the increasing prevalence of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains of Acinetobacter baumannii. In the face of limited or no viable treatment options for extensively drug-resistant (XDR) bacteria, there is a renewed interest in utilizing bacteriophages as a treatment option. Three Acinetobacter phages (vB_AbaS_Ftm, vB_AbaS_Eva, and vB_AbaS_Gln) were identified from hospital sewage and analyzed for their morphology, host ranges, and their genome sequences were determined and annotated. These phages and vB_AbaS_SA1 were combined to form a phage cocktail. The antibacterial effects of this cocktail and its combinations with selected antimicrobial agents were evaluated against the XDR A. baumannii strains. The phages exhibited siphovirus morphology. Out of a total of 30 XDR A. baumannii isolates, 33% were sensitive to vB_AbaS_Ftm, 30% to vB_AbaS_Gln, and 16.66% to vB_AbaS_Eva. When these phages were combined with antibiotics, they demonstrated a synergistic effect. The genome sizes of vB_AbaS_Ftm, vB_AbaS_Eva, and vB_AbaS_Gln were 48487, 50174, and 50043 base pairs (bp), respectively, and showed high similarity. Phage cocktail, when combined with antibiotics, showed synergistic effects on extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains of A. baumannii. However, the need for further study to fully understand the mechanisms of action and potential limitations of using these phages is highlighted.},
}
@article {pmid39256189,
year = {2024},
author = {Yılmaz, SS and Kuşkucu, MA and Çakan, H and Aygün, G},
title = {Effective use of skin microbiome signatures for fingerprint identification.},
journal = {Skin research and technology : official journal of International Society for Bioengineering and the Skin (ISBS) [and] International Society for Digital Imaging of Skin (ISDIS) [and] International Society for Skin Imaging (ISSI)},
volume = {30},
number = {9},
pages = {e70052},
pmid = {39256189},
issn = {1600-0846},
support = {28100//Research Fund of Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota/genetics ; *Skin/microbiology ; Adult ; Male ; Female ; Staphylococcus epidermidis/isolation & purification/genetics ; Ribotyping/methods ; Dermatoglyphics ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; Young Adult ; Minisatellite Repeats ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Recent advances have increased the importance of the human microbiome, including the skin microbiome. Despite the hand microbiome research, the factors affecting the composition of the hand microbiome and their personal characteristics are incompletely known.
OBJECTIVES: Despite changing environmental factors and personal variation, we aimed to indicate the interpersonal distinction between skin microbiota using simple and rapid molecular methods.
METHODS: Over a non-consecutive 10-day period, samples were taken from 10 adult individuals, and ribotyping analysis of the 16S and 23S genes of S. epidermidis was performed on each skin sample. Additionally, EcoRI and HindIII enzyme reactions and variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) reactions of S. epidermidis obtained from DNA samples were performed. The skin microbiomes of individuals were evaluated along with the microbiome profiles left on the surfaces they touched.
RESULTS: In the environmental samples taken, it has been observed that people preserve their core skin microbiota characters and carry them to their environment. It was determined that the highest similarity rate was 77.14%, and the lowest similarity rate was 31.74%.
CONCLUSION: Our study showed that the core skin microbiota retains its characteristics and leaves traces in environments. The fact that the personal microbiome remains unchanged despite environmental differences and has characteristic features has shown that it can be used in forensic sciences to distinguish individuals from each other. These results with simple and rapid methods further increased the importance and significance of the study. The findings indicate that personal skin microbiota can provide a significant contribution to criminal investigations by increasing accuracy and reliability, especially in forensic analyses.},
}
@article {pmid39255394,
year = {2024},
author = {Ginsberg, SD and Blaser, MJ},
title = {Alzheimer's Disease Has Its Origins in Early Life via a Perturbed Microbiome.},
journal = {The Journal of infectious diseases},
volume = {230},
number = {Supplement_2},
pages = {S141-S149},
pmid = {39255394},
issn = {1537-6613},
support = {//Emch Foundation/ ; //Infectious Diseases Society of America/ ; U01 AI122285/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; U01 AI122285/NH/NIH HHS/United States ; R01 AG072599/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States ; //C & D Fund/ ; },
mesh = {Animals ; Humans ; *Alzheimer Disease/microbiology/physiopathology ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/administration & dosage/adverse effects ; Brain/microbiology/pathology/physiopathology ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects/physiology ; Disease Models, Animal ; Brain-Gut Axis/drug effects/physiology ; },
abstract = {Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with limited therapeutic options. Accordingly, new approaches for prevention and treatment are needed. One focus is the human microbiome, the consortium of microorganisms that live in and on us, which contributes to human immune, metabolic, and cognitive development and that may have mechanistic roles in neurodegeneration. AD and Alzheimer's disease-related dementias (ADRD) are recognized as spectrum disorders with complex pathobiology. AD/ADRD onset begins before overt clinical signs, but initiation triggers remain undefined. We posit that disruption of the normal gut microbiome in early life leads to a pathological cascade within septohippocampal and cortical brain circuits. We propose investigation to understand how early-life microbiota changes may lead to hallmark AD pathology in established AD/ADRD models. Specifically, we hypothesize that antibiotic exposure in early life leads to exacerbated AD-like disease endophenotypes that may be amenable to specific microbiological interventions. We propose suitable models for testing these hypotheses.},
}
@article {pmid39254049,
year = {2024},
author = {Harris, RM and Pace, F and Kuntz, TM and Morgan, XC and Hyland, P and Summers, K and McDermott, E and Blumen, K and Watnick, PI},
title = {Testosterone treatment impacts the intestinal microbiome of transgender individuals.},
journal = {mSphere},
volume = {9},
number = {10},
pages = {e0055724},
pmid = {39254049},
issn = {2379-5042},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects ; *Testosterone ; Male ; *Transgender Persons ; Female ; Pilot Projects ; *Feces/microbiology ; Adult ; Metagenomics ; Middle Aged ; Glutamic Acid/metabolism ; Bacteria/classification/genetics/drug effects/metabolism/isolation & purification ; },
abstract = {Medical modulation of sex hormone levels is a cornerstone of treatment for many conditions that impact well-being, including cancer, fertility/infertility, gender dysphoria, and chronic metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity. The microbial residents of the intestine, known as the microbiota, interact with sex hormones in the intestine, and there is correlative evidence that this interaction is bidirectional. Based on these published findings, we hypothesized that transgender individuals receiving exogenous testosterone as part of their gender-affirming medical treatment might undergo changes in their intestinal microbiome. To test this, we collected 26 stool samples from nine individuals before and up to 8 months after initiation of treatment with exogenous testosterone and subjected these samples to metagenomic analysis. While no species were significantly associated with the duration of testosterone therapy, pathways that generate glutamate increased in abundance, while those that consume glutamate decreased. Glutamate is a precursor of arginine, and testosterone is known to increase levels of arginine and its metabolites in the plasma. We hypothesize that testosterone increases the uptake of glutamate by enterocytes, thus decreasing access of the microbiota to this amino acid. While this pilot study establishes the impact of testosterone therapy on the intestinal microbiome, a more comprehensive study is necessary to establish the impact of testosterone-driven metagenomic shifts on the stool metatranscriptome, the stool metabolome, and the plasma metabolome.IMPORTANCEThe human intestine is inhabited by a large community of microbes known as the microbiome. Members of the microbiome consume the diet along with their human host. Thus, the metabolomes of the host and microbe are intricately linked. Testosterone alters the plasma metabolome. In particular, plasma levels of arginine and its metabolites and testosterone are positively correlated. To investigate the impact of exogenous testosterone on the microbiome, we analyzed the stool metagenomes of transgender individuals before and after the initiation of testosterone treatment. In this pilot project, we found a modest impact on the microbiome community structure but an increase in the abundance of metabolic pathways that generate glutamate and spare glutamate consumption. We propose that the host uses glutamate to generate arginine, decreasing the amount available for the microbiome.},
}
@article {pmid39251326,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhou, Q and Lei, L and Cheng, J and Chen, J and Du, Y and Zhang, X and Li, Q and Li, C and Deng, H and Wong, CC and Zhuang, B and Li, G and Bai, X},
title = {Microbiota-induced S100A11-RAGE axis underlies immune evasion in right-sided colon adenomas and is a therapeutic target to boost anti-PD1 efficacy.},
journal = {Gut},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1136/gutjnl-2024-332193},
pmid = {39251326},
issn = {1468-3288},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Tumourigenesis in right-sided and left-sided colons demonstrated distinct features.
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to characterise the differences between the left-sided and right-sided adenomas (ADs) representing the early stage of colonic tumourigenesis.
DESIGN: Single-cell and spatial transcriptomic datasets were analysed to reveal alterations between right-sided and left-sided colon ADs. Cells, animal experiments and clinical specimens were used to verify the results.
RESULTS: Single-cell analysis revealed that in right-sided ADs, there was a significant reduction of goblet cells, and these goblet cells were dysfunctional with attenuated mucin biosynthesis and defective antigen presentation. An impairment of the mucus barrier led to biofilm formation in crypts and subsequent bacteria invasion into right-sided ADs. The regions spatially surrounding the crypts with biofilm occupation underwent an inflammatory response by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and an apoptosis process, as revealed by spatial transcriptomics. A distinct S100A11[+] epithelial cell population in the right-sided ADs was identified, and its expression level was induced by bacterial LPS and peptidoglycan. S100A11 expression facilitated tumour growth in syngeneic immunocompetent mice with increased myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) but reduced cytotoxic CD8+ T cells. Targeting S100A11 with well-tolerated antagonists of its receptor for advanced glycation end product (RAGE) (Azeliragon) significantly impaired tumour growth and MDSC infiltration, thereby boosting the efficacy of anti-programmed cell death protein 1 therapy in colon cancer.
CONCLUSION: Our findings unravelled that dysfunctional goblet cells and consequential bacterial translocation activated the S100A11-RAGE axis in right-sided colon ADs, which recruits MDSCs to promote immune evasion. Targeting this axis by Azeliragon improves the efficacy of immunotherapy in colon cancer.},
}
@article {pmid39244168,
year = {2025},
author = {Govender, P and Ghai, M},
title = {Population-specific differences in the human microbiome: Factors defining the diversity.},
journal = {Gene},
volume = {933},
number = {},
pages = {148923},
doi = {10.1016/j.gene.2024.148923},
pmid = {39244168},
issn = {1879-0038},
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Bacteriophages/genetics ; Dysbiosis/microbiology ; Asian People/genetics ; Bacteria/genetics/classification ; White People/genetics ; },
abstract = {Differences in microbial communities at different body habitats define the microbiome composition of the human body. The gut, oral, skin vaginal fluid and tissue microbiome, are pivotal for human development and immune response and cross talk between these microbiomes is evident. Population studies reveal that various factors, such as host genetics, diet, lifestyle, aging, and geographical location are strongly associated with population-specific microbiome differences. The present review discusses the factors that shape microbiome diversity in humans, and microbiome differences in African, Asian and Caucasian populations. Gut microbiome studies show that microbial species Bacteroides is commonly found in individuals living in Western countries (Caucasian populations), while Prevotella is prevalent in non-Western countries (African and Asian populations). This association is mainly due to the high carbohydrate, high fat diet in western countries in contrast to high fibre, low fat diets in African/ Asian regions. Majority of the microbiome studies focus on the bacteriome component; however, interesting findings reveal that increased bacteriophage richness, which makes up the virome component, correlates with decreased bacterial diversity, and causes microbiome dysbiosis. An increase of Caudovirales (bacteriophages) is associated with a decrease in enteric bacteria in inflammatory bowel diseases. Future microbiome studies should evaluate the interrelation between bacteriome and virome to fully understand their significance in the pathogenesis and progression of human diseases. With ethnic health disparities becoming increasingly apparent, studies need to emphasize on the association of population-specific microbiome differences and human diseases, to develop microbiome-based therapeutics. Additionally, targeted phage therapy is emerging as an attractive alternative to antibiotics for bacterial infections. With rapid rise in microbiome research, focus should be on standardizing protocols, advanced bioinformatics tools, and reducing sequencing platform related biases. Ultimately, integration of multi-omics data (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics) will lead to precision models for personalized microbiome therapeutics advancement.},
}
@article {pmid39243797,
year = {2024},
author = {Rodriguez, J and Hassani, Z and Alves Costa Silva, C and Betsou, F and Carraturo, F and Fasano, A and Israelsen, M and Iyappan, A and Krag, A and Metwaly, A and Schierwagen, R and Trebicka, J and Zwart, H and Doré, J and Cordaillat-Simmons, M and Druart, C and , },
title = {State of the art and the future of microbiome-based biomarkers: a multidisciplinary Delphi consensus.},
journal = {The Lancet. Microbe},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {100948},
doi = {10.1016/j.lanmic.2024.07.011},
pmid = {39243797},
issn = {2666-5247},
abstract = {Although microbiome signatures have been identified in various contexts (ie, pathogenesis of non-communicable diseases and treatment response), qualified microbiome-based biomarkers are currently not in use in clinical practice. The Human Microbiome Action consortium initiated a Delphi survey to establish a consensus on the needs, challenges, and limitations in developing qualified microbiome-based biomarkers. The questionnaire was developed by a scientific committee via literature review and expert interviews. To ensure broad applicability of the results, 307 experts were invited to participate; 114 of them responded to the first round of the survey, 93 of whom completed the second and final round as well. The survey highlighted the experts' confidence in the potential of microbiome-based biomarkers for several indications or pathologies. The paucity of validated analytical methods appears to be the principal factor hindering the qualification of these biomarkers. The survey also showed that clinical implementation of these biomarkers would only be possible if kitted and validated molecular assays with simple interpretation are developed. This initiative serves as a foundation for designing and implementing public-private collaborative projects to overcome the challenges and promote clinical application of microbiome-based biomarkers.},
}
@article {pmid39240756,
year = {2024},
author = {Torrillo, PA and Lieberman, TD},
title = {Reversions mask the contribution of adaptive evolution in microbiomes.},
journal = {eLife},
volume = {13},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39240756},
issn = {2050-084X},
support = {DP2 GM140922/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; 1DP2GM140922-01/NH/NIH HHS/United States ; Graduate Research Fellowship Program//National Science Foundation/ ; },
mesh = {*Mutation ; *Evolution, Molecular ; Selection, Genetic ; Genome, Bacterial ; Microbiota/genetics ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; Bacteroides/genetics ; Adaptation, Physiological/genetics ; Models, Genetic ; Bacteria/genetics/classification ; },
abstract = {When examining bacterial genomes for evidence of past selection, the results depend heavily on the mutational distance between chosen genomes. Even within a bacterial species, genomes separated by larger mutational distances exhibit stronger evidence of purifying selection as assessed by dN/dS, the normalized ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous mutations. Here, we show that the classical interpretation of this scale dependence, weak purifying selection, leads to problematic mutation accumulation when applied to available gut microbiome data. We propose an alternative, adaptive reversion model with opposite implications for dynamical intuition and applications of dN/dS. Reversions that occur and sweep within-host populations are nearly guaranteed in microbiomes due to large population sizes, short generation times, and variable environments. Using analytical and simulation approaches, we show that adaptive reversion can explain the dN/dS decay given only dozens of locally fluctuating selective pressures, which is realistic in the context of Bacteroides genomes. The success of the adaptive reversion model argues for interpreting low values of dN/dS obtained from long timescales with caution as they may emerge even when adaptive sweeps are frequent. Our work thus inverts the interpretation of an old observation in bacterial evolution, illustrates the potential of mutational reversions to shape genomic landscapes over time, and highlights the importance of studying bacterial genomic evolution on short timescales.},
}
@article {pmid39238383,
year = {2024},
author = {Sanyal, S and Nigam, K and Singh, S and Lohani, P and Dwivedi, M},
title = {Pathophysiological and Clinical Potential of Human Microbiome: Microbe-based Therapeutic Insights.},
journal = {Current pharmaceutical biotechnology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.2174/0113892010314433240823113111},
pmid = {39238383},
issn = {1873-4316},
abstract = {The human microbiota represents the community and diverse population of microbes within the human body, which comprises approximately 100 trillion micro-organisms. They exist in the human gastrointestinal tract and various other organs and are now considered virtual body organs. It is mainly represented by bacteria but also includes viruses, fungi, and protozoa. Although there is a heritable component to the gut microbiota, environmental factors related to diet, drugs, and anthropometry determine the composition of the microbiota. Besides the gastrointestinal tract, the human body also harbours microbial communities in the skin, oral and nasal cavities, and reproductive tract. The current review demonstrates the role of gut microbiota and its involvement in processing food, drugs, and immune responses. The discussion focuses on the implications of human microbiota in developing several diseases, such as gastrointestinal infections, metabolic disorders, malignancies, etc., through symbiotic relationships. The microbial population may vary depending on the pathophysiological condition of an individual and thus may be exploited as a therapeutic and clinical player. Further, we need a more thorough investigation to establish the correlation between microbes and pathophysiology in humans and propose them as potential therapeutic targets.},
}
@article {pmid39235252,
year = {2024},
author = {Sweet, P and Burroughs, M and Jang, S and Contreras, L},
title = {TolRad, a model for predicting radiation tolerance using Pfam annotations, identifies novel radiosensitive bacterial species from reference genomes and MAGs.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {12},
number = {10},
pages = {e0383823},
pmid = {39235252},
issn = {2165-0497},
support = {HDTRA1-17-1-0025//DOD | Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)/ ; FA9550-20-1-0131//DOD | USAF | AMC | Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)/ ; W911NF22S0002//DNI | Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA)/ ; },
mesh = {*Radiation Tolerance/genetics ; *Bacteria/genetics/radiation effects/classification ; *Genome, Bacterial ; Humans ; Radiation, Ionizing ; Bacterial Proteins/genetics/metabolism ; Microbiota/genetics/radiation effects ; Proteome ; Metagenome ; Molecular Sequence Annotation ; },
abstract = {UNLABELLED: The trait of ionizing radiation (IR) tolerance is variable between bacterium, with species succumbing to acute doses as low as 60 Gy and extremophiles able to survive doses exceeding 10,000 Gy. While survival screens have identified multiple highly radioresistant bacteria, such systemic searches have not been conducted for IR-sensitive bacteria. The taxonomy-level diversity of IR sensitivity is poorly understood, as are genetic elements that influence IR sensitivity. Using the protein domain (Pfam) frequencies from 61 bacterial species with experimentally determined D10 values (the dose at which only 10% of the population survives), we trained TolRad, a random forest binary classifier, to distinguish between radiosensitive (D10 < 200 Gy) and radiation-tolerant (D10 > 200 Gy) bacteria. On untrained species, TolRad had an accuracy of 0.900. We applied TolRad to 152 UniProt-hosted bacterial proteomes associated with the human microbiome, including 37 strains from the ATCC Human Microbiome Collection, and classified 34 species as radiosensitive. Whereas IR-sensitive species (D10 < 200 Gy) in the training data set had been confined to the phylum Proteobacterium, this initial TolRad screen identified radiosensitive bacteria in two additional phyla. We experimentally validated the predicted radiosensitivity of a Bacteroidota species from the human microbiome. To demonstrate that TolRad can be applied to metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), we tested the accuracy of TolRad on Egg-NOG assembled proteomes (0.965) and partial proteomes. Finally, three collections of MAGs were screened using TolRad, identifying further phyla with radiosensitive species and suggesting that environmental conditions influence the abundance of radiosensitive bacteria.
IMPORTANCE: Bacterial species have vast genetic diversity, allowing for life in extreme environments and the conduction of complex chemistry. The ability to harness the full potential of bacterial diversity is hampered by the lack of high-throughput experimental or bioinformatic methods for characterizing bacterial traits. Here, we present a computational model that uses de novo-generated genome annotations to classify a bacterium as tolerant of ionizing radiation (IR) or as radiosensitive. This model allows for rapid screening of bacterial communities for low-tolerance species that are of interest for both mechanistic studies into bacterial sensitivity to IR and biomarkers of IR exposure.},
}
@article {pmid39233526,
year = {2024},
author = {Kim, TH and Cho, BK and Lee, DH},
title = {Synthetic Biology-Driven Microbial Therapeutics for Disease Treatment.},
journal = {Journal of microbiology and biotechnology},
volume = {34},
number = {10},
pages = {1947-1958},
doi = {10.4014/jmb.2407.07004},
pmid = {39233526},
issn = {1738-8872},
mesh = {*Synthetic Biology/methods ; Humans ; Animals ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Metabolic Diseases/therapy/microbiology ; Gastrointestinal Diseases/therapy/microbiology ; Neoplasms/therapy/microbiology ; Biosensing Techniques ; Biological Therapy/methods ; Bacteria/genetics/metabolism ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome, consisting of microorganisms that coexist symbiotically with the body, impacts health from birth. Alterations in gut microbiota driven by factors such as diet and medication can contribute to diseases beyond the gut. Synthetic biology has paved the way for engineered microbial therapeutics, presenting promising treatments for a variety of conditions. Using genetically encoded biosensors and dynamic regulatory tools, engineered microbes can produce and deliver therapeutic agents, detect biomarkers, and manage diseases. This review organizes engineered microbial therapeutics by disease type, emphasizing innovative strategies and recent advancements. The scope of diseases includes gastrointestinal disorders, cancers, metabolic diseases, infections, and other ailments. Synthetic biology facilitates precise targeting and regulation, improving the efficacy and safety of these therapies. With promising results in animal models, engineered microbial therapeutics provide a novel alternative to traditional treatments, heralding a transformative era in diagnostics and treatment for numerous diseases.},
}
@article {pmid39232070,
year = {2024},
author = {Jang, H and Koh, H},
title = {A unified web cloud computing platform MiMedSurv for microbiome causal mediation analysis with survival responses.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {14},
number = {1},
pages = {20650},
pmid = {39232070},
issn = {2045-2322},
support = {2021R1C1C1013861//National Research Foundation of Korea/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota ; *Cloud Computing ; *Internet ; Software ; Survival Analysis ; },
abstract = {In human microbiome studies, mediation analysis has recently been spotlighted as a practical and powerful analytic tool to survey the causal roles of the microbiome as a mediator to explain the observed relationships between a medical treatment/environmental exposure and a human disease. We also note that, in a clinical research, investigators often trace disease progression sequentially in time; as such, time-to-event (e.g., time-to-disease, time-to-cure) responses, known as survival responses, are prevalent as a surrogate variable for human health or disease. In this paper, we introduce a web cloud computing platform, named as microbiome mediation analysis with survival responses (MiMedSurv), for comprehensive microbiome mediation analysis with survival responses on user-friendly web environments. MiMedSurv is an extension of our prior web cloud computing platform, named as microbiome mediation analysis (MiMed), for survival responses. The two main features that are well-distinguished are as follows. First, MiMedSurv conducts some baseline exploratory non-mediational survival analysis, not involving microbiome, to survey the disparity in survival response between medical treatments/environmental exposures. Then, MiMedSurv identifies the mediating roles of the microbiome in various aspects: (i) as a microbial ecosystem using ecological indices (e.g., alpha and beta diversity indices) and (ii) as individual microbial taxa in various hierarchies (e.g., phyla, classes, orders, families, genera, species). To illustrate its use, we survey the mediating roles of the gut microbiome between antibiotic treatment and time-to-type 1 diabetes. MiMedSurv is freely available on our web server (http://mimedsurv.micloud.kr).},
}
@article {pmid39230701,
year = {2024},
author = {Hera, MR and Liu, S and Wei, W and Rodriguez, JS and Ma, C and Koslicki, D},
title = {Metagenomic functional profiling: to sketch or not to sketch?.},
journal = {Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)},
volume = {40},
number = {Suppl 2},
pages = {ii165-ii173},
pmid = {39230701},
issn = {1367-4811},
support = {R01 GM146462/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; R01GM146462/GF/NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {*Metagenomics/methods ; *Software ; *Algorithms ; *Metagenome/genetics ; Humans ; Microbiota/genetics ; Databases, Genetic ; },
abstract = {MOTIVATION: Functional profiling of metagenomic samples is essential to decipher the functional capabilities of microbial communities. Traditional and more widely used functional profilers in the context of metagenomics rely on aligning reads against a known reference database. However, aligning sequencing reads against a large and fast-growing database is computationally expensive. In general, k-mer-based sketching techniques have been successfully used in metagenomics to address this bottleneck, notably in taxonomic profiling. In this work, we describe leveraging FracMinHash (implemented in sourmash, a publicly available software), a k-mer-sketching algorithm, to obtain functional profiles of metagenome samples.
RESULTS: We show how pieces of the sourmash software (and the resulting FracMinHash sketches) can be put together in a pipeline to functionally profile a metagenomic sample. We named our pipeline fmh-funprofiler. We report that the functional profiles obtained using this pipeline demonstrate comparable completeness and better purity compared to the profiles obtained using other alignment-based methods when applied to simulated metagenomic data. We also report that fmh-funprofiler is 39-99× faster in wall-clock time, and consumes up to 40-55× less memory. Coupled with the KEGG database, this method not only replicates fundamental biological insights but also highlights novel signals from the Human Microbiome Project datasets.
This fast and lightweight metagenomic functional profiler is freely available and can be accessed here: https://github.com/KoslickiLab/fmh-funprofiler. All scripts of the analyses we present in this manuscript can be found on GitHub.},
}
@article {pmid39230353,
year = {2024},
author = {Bland, CM and Love, BL and Jones, BM},
title = {Human microbiome: Impact of newly approved treatments on C. difficile infection.},
journal = {American journal of health-system pharmacy : AJHP : official journal of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/ajhp/zxae249},
pmid = {39230353},
issn = {1535-2900},
abstract = {DISCLAIMER: In an effort to expedite the publication of articles, AJHP is posting manuscripts online as soon as possible after acceptance. Accepted manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and copyedited, but are posted online before technical formatting and author proofing. These manuscripts are not the final version of record and will be replaced with the final article (formatted per AJHP style and proofed by the authors) at a later time.
PURPOSE: The primary purposes of this review are to provide a brief overview of the microbiome, discuss the most relevant outcome data and key characteristics of each live microbiome agent, and pose questions for consideration going forward as these agents are integrated into clinical practice.
SUMMARY: The management of Clostridiodes difficile infection (CDI) remains a difficult clinical conundrum, with recurrent CDI occurring in 15% to 35% of patients and causing significant morbidity and decreased quality of life. For patients with frequent CDI recurrences, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has been demonstrated to have significant benefit but also significant risks, and FMT is not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for that indication. FDA has established a new therapeutic class for agents known as live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) that offer significant advantages over FMT, including standardized screening, testing, and manufacturing as well as known quantities of organisms contained within. Two new live microbiome products within this class were recently approved by FDA for prevention of CDI recurrences in adult patients following treatment for recurrent CDI with standard antimicrobial therapy. Both agents had demonstrated efficacy in registry trials in preventing CDI recurrence but differ significantly in a number of characteristics, such as route of administration. Cost as well as logistics are current obstacles to use of these therapies.
CONCLUSION: Live microbiome therapy is a promising solution for patients with recurrent CDI. Future studies should provide further evidence within yet-to-be-evaluated populations not included in registry studies. This along with real-world evidence will inform future use and clinical guideline placement.},
}
@article {pmid39230261,
year = {2024},
author = {Tu, V and Ren, Y and Tanes, C and Mukhopadhyay, S and Daniel, SG and Li, H and Bittinger, K},
title = {A quantitative approach to measure and predict microbiome response to antibiotics.},
journal = {mSphere},
volume = {9},
number = {9},
pages = {e0048824},
pmid = {39230261},
issn = {2379-5042},
support = {SAP # 4100068710//Pennsylvania Department of Health (PA DOH)/ ; //Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; *Microbiota/drug effects/genetics ; *RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; *Bacteria/drug effects/genetics/classification ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects/genetics ; Metagenomics/methods ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests/methods ; Skin/microbiology ; Mouth/microbiology ; Software ; },
abstract = {UNLABELLED: Although antibiotics induce sizable perturbations in the human microbiome, we lack a systematic and quantitative method to measure and predict the microbiome's response to specific antibiotics. Here, we introduce such a method, which takes the form of a microbiome response index (MiRIx) for each antibiotic. Antibiotic-specific MiRIx values quantify the overall susceptibility of the microbiota to an antibiotic, based on databases of bacterial phenotypes and published data on intrinsic antibiotic susceptibility. We applied our approach to five published microbiome studies that carried out antibiotic interventions with vancomycin, metronidazole, ciprofloxacin, amoxicillin, and doxycycline. We show how MiRIx can be used in conjunction with existing microbiome analytical approaches to gain a deeper understanding of the microbiome response to antibiotics. Finally, we generate antibiotic response predictions for the oral, skin, and gut microbiome in healthy humans. Our approach is implemented as open-source software and is readily applied to microbiome data sets generated by 16S rRNA marker gene sequencing or shotgun metagenomics.
IMPORTANCE: Antibiotics are potent influencers of the human microbiome and can be a source for enduring dysbiosis and antibiotic resistance in healthcare. Existing microbiome data analysis methods can quantify perturbations of bacterial communities but cannot evaluate whether the differences are aligned with the expected activity of a specific antibiotic. Here, we present a novel method to quantify and predict antibiotic-specific microbiome changes, implemented in a ready-to-use software package. This has the potential to be a critical tool to broaden our understanding of the relationship between the microbiome and antibiotics.},
}
@article {pmid39227641,
year = {2024},
author = {Donnelly, SC and Varela-Mattatall, GE and Hassan, S and Sun, Q and Gelman, N and Thiessen, JD and Thompson, RT and Prato, FS and Burton, JP and Goldhawk, DE},
title = {Bacterial association with metals enables in vivo monitoring of urogenital microbiota using magnetic resonance imaging.},
journal = {Communications biology},
volume = {7},
number = {1},
pages = {1079},
pmid = {39227641},
issn = {2399-3642},
support = {ALLRP576699-22//Gouvernement du Canada | Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Conseil de Recherches en Sciences Naturelles et en Génie du Canada)/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods ; *Microbiota ; Female ; Bacteria/metabolism/isolation & purification ; Metals/metabolism ; Urogenital System/microbiology ; Manganese/metabolism/analysis ; },
abstract = {Bacteria constitute a significant part of the biomass of the human microbiota, but their interactions are complex and difficult to replicate outside the host. Exploiting the superior resolution of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine signal parameters of selected human isolates may allow tracking of their dispersion throughout the body. Here we investigate longitudinal and transverse MRI relaxation rates and found significant differences between several bacterial strains. Common commensal strains of lactobacilli display notably high MRI relaxation rates, partially explained by elevated cellular manganese content, while other species contain more iron than manganese. Lactobacillus crispatus show particularly high values, 4-fold greater than any other species; up to 60-fold greater signal than relevant tissue background; and a linear relationship between relaxation rate and fraction of live cells. Different bacterial strains have detectable, repeatable MRI relaxation rates that in the future may enable monitoring of their persistence in the human body for enhanced molecular imaging.},
}
@article {pmid39226354,
year = {2024},
author = {Chimileski, S and Borisy, GG and Dewhirst, FE and Mark Welch, JL},
title = {Tip extension and simultaneous multiple fission in a filamentous bacterium.},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
volume = {121},
number = {37},
pages = {e2408654121},
pmid = {39226354},
issn = {1091-6490},
support = {R01 DE022586/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/United States ; DE022586//HHS | NIH | National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)/ ; 2245229//NSF | ENG | Division of Emerging Frontiers and Multidisciplinary Activities (EFMA)/ ; },
mesh = {*Peptidoglycan/metabolism ; Corynebacterium/metabolism/growth & development ; Biofilms/growth & development ; Cell Division ; Humans ; Dental Plaque/microbiology ; },
abstract = {Organisms display an immense variety of shapes, sizes, and reproductive strategies. At microscopic scales, bacterial cell morphology and growth dynamics are adaptive traits that influence the spatial organization of microbial communities. In one such community-the human dental plaque biofilm-a network of filamentous Corynebacterium matruchotii cells forms the core of bacterial consortia known as hedgehogs, but the processes that generate these structures are unclear. Here, using live-cell time-lapse microscopy and fluorescent D-amino acids to track peptidoglycan biosynthesis, we report an extraordinary example of simultaneous multiple division within the domain Bacteria. We show that C. matruchotii cells elongate at one pole through tip extension, similar to the growth strategy of soil-dwelling Streptomyces bacteria. Filaments elongate rapidly, at rates more than five times greater than other closely related bacterial species. Following elongation, many septa form simultaneously, and each cell divides into 3 to 14 daughter cells, depending on the length of the mother filament. The daughter cells then nucleate outgrowth of new thinner vegetative filaments, generating the classic "whip handle" morphology of this taxon. Our results expand the known diversity of bacterial cell cycles and help explain how this filamentous bacterium can compete for space, access nutrients, and form important interspecies interactions within dental plaque.},
}
@article {pmid39221598,
year = {2024},
author = {Divakara, N and Dempsey, Z and Saraswati, C and Garssen, J and Silva, D and Keelan, JA and Christophersen, CT and Cooper, MN and Prescott, SL and Palmer, DJ and Verhasselt, V and Macchiaverni, P},
title = {Effect of maternal prebiotic supplementation on human milk immunological composition: Insights from the SYMBA study.},
journal = {Pediatric allergy and immunology : official publication of the European Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology},
volume = {35},
number = {9},
pages = {e14226},
doi = {10.1111/pai.14226},
pmid = {39221598},
issn = {1399-3038},
support = {RA/1/3027/386//WA Child Research Fund (WACRF)/ ; //Family Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation/ ; //National Health and Medical Research Council/ ; //Telethon Kids Institute Ascend Fellowship/ ; //Telethon-Perth Children's Hospital Research Fund/ ; //Paul Ramsay Foundation/ ; //Commonwealth Government of Australia/ ; //NHMRC Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF)/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Milk, Human/immunology/chemistry ; *Prebiotics/administration & dosage ; Female ; Double-Blind Method ; *Dietary Supplements ; Pregnancy ; Infant ; Adult ; Male ; Lactation/immunology ; Oligosaccharides/administration & dosage ; Infant, Newborn ; Breast Feeding ; Cytokines/metabolism ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Immunomodulatory proteins in human milk (HM) can shape infant immune development. However, strategies to modulate their levels are currently unknown. This study investigated whether maternal prebiotic supplementation alters the levels of immunomodulatory proteins in HM.
METHODS: The study was nested within the SYMBA double-blind randomized controlled trial (ACTRN12615001075572), which investigated the effects of maternal prebiotic (short-chain galacto-oligosaccharides/long-chain fructo-oligosaccharides) supplementation from <21 weeks gestation during pregnancy until 6 months postnatal during lactation on child allergic disease risk. Mother-child dyads receiving prebiotics (n = 46) or placebo (n = 54) were included in this study. We measured the levels of 24 immunomodulatory proteins in HM collected at 2, 4, and 6 months.
RESULTS: Cluster analysis showed that the overall immunomodulatory protein composition of milk samples from both groups was similar. At 2 months, HM of prebiotic-supplemented women had decreased levels of TGF-β1 and TSLP (95% CI: -17.4 [-29.68, -2.28] and -57.32 [-94.22, -4.7] respectively) and increased levels of sCD14 (95% CI: 1.81 [0.17, 3.71]), when compared to the placebo group. At 4 months, IgG1 was lower in the prebiotic group (95% CI: -1.55 [-3.55, -0.12]) compared to placebo group.
CONCLUSION: This exploratory study shows that prebiotic consumption by lactating mothers selectively alters specific immunomodulatory proteins in HM. This finding is crucial for understanding how prebiotic dietary recommendations for pregnant and lactating women can modify the immune properties of HM and potentially influence infant health outcomes through immune support from breastfeeding.},
}
@article {pmid39218882,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhuang, Z and Lin, J and Wan, Z and Weng, J and Yuan, Z and Xie, Y and Liu, Z and Xie, P and Mao, S and Wang, Z and Wang, X and Huang, M and Luo, Y and Yu, H},
title = {Radiogenomic profiling of global DNA methylation associated with molecular phenotypes and immune features in glioma.},
journal = {BMC medicine},
volume = {22},
number = {1},
pages = {352},
pmid = {39218882},
issn = {1741-7015},
mesh = {Humans ; *Glioma/genetics/immunology ; *DNA Methylation/genetics ; Female ; *Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; *Brain Neoplasms/genetics/diagnostic imaging/immunology/pathology ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Machine Learning ; Phenotype ; Aged ; Biomarkers, Tumor/genetics ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The radiogenomic analysis has provided valuable imaging biomarkers with biological insights for gliomas. The radiogenomic markers for molecular profile such as DNA methylation remain to be uncovered to assist the molecular diagnosis and tumor treatment.
METHODS: We apply the machine learning approaches to identify the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features that are associated with molecular profiles in 146 patients with gliomas, and the fitting models for each molecular feature (MoRad) are developed and validated. To provide radiological annotations for the molecular profiles, we devise two novel approaches called radiomic oncology (RO) and radiomic set enrichment analysis (RSEA).
RESULTS: The generated MoRad models perform well for profiling each molecular feature with radiomic features, including mutational, methylation, transcriptional, and protein profiles. Among them, the MoRad models have a remarkable performance in quantitatively mapping global DNA methylation. With RO and RSEA approaches, we find that global DNA methylation could be reflected by the heterogeneity in volumetric and textural features of enhanced regions in T2-weighted MRI. Finally, we demonstrate the associations of global DNA methylation with clinicopathological, molecular, and immunological features, including histological grade, mutations of IDH and ATRX, MGMT methylation, multiple methylation-high subtypes, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, and long-term survival outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS: Global DNA methylation is highly associated with radiological profiles in glioma. Radiogenomic global methylation is an imaging-based quantitative molecular biomarker that is associated with specific consensus molecular subtypes and immune features.},
}
@article {pmid39217206,
year = {2024},
author = {Duller, S and Vrbancic, S and Szydłowski, Ł and Mahnert, A and Blohs, M and Predl, M and Kumpitsch, C and Zrim, V and Högenauer, C and Kosciolek, T and Schmitz, RA and Eberhard, A and Dragovan, M and Schmidberger, L and Zurabischvili, T and Weinberger, V and Moser, AM and Kolb, D and Pernitsch, D and Mohammadzadeh, R and Kühnast, T and Rattei, T and Moissl-Eichinger, C},
title = {Targeted isolation of Methanobrevibacter strains from fecal samples expands the cultivated human archaeome.},
journal = {Nature communications},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {7593},
pmid = {39217206},
issn = {2041-1723},
support = {P 30796//Austrian Science Fund (Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung)/ ; SFB F-83//Austrian Science Fund (Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung)/ ; COE 7//Austrian Science Fund (Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung)/ ; },
mesh = {*Methanobrevibacter/genetics/isolation & purification/metabolism ; Humans ; *Feces/microbiology ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; *Genome, Archaeal ; Methane/metabolism ; Phylogeny ; Adult ; Male ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Tract/microbiology ; },
abstract = {Archaea are vital components of the human microbiome, yet their study within the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is limited by the scarcity of cultured representatives. Our study presents a method for the targeted enrichment and isolation of methanogenic archaea from human fecal samples. The procedure combines methane breath testing, in silico metabolic modeling, media optimization, FACS, dilution series, and genomic sequencing through Nanopore technology. Additional analyzes include the co-cultured bacteriome, comparative genomics of archaeal genomes, functional comparisons, and structure-based protein function prediction of unknown differential traits. Successful establishment of stable archaeal cultures from 14 out of 16 fecal samples yielded nine previously uncultivated strains, eight of which are absent from a recent archaeome genome catalog. Comparative genomic and functional assessments of Methanobrevibacter smithii and Candidatus Methanobrevibacter intestini strains from individual donors revealed features potentially associated with gastrointestinal diseases. Our work broadens available archaeal representatives for GIT studies, and offers insights into Candidatus Methanobrevibacter intestini genomes' adaptability in critical microbiome contexts.},
}
@article {pmid39214080,
year = {2024},
author = {Carlino, N and Blanco-Míguez, A and Punčochář, M and Mengoni, C and Pinto, F and Tatti, A and Manghi, P and Armanini, F and Avagliano, M and Barcenilla, C and Breselge, S and Cabrera-Rubio, R and Calvete-Torre, I and Coakley, M and Cobo-Díaz, JF and De Filippis, F and Dey, H and Leech, J and Klaassens, ES and Knobloch, S and O'Neil, D and Quijada, NM and Sabater, C and Skírnisdóttir, S and Valentino, V and Walsh, L and , and Alvarez-Ordóñez, A and Asnicar, F and Fackelmann, G and Heidrich, V and Margolles, A and Marteinsson, VT and Rota Stabelli, O and Wagner, M and Ercolini, D and Cotter, PD and Segata, N and Pasolli, E},
title = {Unexplored microbial diversity from 2,500 food metagenomes and links with the human microbiome.},
journal = {Cell},
volume = {187},
number = {20},
pages = {5775-5795.e15},
doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2024.07.039},
pmid = {39214080},
issn = {1097-4172},
mesh = {Humans ; *Metagenome/genetics ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; Microbiota/genetics ; Food Microbiology ; Metagenomics/methods ; Bacteria/genetics/classification ; },
abstract = {Complex microbiomes are part of the food we eat and influence our own microbiome, but their diversity remains largely unexplored. Here, we generated the open access curatedFoodMetagenomicData (cFMD) resource by integrating 1,950 newly sequenced and 583 public food metagenomes. We produced 10,899 metagenome-assembled genomes spanning 1,036 prokaryotic and 108 eukaryotic species-level genome bins (SGBs), including 320 previously undescribed taxa. Food SGBs displayed significant microbial diversity within and between food categories. Extension to >20,000 human metagenomes revealed that food SGBs accounted on average for 3% of the adult gut microbiome. Strain-level analysis highlighted potential instances of food-to-gut transmission and intestinal colonization (e.g., Lacticaseibacillus paracasei) as well as SGBs with divergent genomic structures in food and humans (e.g., Streptococcus gallolyticus and Limosilactobabillus mucosae). The cFMD expands our knowledge on food microbiomes, their role in shaping the human microbiome, and supports future uses of metagenomics for food quality, safety, and authentication.},
}
@article {pmid39211550,
year = {2024},
author = {Chung, RS and Wong, S and Lin, D and Kokot, NC and Sinha, UK and Han, AY},
title = {Mechanisms of crosstalk between the oropharyngeal microbiome and human papillomavirus in oropharyngeal carcinogenesis: a mini review.},
journal = {Frontiers in oncology},
volume = {14},
number = {},
pages = {1425545},
pmid = {39211550},
issn = {2234-943X},
abstract = {Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer globally. Notably, human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is on the rise, accounting for 70% of all OPSCC cases. Persistent high-risk HPV infection is linked to various cancers, but HPV infection alone is not sufficient to cause cancer. Advances in next-generation sequencing have improved our understanding of changes in the human microbiome of cancerous environments. Yet, there remains a dearth of knowledge on the impact of HPV-microbiome crosstalk in HPV-positive OPSCC. In this review, we examine what is known about the oropharyngeal microbiome and the compositional shifts in this microbiome in HPV-positive OPSCC. We also review potential mechanisms of crosstalk between HPV and specific microorganisms. Additional research is needed to understand these interactions and their roles on cancer development and progression.},
}
@article {pmid39207108,
year = {2024},
author = {Crouch, AL and Monsey, L and Rambeau, M and Ramos, C and Yracheta, JM and Anderson, MZ},
title = {Metagenomic discovery of microbial eukaryotes in stool microbiomes.},
journal = {mBio},
volume = {15},
number = {10},
pages = {e0206324},
pmid = {39207108},
issn = {2150-7511},
support = {//Ohio State University (OSU)/ ; 2046863//National Science Foundation (NSF)/ ; //Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI)/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Metagenomics/methods ; *Feces/microbiology ; *Eukaryota/genetics/classification/isolation & purification ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; Metagenome ; Fungi/genetics/classification/isolation & purification ; Sequence Analysis, DNA/methods ; Microbiota/genetics ; },
abstract = {Host-associated microbiota form complex microbial communities that are increasingly associated with host behavior and disease. While these microbes include bacterial, archaeal, viral, and eukaryotic constituents, most studies have focused on bacteria due to their dominance in the human host and available tools for investigation. Accumulating evidence suggests microbial eukaryotes in the microbiome play pivotal roles in host health, but our understandings of these interactions are limited to a few readily identifiable taxa because of technical limitations in unbiased eukaryote exploration. Here, we combined cell sorting, optimized eukaryotic cell lysis, and shotgun sequencing to accelerate metagenomic discovery and analysis of host-associated microbial eukaryotes. Using synthetic communities with a 1% microbial eukaryote representation, the eukaryote-optimized cell lysis and DNA recovery method alone yielded a 38-fold increase in eukaryotic DNA. Automated sorting of eukaryotic cells from stool samples of healthy adults increased the number of microbial eukaryote reads in metagenomic pools by up to 28-fold compared to commercial kits. Read frequencies for identified fungi increased by 10,000× on average compared to the Human Microbiome Project and allowed for the identification of novel taxa, de novo assembly of contigs from previously unknown microbial eukaryotes, and gene prediction from recovered genomic segments. These advances pave the way for the unbiased inclusion of microbial eukaryotes in deciphering determinants of health and disease in the host-associated microbiome.IMPORTANCEMicrobial eukaryotes are common constituents of the human gut where they can contribute to local ecology and host health, but they are often overlooked in microbiome studies. The lack of attention is due to current technical limitations that are heavily biased or poorly recovered DNA from microbial eukaryotes. We developed a method to increase the representation of these eukaryotes in metagenomic sequencing of microbiome samples that allows to improve their detection compared to prior methods and allows for the identification of new species. Application of the technique to gut microbiome samples improved detection of fungi, protists, and helminths. New eukaryotic taxa and their encoded genes could be identified by sequencing a small number of samples. This approach can improve the inclusion of eukaryotes into microbiome research.},
}
@article {pmid39206540,
year = {2024},
author = {Walker, M and Federico, E and Espinoza, JL and Dupont, CL},
title = {Unveiling Molecular Diversity in Cerebral Thrombi via Spatial Transcriptomics.},
journal = {Stroke},
volume = {55},
number = {10},
pages = {e266-e268},
pmid = {39206540},
issn = {1524-4628},
support = {R01 AI170111/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; Gene Expression Profiling ; *Intracranial Thrombosis/genetics ; *Transcriptome ; },
}
@article {pmid39206530,
year = {2024},
author = {Gupta, CL and Jaganathasamy, N and Madkaikar, M},
title = {Microbiome in sickle cell disease: Pathophysiology and therapeutic insights.},
journal = {British journal of haematology},
volume = {205},
number = {4},
pages = {1279-1287},
doi = {10.1111/bjh.19736},
pmid = {39206530},
issn = {1365-2141},
mesh = {*Anemia, Sickle Cell/therapy/microbiology/complications/physiopathology ; Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Probiotics/therapeutic use ; Fecal Microbiota Transplantation ; },
abstract = {Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a complex genetic blood disorder characterized by abnormal haemoglobin, resulting in sickle-shaped red blood cells. While extensive research has concentrated on the genetic and physiological aspects of SCD, recent studies suggest a potential role of the human microbiome in SCD pathophysiology, adding new dimensions to its understanding. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the microbiome's involvement in SCD, focusing on alterations in the gut microbiome composition and diversity compared to healthy individuals, and their implications for disease pathogenesis. We explore how microbiome changes may contribute to vaso-occlusive crises and other complications, along with the possible associations of specific microbial taxa or markers with disease crises and clinical outcomes. Additionally, we discuss the potential of microbiome-targeted interventions, including probiotics, dietary modifications, and faecal microbiota transplantation, in managing SCD complications and improving patient outcomes. Understanding the intricate relationship between the microbiome and SCD could lead to innovative therapeutic strategies and personalized interventions for better managing the disease. This review underscores the importance of further microbiome research and its integration into holistic SCD care.},
}
@article {pmid39203520,
year = {2024},
author = {Maslennikov, R and Benuni, N and Levshina, A and Adzhieva, F and Demina, T and Kucher, A and Pervushova, E and Yuryeva, E and Poluektova, E and Zolnikova, O and Kozlov, E and Sigidaev, A and Ivashkin, V},
title = {Effect of Saccharomyces boulardii on Liver Diseases: A Systematic Review.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {12},
number = {8},
pages = {},
pmid = {39203520},
issn = {2076-2607},
abstract = {We aimed to systematize the results of published studies on the use of Saccharomyces boulardii (SB) for the treatment of various liver disorders (CRD42022378050). Searches were conducted using PubMed and Scopus on 1 August 2022. The PubMed search was updated on 15 June 2024. The review included sixteen studies: ten experimental animal studies (EASs) and six randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The CNCM I-745 strain was used in 68.8% of the included studies. SB reduced the severity of many manifestations of cirrhosis, and lowered the Child-Pugh scores in RCT. SB reduced the serum concentrations of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-4 in animals with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD); lowered the serum TNF-α and IL-6 levels in experimental cirrhosis in rats; and reduced the CRP levels in decompensated cirrhosis. The EAS of MASLD revealed that SB reduced liver steatosis and inflammation and lowered the liver expression of genes of TNF-α, IL-1β, interferon-γ, and IL-10. In studies on experimental cirrhosis and MASLD, SB reduced the liver expression of genes of TGF-β, α-SMA, and collagen as well as liver fibrosis. SB reduced the abundance of Escherichia (Proteobacteria), increased the abundance of Bacteroidetes in the gut microbiota, prevented an increase in intestinal barrier permeability, and reduced bacterial translocation and endotoxemia.},
}
@article {pmid39203484,
year = {2024},
author = {Węgrzyn, K and Jasińska, A and Janeczek, K and Feleszko, W},
title = {The Role of Postbiotics in Asthma Treatment.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {12},
number = {8},
pages = {},
pmid = {39203484},
issn = {2076-2607},
abstract = {In recent years, there has been abundant research concerning human microbiome and its impact on the host's health. Studies have shown that not only the commensal bacteria itself, but also postbiotics, understood as inanimate microorganisms, possibly with the presence of their components, may themselves have an effect on various elements of human physiology. In this review, we take a closer look at the specific ways in which postbiotics can alter immune response in allergic asthma, which is one of the most prevalent allergic diseases in today's world and a serious subject of concern. Through altering patients' immune response, not only to allergens but also to pathogens, postbiotics could have a significant role in lowering the number of asthma exacerbations. We suggest that more profound research should be undertaken in order to launch postbiotics into clinical standards of asthma treatment, given the greatly promising findings in terms of their immunomodulating potential.},
}
@article {pmid39201629,
year = {2024},
author = {Kim, JH and Seo, H and Kim, S and Rahim, MA and Jo, S and Barman, I and Tajdozian, H and Sarafraz, F and Song, HY and Song, YS},
title = {Different Prostatic Tissue Microbiomes between High- and Low-Grade Prostate Cancer Pathogenesis.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {25},
number = {16},
pages = {},
pmid = {39201629},
issn = {1422-0067},
support = {RS-2024-00333544//National Research Foundation of Korea/ ; RS-2023-00219563//National Research Foundation of Korea/ ; Soonchunhyang University Research Fund//Soonchunhyang University/ ; },
mesh = {Male ; Humans ; *Prostatic Neoplasms/microbiology/pathology ; *Microbiota ; *Neoplasm Grading ; Bacteria/classification/genetics ; Prostate/microbiology/pathology ; Middle Aged ; Aged ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ; Cell Proliferation ; Cell Line, Tumor ; },
abstract = {Numerous human pathologies, such as neoplasia, are related to particular bacteria and changes in microbiome constituents. To investigate the association between an imbalance of bacteria and prostate carcinoma, the microbiome and gene functionality from tissues of patients with high-grade prostate tumor (HGT) and low-grade prostate tumor (LGT) were compared utilizing next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. The results showed abnormalities in the bacterial profiles between the HGT and LGT specimens, indicating alterations in the make-up of bacterial populations and gene functionalities. The HGT specimens showed higher frequencies of Cutibacterium, Pelomonas, and Corynebacterium genera than the LGT specimens. Cell proliferation and cytokine assays also showed a significant proliferation of prostate cancer cells and elevated cytokine levels in the cells treated with Cutibacterium, respectively, supporting earlier findings. In summary, the HGT and LGT specimens showed differences in bacterial populations, suggesting that different bacterial populations might characterize high-grade and low-grade prostate malignancies.},
}
@article {pmid39191760,
year = {2024},
author = {Hartikainen, AK and Jalanka, J and Lahtinen, P and Ponsero, AJ and Mertsalmi, T and Finnegan, L and Crispie, F and Cotter, PD and Arkkila, P and Satokari, R},
title = {Fecal microbiota transplantation influences microbiota without connection to symptom relief in irritable bowel syndrome patients.},
journal = {NPJ biofilms and microbiomes},
volume = {10},
number = {1},
pages = {73},
pmid = {39191760},
issn = {2055-5008},
support = {316338//Academy of Finland (Suomen Akatemia)/ ; 323156//Academy of Finland (Suomen Akatemia)/ ; },
mesh = {*Irritable Bowel Syndrome/therapy/microbiology ; Humans ; *Fecal Microbiota Transplantation/methods ; *RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; Female ; Male ; Adult ; Treatment Outcome ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Middle Aged ; Feces/microbiology ; Metagenomics/methods ; Bacteria/classification/genetics/isolation & purification ; },
abstract = {Imbalanced microbiota may contribute to the pathophysiology of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), thus fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has been suggested as a potential treatment. Previous studies on the relationship between clinical improvement and microbiota after FMT have been inconclusive. In this study, we used 16S rRNA gene amplicon and shotgun metagenomics data from a randomized, placebo controlled FMT trial on 49 IBS patients to analyze changes after FMT in microbiota composition and its functional potential, and to identify connections between microbiota and patients' clinical outcome. As a result, we found that the successful modulation of microbiota composition and functional profiles by FMT from a healthy donor was not associated with the resolution of symptoms in IBS patients. Notably, a donor derived strain of Prevotella copri dominated the microbiota in those patients in the FMT group who had a low relative abundance of P. copri pre-FMT. The results highlight the multifactorial nature of IBS and the role of recipient's microbiota in the colonization of donor's strains.},
}
@article {pmid39188957,
year = {2024},
author = {Xiang, B and Hu, J and Zhang, M and Zhi, M},
title = {The involvement of oral bacteria in inflammatory bowel disease.},
journal = {Gastroenterology report},
volume = {12},
number = {},
pages = {goae076},
pmid = {39188957},
issn = {2052-0034},
abstract = {Microorganisms play an important role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The oral cavity, the second-largest microbial niche, is connected to the gastro-intestinal tract. Ectopic gut colonization by oral microbes is a signature of IBD. Current studies suggest that patients with IBD often report more oral manifestations and these oral issues are closely linked with disease activity. Murine studies have indicated that several oral microbes exacerbate intestinal inflammation. Moreover, intestinal inflammation can promote oral microbial dysbiosis and the migration of oral microbes to the gastro-intestinal tract. The reciprocal consequences of oral microbial dysbiosis and IBD, specifically through metabolic alterations, have not yet been elucidated. In this review, we summarize the relationship between oral bacteria and IBD from multiple perspectives, including clinical manifestations, microbial dysbiosis, and metabolic alterations, and find that oral pathogens increase anti-inflammatory metabolites and decrease inflammation-related metabolites.},
}
@article {pmid39172744,
year = {2024},
author = {Cabrera, LE and Jokiranta, ST and Mäki, S and Miettinen, S and Kant, R and Kareinen, L and Sironen, T and Pietilä, JP and Kantele, A and Kekäläinen, E and Lindgren, H and Mattila, P and Kipar, A and Vapalahti, O and Strandin, T},
title = {The assembly of neutrophil inflammasomes during COVID-19 is mediated by type I interferons.},
journal = {PLoS pathogens},
volume = {20},
number = {8},
pages = {e1012368},
pmid = {39172744},
issn = {1553-7374},
mesh = {*COVID-19/immunology ; Humans ; *Neutrophils/immunology/metabolism ; *Interferon Type I/metabolism/immunology ; *Inflammasomes/immunology/metabolism ; Animals ; *SARS-CoV-2/immunology ; Mice ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Immunity, Innate ; Adult ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; },
abstract = {The severity of COVID-19 is linked to excessive inflammation. Neutrophils represent a critical arm of the innate immune response and are major mediators of inflammation, but their role in COVID-19 pathophysiology remains poorly understood. We conducted transcriptomic profiling of neutrophils obtained from patients with mild and severe COVID-19, as well as from SARS-CoV-2 infected mice, in comparison to non-infected healthy controls. In addition, we investigated the inflammasome formation potential in neutrophils from patients and mice upon SARS-CoV-2 infection. Transcriptomic analysis of polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs), consisting mainly of mature neutrophils, revealed a striking type I interferon (IFN-I) gene signature in severe COVID-19 patients, contrasting with mild COVID-19 and healthy controls. Notably, low-density granulocytes (LDGs) from severe COVID-19 patients exhibited an immature neutrophil phenotype and lacked this IFN-I signature. Moreover, PMNs from severe COVID-19 patients showed heightened nigericin-induced caspase1 activation, but reduced responsiveness to exogenous inflammasome priming. Furthermore, IFN-I emerged as a priming stimulus for neutrophil inflammasomes. These findings suggest a potential role for neutrophil inflammasomes in driving inflammation during severe COVID-19. Altogether, these findings open promising avenues for targeted therapeutic interventions to mitigate the pathological processes associated with the disease.},
}
@article {pmid39167930,
year = {2024},
author = {Mohamed, KA and Kruf, S and Büll, C},
title = {Putting a cap on the glycome: Dissecting human sialyltransferase functions.},
journal = {Carbohydrate research},
volume = {544},
number = {},
pages = {109242},
doi = {10.1016/j.carres.2024.109242},
pmid = {39167930},
issn = {1873-426X},
mesh = {Humans ; *Sialyltransferases/metabolism ; Polysaccharides/metabolism/chemistry ; },
abstract = {Human glycans are capped with sialic acids and these nine-carbon sugars mediate many of the biological functions and interactions of glycans. Structurally diverse sialic acid caps mark human cells as self and they form the ligands for the Siglec immune receptors and other glycan-binding proteins. Sialic acids enable host interactions with the human microbiome and many human pathogens utilize sialic acids to infect host cells. Alterations in sialic acid-carrying glycans, sialoglycans, can be found in every major human disease including inflammatory conditions and cancer. Twenty sialyltransferase family members in the Golgi apparatus of human cells transfer sialic acids to distinct glycans and glycoconjugates. Sialyltransferases catalyze specific reactions to form unique sialoglycans or they have shared functions where multiple family members generate the same sialoglycan product. Moreover, some sialyltransferases compete for the same glycan substrate, but create different sialic acid caps. The redundant and competing functions make it difficult to understand the individual roles of the human sialyltransferases in biology and to reveal the specific contributions to pathobiological processes. Recent insights hint towards the existence of biosynthetic rules formed by the individual functions of sialyltransferases, their interactions, and cues from the local Golgi environment that coordinate sialoglycan biosynthesis. In this review, we discuss the current structural and functional understanding of the human sialyltransferase family and we review recent technological advances that enable the dissection of individual sialyltransferase activities.},
}
@article {pmid39166876,
year = {2024},
author = {de Palma, TH and Powers, C and McPartland, MJ and Mark Welch, J and Ramsey, M},
title = {Essential genes for Haemophilus parainfluenzae survival and biofilm growth.},
journal = {mSystems},
volume = {9},
number = {9},
pages = {e0067424},
pmid = {39166876},
issn = {2379-5077},
support = {R01 DE027958/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/United States ; 1017848//U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)/ ; R01DE027958//HHS | NIH | National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)/ ; },
mesh = {*Biofilms/growth & development ; *Haemophilus parainfluenzae/genetics ; *Genes, Essential/genetics ; Humans ; Genome, Bacterial/genetics ; DNA Transposable Elements/genetics ; Microbial Viability/genetics ; },
abstract = {Haemophilus parainfluenzae (Hp) is a Gram-negative, highly prevalent, and abundant commensal in the human oral cavity, and an infrequent extraoral opportunistic pathogen. Hp occupies multiple niches in the oral cavity, including the supragingival plaque biofilm. Little is known about how Hp interacts with its neighbors in healthy biofilms nor its mechanisms of pathogenesis as an opportunistic pathogen. To address this, we identified the essential genome and conditionally essential genes in in vitro biofilms aerobically and anaerobically. Using transposon insertion sequencing (TnSeq) with a highly saturated mariner transposon library in two strains, the ATCC33392 type-strain (Hp 392) and oral isolate EL1 (Hp EL1), we show that the essential genomes of Hp 392 and Hp EL1 are composed of 395 (20%) and 384 (19%) genes, respectively. The core essential genome, consisting of 341 (17%) essential genes conserved between both strains, was composed of genes associated with genetic information processing, carbohydrate, protein, and energy metabolism. We also identified conditionally essential genes for aerobic and anaerobic biofilm growth, which were associated with carbohydrate and energy metabolism in both strains. RNAseq analysis determined that most genes upregulated during anaerobic growth are not essential for Hp 392 anaerobic survival. The completion of this library and analysis under these conditions gives us a foundational insight into the basic biology of H. parainfluenzae in differing oxygen conditions, similar to its in vivo habitat. This library presents a valuable tool for investigation into conditionally essential genes for an organism that lives in close contact with many microbial species in the human oral habitat.IMPORTANCEHaemophilus parainfluenzae is a highly abundant human commensal microbe, present in most healthy individuals where it colonizes the mouth. H. parainfluenzae correlates with good oral health and may play a role in preservation of healthy host status. Also, H. parainfluenzae can cause opportunistic infections outside of the oral cavity. To date, little is known about how H. parainfluenzae colonizes the human host, despite being such a frequent and abundant part of our human microbiome. Here, we demonstrate the creation and use of a powerful tool, a TnSeq library, used to identify genes necessary for both the outright growth of this organism and also genes conditionally essential for growth in varying oxygen status which it can encounter in the human host. This tool and these data serve as a foundation for further study of this relatively unknown organism that may play a role in preserving human health.},
}
@article {pmid39163860,
year = {2024},
author = {Torres, MDT and Brooks, EF and Cesaro, A and Sberro, H and Gill, MO and Nicolaou, C and Bhatt, AS and de la Fuente-Nunez, C},
title = {Mining human microbiomes reveals an untapped source of peptide antibiotics.},
journal = {Cell},
volume = {187},
number = {19},
pages = {5453-5467.e15},
doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2024.07.027},
pmid = {39163860},
issn = {1097-4172},
mesh = {Humans ; Animals ; Mice ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; *Microbiota/drug effects ; *Antimicrobial Peptides/pharmacology/chemistry ; Metagenome ; Female ; Open Reading Frames ; Bacteria/drug effects/genetics/classification ; Prevotella/drug effects ; },
abstract = {Drug-resistant bacteria are outpacing traditional antibiotic discovery efforts. Here, we computationally screened 444,054 previously reported putative small protein families from 1,773 human metagenomes for antimicrobial properties, identifying 323 candidates encoded in small open reading frames (smORFs). To test our computational predictions, 78 peptides were synthesized and screened for antimicrobial activity in vitro, with 70.5% displaying antimicrobial activity. As these compounds were different compared with previously reported antimicrobial peptides, we termed them smORF-encoded peptides (SEPs). SEPs killed bacteria by targeting their membrane, synergizing with each other, and modulating gut commensals, indicating a potential role in reconfiguring microbiome communities in addition to counteracting pathogens. The lead candidates were anti-infective in both murine skin abscess and deep thigh infection models. Notably, prevotellin-2 from Prevotella copri presented activity comparable to the commonly used antibiotic polymyxin B. Our report supports the existence of hundreds of antimicrobials in the human microbiome amenable to clinical translation.},
}
@article {pmid39160377,
year = {2024},
author = {Li, Q and Liu, D and Liang, M and Zhu, Y and Yousaf, M and Wu, Y},
title = {Mechanism of probiotics in the intervention of colorectal cancer: a review.},
journal = {World journal of microbiology & biotechnology},
volume = {40},
number = {10},
pages = {306},
pmid = {39160377},
issn = {1573-0972},
mesh = {*Probiotics/therapeutic use ; Humans ; *Colorectal Neoplasms/microbiology/prevention & control/therapy ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Apoptosis ; Animals ; Bacteria/metabolism ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome interacts with the host mainly in the intestinal lumen, where putrefactive bacteria are suggested to promote colorectal cancer (CRC). In contrast, probiotics and their isolated components and secreted substances, display anti-tumor properties due to their ability to modulate gut microbiota composition, promote apoptosis, enhance immunity, resist oxidation and alter metabolism. Probiotics help to form a solid intestinal barrier against damaging agents via altering the gut microbiota and preventing harmful microbes from colonization. Probiotic strains that specifically target essential proteins involved in the process of apoptosis can overcome CRC resistance to apoptosis. They can increase the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines, essential in preventing carcinogenesis, and eliminate cancer cells by activating T cell-mediated immune responses. There is a clear indication that probiotics optimize the antioxidant system, decrease radical generation, and detect and degrade potential carcinogens. In this review, the pathogenic mechanisms of pathogens in CRC and the recent insights into the mechanism of probiotics in CRC prevention and therapy are discussed to provide a reference for the actual application of probiotics in CRC.},
}
@article {pmid39152482,
year = {2024},
author = {Luo, W and Zhao, M and Dwidar, M and Gao, Y and Xiang, L and Wu, X and Medema, MH and Xu, S and Li, X and Schäfer, H and Chen, M and Feng, R and Zhu, Y},
title = {Microbial assimilatory sulfate reduction-mediated H2S: an overlooked role in Crohn's disease development.},
journal = {Microbiome},
volume = {12},
number = {1},
pages = {152},
pmid = {39152482},
issn = {2049-2618},
support = {82370551//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 82270579//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 82100577//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 2024GXNSFFA010009//Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region/ ; },
mesh = {*Crohn Disease/microbiology ; Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Hydrogen Sulfide/metabolism ; Animals ; Mice ; *Sulfates/metabolism ; Escherichia coli/genetics/metabolism ; Feces/microbiology ; Dysbiosis/microbiology ; Colon/microbiology ; Metagenomics ; Oxidation-Reduction ; Disease Models, Animal ; Female ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: H2S imbalances in the intestinal tract trigger Crohn's disease (CD), a chronic inflammatory gastrointestinal disorder characterized by microbiota dysbiosis and barrier dysfunction. However, a comprehensive understanding of H2S generation in the gut, and the contributions of both microbiota and host to systemic H2S levels in CD, remain to be elucidated. This investigation aimed to enhance comprehension regarding the sulfidogenic potential of both the human host and the gut microbiota.
RESULTS: Our analysis of a treatment-naive CD cohorts' fecal metagenomic and biopsy metatranscriptomic data revealed reduced expression of host endogenous H2S generation genes alongside increased abundance of microbial exogenous H2S production genes in correlation with CD. While prior studies focused on microbial H2S production via dissimilatory sulfite reductases, our metagenomic analysis suggests the assimilatory sulfate reduction (ASR) pathway is a more significant contributor in the human gut, given its high prevalence and abundance. Subsequently, we validated our hypothesis experimentally by generating ASR-deficient E. coli mutants ∆cysJ and ∆cysM through the deletion of sulfite reductase and L-cysteine synthase genes. This alteration significantly affected bacterial sulfidogenic capacity, colon epithelial cell viability, and colonic mucin sulfation, ultimately leading to colitis in murine model. Further study revealed that gut microbiota degrade sulfopolysaccharides and assimilate sulfate to produce H2S via the ASR pathway, highlighting the role of sulfopolysaccharides in colitis and cautioning against their use as food additives.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study significantly advances understanding of microbial sulfur metabolism in the human gut, elucidating the complex interplay between diet, gut microbiota, and host sulfur metabolism. We highlight the microbial ASR pathway as an overlooked endogenous H2S producer and a potential therapeutic target for managing CD. Video Abstract.},
}
@article {pmid39148051,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhu, H and Hao, H and Yu, L},
title = {Identification of microbe-disease signed associations via multi-scale variational graph autoencoder based on signed message propagation.},
journal = {BMC biology},
volume = {22},
number = {1},
pages = {172},
pmid = {39148051},
issn = {1741-7007},
support = {62072353//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 62272065//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota ; Computational Biology/methods ; Algorithms ; Disease ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Plenty of clinical and biomedical research has unequivocally highlighted the tremendous significance of the human microbiome in relation to human health. Identifying microbes associated with diseases is crucial for early disease diagnosis and advancing precision medicine.
RESULTS: Considering that the information about changes in microbial quantities under fine-grained disease states helps to enhance a comprehensive understanding of the overall data distribution, this study introduces MSignVGAE, a framework for predicting microbe-disease sign associations using signed message propagation. MSignVGAE employs a graph variational autoencoder to model noisy signed association data and extends the multi-scale concept to enhance representation capabilities. A novel strategy for propagating signed message in signed networks addresses heterogeneity and consistency among nodes connected by signed edges. Additionally, we utilize the idea of denoising autoencoder to handle the noise in similarity feature information, which helps overcome biases in the fused similarity data. MSignVGAE represents microbe-disease associations as a heterogeneous graph using similarity information as node features. The multi-class classifier XGBoost is utilized to predict sign associations between diseases and microbes.
CONCLUSIONS: MSignVGAE achieves AUROC and AUPR values of 0.9742 and 0.9601, respectively. Case studies on three diseases demonstrate that MSignVGAE can effectively capture a comprehensive distribution of associations by leveraging signed information.},
}
@article {pmid39146817,
year = {2025},
author = {Caukwell, J and Assenza, S and Hassan, KA and Neilan, BA and Clulow, AJ and Salvati Manni, L and Fong, WK},
title = {Lipidic drug delivery systems are responsive to the human microbiome.},
journal = {Journal of colloid and interface science},
volume = {677},
number = {Pt B},
pages = {293-302},
doi = {10.1016/j.jcis.2024.07.216},
pmid = {39146817},
issn = {1095-7103},
mesh = {Humans ; *Staphylococcus aureus/drug effects ; *Microbiota/drug effects ; *Drug Delivery Systems ; Glycerides/chemistry ; Drug Liberation ; Lipids/chemistry ; Nanostructures/chemistry ; Drug Carriers/chemistry ; Particle Size ; },
abstract = {In vitro and in vivo tests for therapeutic agents are typically conducted in sterile environments, but many target areas for drug delivery are home to thousands of microbial species. Here, we examine the behaviour of lipidic nanomaterials after exposure to representative strains of four bacterial species found in the gastrointestinal tract and skin. Small angle X-ray scattering measurements show that the nanostructure of monoolein cubic and inverse hexagonal phases are transformed, respectively, into inverse hexagonal and inverse micellar cubic phases upon exposure to a strain of live Staphylococcus aureus often present on skin and mucosa. Further investigation demonstrates that enzymatic hydrolysis and cell membrane lipid transfer are both likely responsible for this effect. The structural responses to S. aureus are rapid and significantly reduce the rate of drug release from monoolein-based nanomaterials. These findings are the first to demonstrate how a key species in the live human microbiome can trigger changes in the structure and drug release properties of lipidic nanomaterials. The effect appears to be strain specific, varies from patient to patient and body region to body region, and is anticipated to affect the bioapplication of monoglyceride-based formulations.},
}
@article {pmid39146797,
year = {2024},
author = {Castells-Nobau, A and Mayneris-Perxachs, J and Fernández-Real, JM},
title = {Unlocking the mind-gut connection: Impact of human microbiome on cognition.},
journal = {Cell host & microbe},
volume = {32},
number = {8},
pages = {1248-1263},
doi = {10.1016/j.chom.2024.07.019},
pmid = {39146797},
issn = {1934-6069},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; *Cognition/physiology ; *Brain-Gut Axis/physiology ; Brain/physiology/microbiology ; Bacteria ; Metabolic Diseases/microbiology ; },
abstract = {This perspective explores the current understanding of the gut microbiota's impact on cognitive function in apparently healthy humans and in individuals with metabolic disease. We discuss how alterations in gut microbiota can influence cognitive processes, focusing not only on bacterial composition but also on often overlooked components of the gut microbiota, such as bacteriophages and eukaryotes, as well as microbial functionality. We examine the mechanisms through which gut microbes might communicate with the central nervous system, highlighting the complexity of these interactions. We provide a comprehensive overview of the emerging field of microbiota-gut-brain interactions and its significance for cognitive health. Additionally, we summarize novel therapeutic strategies designed to promote cognitive resilience and reduce the risk of cognitive disorders, focusing on interventions that target the gut microbiota. An in-depth understanding of the microbiome-brain axis is imperative for developing innovative treatments aimed at improving cognitive health.},
}
@article {pmid39143108,
year = {2024},
author = {Grahnemo, L and Kambur, O and Lahti, L and Jousilahti, P and Niiranen, T and Knight, R and Salomaa, V and Havulinna, AS and Ohlsson, C},
title = {Associations between gut microbiota and incident fractures in the FINRISK cohort.},
journal = {NPJ biofilms and microbiomes},
volume = {10},
number = {1},
pages = {69},
pmid = {39143108},
issn = {2055-5008},
support = {NNF 190C0055250 and 22OC0078421//Novo Nordisk Fonden (Novo Nordisk Foundation)/ ; 101096347/ERC_/European Research Council/International ; KAW 2015.0317//Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse (Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation)/ ; LU2021-0096//IngaBritt och Arne Lundbergs Forskningsstiftelse (Ingabritt and Arne Lundberg Research Foundation)/ ; 2020-01392//Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council)/ ; },
mesh = {*Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Humans ; Male ; Female ; *Fractures, Bone/microbiology/epidemiology/etiology ; Middle Aged ; Finland/epidemiology ; Aged ; Bacteria/classification/genetics/isolation & purification ; Metagenome ; Cohort Studies ; Incidence ; Metagenomics/methods ; Proteobacteria/genetics/isolation & purification ; Risk Factors ; Adult ; },
abstract = {The gut microbiota (GM) can regulate bone mass, but its association with incident fractures is unknown. We used Cox regression models to determine whether the GM composition is associated with incident fractures in the large FINRISK 2002 cohort (n = 7043, 1092 incident fracture cases, median follow-up time 18 years) with information on GM composition and functionality from shotgun metagenome sequencing. Higher alpha diversity was associated with decreased fracture risk (hazard ratio [HR] 0.92 per standard deviation increase in Shannon index, 95% confidence interval 0.87-0.96). For beta diversity, the first principal component was associated with fracture risk (Aitchison distance, HR 0.90, 0.85-0.96). In predefined phyla analyses, we observed that the relative abundance of Proteobacteria was associated with increased fracture risk (HR 1.14, 1.07-1.20), while the relative abundance of Tenericutes was associated with decreased fracture risk (HR 0.90, 0.85-0.96). Explorative sub-analyses within the Proteobacteria phylum showed that higher relative abundance of Gammaproteobacteria was associated with increased fracture risk. Functionality analyses showed that pathways related to amino acid metabolism and lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis associated with fracture risk. The relative abundance of Proteobacteria correlated with pathways for amino acid metabolism, while the relative abundance of Tenericutes correlated with pathways for butyrate synthesis. In conclusion, the overall GM composition was associated with incident fractures. The relative abundance of Proteobacteria, especially Gammaproteobacteria, was associated with increased fracture risk, while the relative abundance of Tenericutes was associated with decreased fracture risk. Functionality analyses demonstrated that pathways known to regulate bone health may underlie these associations.},
}
@article {pmid39139405,
year = {2024},
author = {Attaye, I and Witjes, JJ and Koopen, AM and van der Vossen, EWJ and Zwirs, D and Wortelboer, K and Collard, D and Kemper, EM and Winkelmeijer, M and Holst, JJ and Hazen, SL and Kuipers, F and Stroes, ESG and Groen, AK and de Vos, WM and Nieuwdorp, M and Herrema, H},
title = {Oral Anaerobutyricum soehngenii augments glycemic control in type 2 diabetes.},
journal = {iScience},
volume = {27},
number = {8},
pages = {110455},
pmid = {39139405},
issn = {2589-0042},
support = {P01 HL147823/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; R01 HL103866/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial investigated the impact of 14-day Anaerobutyricum soehngenii L2-7 supplementation on postprandial glucose levels in 25 White Dutch males with type 2 diabetes (T2D) on stable metformin therapy. The primary endpoint was the effect of A. soehngenii versus placebo on glucose excursions and variability as determined by continuous glucose monitoring. Secondary endpoints were changes in ambulatory 24-h blood pressure, incretins, circulating metabolites and excursions of plasma short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and bile acids upon a standardized meal. Results showed that A. soehngenii supplementation for 14 days significantly improved glycemic variability and mean arterial blood pressure, without notable changes in SCFAs, bile acids, incretin levels, or anthropometric parameters as compared to placebo-treated controls. Although well-tolerated and effective in improving glycemic control in the intervention group, further research in larger and more diverse populations is needed to generalize these findings.},
}
@article {pmid39137463,
year = {2024},
author = {Fang, Q and Qiu, T and Ye, T and Feng, Z and Tian, X and Cao, Y and Bai, J and Liu, Y},
title = {Prenatal ozone exposure and variations of the gut microbiome: Evidence from a Chinese mother-infant cohort.},
journal = {Ecotoxicology and environmental safety},
volume = {283},
number = {},
pages = {116861},
doi = {10.1016/j.ecoenv.2024.116861},
pmid = {39137463},
issn = {1090-2414},
mesh = {Humans ; *Ozone/toxicity ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects ; Female ; Pregnancy ; China ; Cohort Studies ; Adult ; Infant, Newborn ; *Maternal Exposure/adverse effects ; *Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects/microbiology ; Air Pollutants/toxicity ; Infant ; Male ; Child, Preschool ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; East Asian People ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The gut microbiome is central to human health, but the potential impact of ozone (O3) exposure on its establishment in early life has not been thoroughly examined. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between prenatal O3 exposure and the variations of the human gut microbiome during the first two years of life.
DESIGN: A cohort study design was used. Pregnant women in the third trimester were recruited from an obstetric clinic, and long-term follow-ups were conducted after delivery. The gut microbiome was analyzed using the 16 S rRNA V3-V4 gene regions. Functional pathway analyses of gut microbial communities in neonates were performed using Tax4fun. The average concentrations of ambient O3 and other air pollutants from pregnancy to delivery were calculated using the China High Air Pollutants (CHAP) dataset, based on the permanent residential addresses of participants. Multiple linear regression and mixed linear models were utilized to investigate the associations between prenatal O3 exposure and gut microbiome features.
RESULTS: Prenatal O3 exposure did not significantly affect the gut microbial alpha diversity of mothers and neonates. However, it was found to be positively associated with the gut microbial alpha diversity in 24-month-old infants. Prenatal O3 exposure explained 13.1 % of the variation in neonatal gut microbial composition. After controlling for potential covariates, prenatal O3 exposure was associated with neonatal-specific gut microbial taxa and functional pathways. Furthermore, the mixed linear models showed that prenatal O3 exposure was negatively associated with variations of Streptococcus (p-value = 0.001, q-value = 0.005), Enterococcus (p-value = 0.001, q-value = 0.005), Escherichia-Shigella (p-value = 0.010, q-value = 0.025), and Bifidobacterium (p-value = 0.003, q-value = 0.010).
CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to examine the effects of prenatal O3 exposure on gut microbial homeostasis and variations. It demonstrates that prenatal O3 exposure is associated with variations in certain aspects of the gut microbiome. These findings provide novel insights into the dynamics and establishment of the human microbiome during the first two years of life.},
}
@article {pmid39136453,
year = {2024},
author = {Etlin, S and Rose, J and Bielski, L and Walter, C and Kleinman, AS and Mason, CE},
title = {The human microbiome in space: parallels between Earth-based dysbiosis, implications for long-duration spaceflight, and possible mitigation strategies.},
journal = {Clinical microbiology reviews},
volume = {37},
number = {3},
pages = {e0016322},
pmid = {39136453},
issn = {1098-6618},
mesh = {Humans ; *Space Flight ; *Dysbiosis/microbiology ; *Astronauts ; Microbiota/physiology ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; },
abstract = {SUMMARYThe human microbiota encompasses the diverse communities of microorganisms that reside in, on, and around various parts of the human body, such as the skin, nasal passages, and gastrointestinal tract. Although research is ongoing, it is well established that the microbiota exert a substantial influence on the body through the production and modification of metabolites and small molecules. Disruptions in the composition of the microbiota-dysbiosis-have also been linked to various negative health outcomes. As humans embark upon longer-duration space missions, it is important to understand how the conditions of space travel impact the microbiota and, consequently, astronaut health. This article will first characterize the main taxa of the human gut microbiota and their associated metabolites, before discussing potential dysbiosis and negative health consequences. It will also detail the microbial changes observed in astronauts during spaceflight, focusing on gut microbiota composition and pathogenic virulence and survival. Analysis will then turn to how astronaut health may be protected from adverse microbial changes via diet, exercise, and antibiotics before concluding with a discussion of the microbiota of spacecraft and microbial culturing methods in space. The implications of this review are critical, particularly with NASA's ongoing implementation of the Moon to Mars Architecture, which will include weeks or months of living in space and new habitats.},
}
@article {pmid39125810,
year = {2024},
author = {Rezzani, R and Favero, G and Cominelli, G and Pinto, D and Rinaldi, F},
title = {Skin Aging and the Upcoming Role of Ferroptosis in Geroscience.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {25},
number = {15},
pages = {},
pmid = {39125810},
issn = {1422-0067},
mesh = {*Ferroptosis ; Humans ; *Skin Aging ; Iron/metabolism ; Animals ; Skin/metabolism/pathology ; Aging/metabolism ; Geriatrics ; },
abstract = {The skin is considered the most important organ system in mammals, and as the population ages, it is important to consider skin aging and anti-aging therapeutic strategies. Exposure of the skin to various insults induces significant changes throughout our lives, differentiating the skin of a young adult from that of an older adult. These changes are caused by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic aging. We report the interactions between skin aging and its metabolism, showing that the network is due to several factors. For example, iron is an important nutrient for humans, but its level increases with aging, inducing deleterious effects on cellular functions. Recently, it was discovered that ferroptosis, or iron-dependent cell death, is linked to aging and skin diseases. The pursuit of new molecular targets for ferroptosis has recently attracted attention. Prevention of ferroptosis is an effective therapeutic strategy for the treatment of diseases, especially in old age. However, the pathological and biological mechanisms underlying ferroptosis are still not fully understood, especially in skin diseases such as melanoma and autoimmune diseases. Only a few basic studies on regulated cell death exist, and the challenge is to turn the studies into clinical applications.},
}
@article {pmid39122010,
year = {2024},
author = {Hashimoto, Y and Ishigami, K and Hassaninasab, A and Kishi, K and Kumano, T and Kobayashi, M},
title = {Curcumin degradation in a soil microorganism: Screening and characterization of a β-diketone hydrolase.},
journal = {The Journal of biological chemistry},
volume = {300},
number = {9},
pages = {107647},
pmid = {39122010},
issn = {1083-351X},
mesh = {*Curcumin/metabolism/analogs & derivatives/chemistry ; *Soil Microbiology ; *Rhodococcus/enzymology/genetics/metabolism ; Humans ; Bacterial Proteins/metabolism/genetics/chemistry ; Hydrolases/metabolism/chemistry/genetics ; Ketones/metabolism/chemistry ; Substrate Specificity ; },
abstract = {Curcumin is a plant-derived secondary metabolite exhibiting antitumor, neuroprotective, antidiabetic activities, and so on. We previously isolated Escherichia coli as an enterobacterium exhibiting curcumin-converting activity from human feces, and discovered an enzyme showing this activity (CurA) and named it NADPH-dependent curcumin/dihydrocurcumin reductase. From soil, here, we isolated a curcumin-degrading microorganism (No. 34) using the screening medium containing curcumin as the sole carbon source and identified as Rhodococcus sp. A curcumin-degrading enzyme designated as CurH was purified from this strain and characterized, and compared with CurA. CurH catalyzed hydrolytic cleavage of a carbon-carbon bond in the β-diketone moiety of curcumin and its analogs, yielding two products bearing a methyl ketone terminus and a carboxylic acid terminus, respectively. These findings demonstrated that a curcumin degradation reaction catalyzed by CurH in the soil environment was completely different from the one catalyzed by CurA in the human microbiome. Of all the curcumin analogs tested, suitable substrates for the enzyme were curcuminoids (i.e., curcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin) and tetrahydrocurcuminoids. Thus, we named this enzyme curcuminoid hydrolase. The deduced amino acid sequence of curH exhibited similarity to those of members of acetyl-CoA C-acetyltransferase family. Considering results of oxygen isotope analyses and a series of site-directed mutagenesis experiments on our enzyme, we propose a possible catalytic mechanism of CurH, which is unique and distinct from those of enzymes degrading β-diketone moieties such as β-diketone hydrolases known so far.},
}
@article {pmid39119866,
year = {2024},
author = {Schweitzer, M and Wlasak, M and Wassermann, B and Marcher, F and Poglitsch, C and Pirker, J and Berg, G},
title = {'Tiny Biome Tales': A gamified review about the influence of lifestyle choices on the human microbiome.},
journal = {Microbial biotechnology},
volume = {17},
number = {8},
pages = {e14544},
pmid = {39119866},
issn = {1751-7915},
support = {//Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, Austria/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota ; *Video Games ; *Life Style ; Female ; Pregnancy ; Adult ; },
abstract = {In the last two decades, new discoveries from microbiome research have changed our understanding of human health. It became evident that daily habits and lifestyle choices shape the human microbiome and ultimately determine health or disease. Therefore, we developed 'Tiny Biome Tales' (https://microbiome.gamelabgraz.at/), a science pedagogy video game designed like a scientific review based exclusively on peer-reviewed articles, to teach about the influence of lifestyle choices on the human microbiome during pregnancy, early and adult life, and related health consequences. Despite the scientific character, it can be played by a broad audience. Here, we also present a scientific assessment and showed that playing the game significantly contributed to knowledge gain. The innovative style of the 'gamified review' represents an ideal platform to disseminate future findings from microbiome research by updating existing and adding new scenes to the game.},
}
@article {pmid39114281,
year = {2024},
author = {Manske, S},
title = {The Microbiome: A Foundation for Integrative Medicine.},
journal = {Integrative medicine (Encinitas, Calif.)},
volume = {23},
number = {3},
pages = {28-31},
pmid = {39114281},
issn = {1546-993X},
abstract = {CONTEXT: No organ system better integrates interconnectivity across specialties and disciplines than the microbiome. Scientific focus is shifting from microbes as harbingers of disease toward microbes as symbiotic, balanced, commensal ecologies.
OBJECTIVE: The study intended to discuss and examine the human microbiome, including its development in early life; its impact on various physiological processes that occur throughout the body; and its relationship to dysbiosis; and to investigate microbial mechanisms with clinical applicability across medical specialties.
SETTING: The study took place at Biocidin Botanicals in Watsonville CA, USA.
RESULTS: Accumulating research upholds the human microbiome as both a predictive biomarker for disease risk and a viable treatment option for modulating the course of illness. Prebiotic and probiotic interventions continue to demonstrate clinical utility, particularly for gastrointestinal, dermatological, inflammatory, metabolic, and mental-health disorders.
CONCLUSIONS: Just as germ theory revolutionized infection control in the twentieth century, microbiome systems science stands to transform the conceptualization of health as the balanced coexistence of human and microbial cells in the twenty-first century.},
}
@article {pmid39113194,
year = {2024},
author = {Tae, IH and Lee, J and Kang, Y and Lee, JM and Park, K and Yang, H and Kim, HW and Ko, JH and Park, DS and Kim, DS and Son, MY and Cho, HS},
title = {Induction of Cell Death by Bifidobacterium infantis DS1685 in Colorectal and Breast Cancers via SMAD4/TGF-Beta Activation.},
journal = {Journal of microbiology and biotechnology},
volume = {34},
number = {8},
pages = {1698-1704},
pmid = {39113194},
issn = {1738-8872},
mesh = {Humans ; *Smad4 Protein/metabolism/genetics ; *Breast Neoplasms/pathology/metabolism ; *Colorectal Neoplasms/microbiology/pathology ; Cell Line, Tumor ; *Transforming Growth Factor beta/metabolism ; *Bifidobacterium longum subspecies infantis/metabolism/genetics ; Female ; Cell Death/drug effects ; Cell Proliferation/drug effects ; Probiotics ; Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacology ; },
abstract = {Therapeutic advancements in treatments for cancer, a leading cause of mortality worldwide, have lagged behind the increasing incidence of this disease. There is a growing interest in multifaceted approaches for cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy, but due to their low efficacy and severe side effects, there is a need for the development of new cancer therapies. Recently, the human microbiome, which is comprised of various microorganisms, has emerged as an important research field due to its potential impact on cancer treatment. Among these microorganisms, Bifidobacterium infantis has been shown to significantly improve the efficacy of various anticancer drugs. However, research on the role of B. infantis in cancer treatment remains insufficient. Thus, in this study, we explored the anticancer effect of treatment with B. infantis DS1685 supernatant (BI sup) in colorectal and breast cancer cell lines. Treatment with BI sup induced SMAD4 expression to suppress cell growth in colon and breast cancer cells. Furthermore, a decrease in tumor cohesion was observed through the disruption of the regulation of EMT-related genes by BI sup in 3D spheroid models. Based on these findings, we anticipate that BI sup could play an adjunctive role in cancer therapy, and future cotreatment of BI sup with various anticancer drugs may lead to synergistic effects in cancer treatment.},
}
@article {pmid39113097,
year = {2024},
author = {Gray, SM and Moss, AD and Herzog, JW and Kashiwagi, S and Liu, B and Young, JB and Sun, S and Bhatt, AP and Fodor, AA and Balfour Sartor, R},
title = {Mouse adaptation of human inflammatory bowel diseases microbiota enhances colonization efficiency and alters microbiome aggressiveness depending on the recipient colonic inflammatory environment.},
journal = {Microbiome},
volume = {12},
number = {1},
pages = {147},
pmid = {39113097},
issn = {2049-2618},
support = {P01 DK094779/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; P40 OD010995/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; P30 DK034987/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; NSF Cooperative Agreement No. EEC-2133504//The Engineering Research Centers Program of the National Science Foundation/ ; T32DK007737//NIH/NIDDK/ ; T32 DK007737/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Animals ; Humans ; Mice ; *Fecal Microbiota Transplantation ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/microbiology ; *Disease Models, Animal ; *Dysbiosis/microbiology ; *Interleukin-10/genetics ; Colitis/microbiology ; Feces/microbiology ; Colon/microbiology ; Mice, Knockout ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Female ; Bacteria/classification/genetics/isolation & purification ; Inflammation ; Male ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Understanding the cause vs consequence relationship of gut inflammation and microbial dysbiosis in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) requires a reproducible mouse model of human-microbiota-driven experimental colitis.
RESULTS: Our study demonstrated that human fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) transfer efficiency is an underappreciated source of experimental variability in human microbiota-associated (HMA) mice. Pooled human IBD patient fecal microbiota engrafted germ-free (GF) mice with low amplicon sequence variant (ASV)-level transfer efficiency, resulting in high recipient-to-recipient variation of microbiota composition and colitis severity in HMA Il-10[-/-] mice. In contrast, mouse-to-mouse transfer of mouse-adapted human IBD patient microbiota transferred with high efficiency and low compositional variability resulting in highly consistent and reproducible colitis phenotypes in recipient Il-10[-/-] mice. Engraftment of human-to-mouse FMT stochastically varied with individual transplantation events more than mouse-adapted FMT. Human-to-mouse FMT caused a population bottleneck with reassembly of microbiota composition that was host inflammatory environment specific. Mouse-adaptation in the inflamed Il-10[-/-] host reassembled a more aggressive microbiota that induced more severe colitis in serial transplant to Il-10[-/-] mice than the distinct microbiota reassembled in non-inflamed WT hosts.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support a model of IBD pathogenesis in which host inflammation promotes aggressive resident bacteria, which further drives a feed-forward process of dysbiosis exacerbated by gut inflammation. This model implies that effective management of IBD requires treating both the dysregulated host immune response and aggressive inflammation-driven microbiota. We propose that our mouse-adapted human microbiota model is an optimized, reproducible, and rigorous system to study human microbiome-driven disease phenotypes, which may be generalized to mouse models of other human microbiota-modulated diseases, including metabolic syndrome/obesity, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. Video Abstract.},
}
@article {pmid39110597,
year = {2024},
author = {Fu, Y and Yu, S and Li, J and Lao, Z and Yang, X and Lin, Z},
title = {DeepMineLys: Deep mining of phage lysins from human microbiome.},
journal = {Cell reports},
volume = {43},
number = {8},
pages = {114583},
doi = {10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114583},
pmid = {39110597},
issn = {2211-1247},
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota ; *Bacteriophages/genetics/metabolism ; Data Mining ; Viral Proteins/metabolism ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Animals ; Muramidase/metabolism ; Escherichia coli/genetics/metabolism ; },
abstract = {Vast shotgun metagenomics data remain an underutilized resource for novel enzymes. Artificial intelligence (AI) has increasingly been applied to protein mining, but its conventional performance evaluation is interpolative in nature, and these trained models often struggle to extrapolate effectively when challenged with unknown data. In this study, we present a framework (DeepMineLys [deep mining of phage lysins from human microbiome]) based on the convolutional neural network (CNN) to identify phage lysins from three human microbiome datasets. When validated with an independent dataset, our method achieved an F1-score of 84.00%, surpassing existing methods by 20.84%. We expressed 16 lysin candidates from the top 100 sequences in E. coli, confirming 11 as active. The best one displayed an activity 6.2-fold that of lysozyme derived from hen egg white, establishing it as the most potent lysin from the human microbiome. Our study also underscores several important issues when applying AI to biology questions. This framework should be applicable for mining other proteins.},
}
@article {pmid39109977,
year = {2024},
author = {Xiao, Y and Louwies, T and Mars, RAT and Kashyap, PC},
title = {The Human Microbiome-A Physiologic Perspective.},
journal = {Comprehensive Physiology},
volume = {14},
number = {3},
pages = {5491-5519},
doi = {10.1002/cphy.c230013},
pmid = {39109977},
issn = {2040-4603},
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota/physiology ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome consists of the microorganisms associated with the body, such as bacteria, fungi, archaea, protozoa, and viruses, along with their gene content and products. These microbes are abundant in the digestive, respiratory, renal/urinary, and reproductive systems. While microbes found in other organs/tissues are often associated with diseases, some reports suggest their presence even in healthy individuals. Lack of microbial colonization does not indicate a lack of microbial influence, as their metabolites can affect distant locations through circulation. In a healthy state, these microbes maintain a mutualistic relationship and help shape the host's physiological functions. Unlike the host's genetic content, microbial gene content and expression are dynamic and influenced by factors such as ethnicity, genetic background, sex, age, lifestyle/diet, and psychological/physical conditions. Therefore, defining a healthy microbiome becomes challenging as it is context dependent and can vary over time for an individual. Although differences in microbial composition have been observed in various diseases, these changes may reflect host alterations rather than causing the disease itself. As the field is evolving, there is increased emphasis on understanding when changes in the microbiome are an important component of pathogenesis rather than the consequence of a disease state. This article focuses on the microbial component in the digestive and respiratory tracts-the primary sites colonized by microorganisms-and the physiological functions of microbial metabolites in these systems. It also discusses their physiological functions in the central nervous and cardiovascular systems, which have no microorganism colonization under healthy conditions based on human studies. © 2024 American Physiological Society. Compr Physiol 14:5491-5519, 2024.},
}
@article {pmid39102545,
year = {2024},
author = {Duncan, RP and Moustafa, DA and Lewin, GR and Diggle, FL and Bomberger, JM and Whiteley, M and Goldberg, JB},
title = {Improvement of a mouse infection model to capture Pseudomonas aeruginosa chronic physiology in cystic fibrosis.},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
volume = {121},
number = {33},
pages = {e2406234121},
pmid = {39102545},
issn = {1091-6490},
support = {K99 DE031018/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/United States ; WHITELE20A0//Cystic Fibrosis Fouondation/ ; },
mesh = {*Cystic Fibrosis/microbiology/complications ; *Pseudomonas aeruginosa/physiology/pathogenicity ; Animals ; *Pseudomonas Infections/microbiology ; Mice ; *Disease Models, Animal ; Humans ; Respiratory Tract Infections/microbiology ; Host-Pathogen Interactions ; Sputum/microbiology ; },
abstract = {Laboratory models are central to microbiology research, advancing the understanding of bacterial physiology by mimicking natural environments, from soil to the human microbiome. When studying host-bacteria interactions, animal models enable investigators to examine bacterial dynamics associated with a host, and in the case of human infections, animal models are necessary to translate basic research into clinical treatments. Efforts toward improving animal infection models are typically based on reproducing host genotypes/phenotypes and disease manifestations, leaving a gap in how well the physiology of microbes reflects their behavior in a human host. Understanding bacterial physiology is vital because it dictates host response and bacterial interactions with antimicrobials. Thus, our goal was to develop an animal model that accurately recapitulates bacterial physiology in human infection. The system we chose to model was a chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa respiratory infection in cystic fibrosis (CF). To accomplish this goal, we leveraged a framework that we recently developed to evaluate model accuracy by calculating the percentage of bacterial genes that are expressed similarly in a model to how they are expressed in their infection environment. We combined two complementary models of P. aeruginosa infection-an in vitro synthetic CF sputum model (SCFM2) and a mouse acute pneumonia model. This combined model captured the chronic physiology of P. aeruginosa in CF better than the standard mouse infection model, showing the power of a data-driven approach to refining animal models. In addition, the results of this work challenge the assumption that a chronic infection model requires long-term colonization.},
}
@article {pmid39101047,
year = {2024},
author = {Liu, J and Zhang, X and Lin, T and Chen, R and Zhong, Y and Chen, T and Wu, T and Liu, C and Huang, A and Nguyen, TT and Lee, EE and Jeste, DV and Tu, XM},
title = {A New Paradigm for High-dimensional Data: Distance-Based Semiparametric Feature Aggregation Framework via Between-Subject Attributes.},
journal = {Scandinavian journal of statistics, theory and applications},
volume = {51},
number = {2},
pages = {672-696},
pmid = {39101047},
issn = {0303-6898},
support = {K23 MH118435/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States ; K23 MH119375/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States ; R01 MH094151/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {This article proposes a distance-based framework incentivized by the paradigm shift towards feature aggregation for high-dimensional data, which does not rely on the sparse-feature assumption or the permutation-based inference. Focusing on distance-based outcomes that preserve information without truncating any features, a class of semiparametric regression has been developed, which encapsulates multiple sources of high-dimensional variables using pairwise outcomes of between-subject attributes. Further, we propose a strategy to address the interlocking correlations among pairs via the U-statistics-based estimating equations (UGEE), which correspond to their unique efficient influence function (EIF). Hence, the resulting semiparametric estimators are robust to distributional misspecification while enjoying root-n consistency and asymptotic optimality to facilitate inference. In essence, the proposed approach not only circumvents information loss due to feature selection but also improves the model's interpretability and computational feasibility. Simulation studies and applications to the human microbiome and wearables data are provided, where the feature dimensions are tens of thousands.},
}
@article {pmid39100447,
year = {2024},
author = {Kakkar, A and Kandwal, G and Nayak, T and Jaiswal, LK and Srivastava, A and Gupta, A},
title = {Engineered bacteriophages: A panacea against pathogenic and drug resistant bacteria.},
journal = {Heliyon},
volume = {10},
number = {14},
pages = {e34333},
pmid = {39100447},
issn = {2405-8440},
abstract = {Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major global concern; antibiotics and other regular treatment methods have failed to overcome the increasing number of infectious diseases. Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that specifically target/kill bacterial hosts without affecting other human microbiome. Phage therapy provides optimism in the current global healthcare scenario with a long history of its applications in humans that has now reached various clinical trials. Phages in clinical trials have specific requirements of being exclusively lytic, free from toxic genes with an enhanced host range that adds an advantage to this requisite. This review explains in detail the various phage engineering methods and their potential applications in therapy. To make phages more efficient, engineering has been attempted using techniques like conventional homologous recombination, Bacteriophage Recombineering of Electroporated DNA (BRED), clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas, CRISPY-BRED/Bacteriophage Recombineering with Infectious Particles (BRIP), chemically accelerated viral evolution (CAVE), and phage genome rebooting. Phages are administered in cocktail form in combination with antibiotics, vaccines, and purified proteins, such as endolysins. Thus, phage therapy is proving to be a better alternative for treating life-threatening infections, with more specificity and fewer detrimental consequences.},
}
@article {pmid39092808,
year = {2024},
author = {Jokela, R and Pärnänen, KM and Ponsero, AJ and Lahti, L and Kolho, KL and de Vos, WM and Salonen, A},
title = {A cohort study in family triads: impact of gut microbiota composition and early life exposures on intestinal resistome during the first two years of life.},
journal = {Gut microbes},
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {2383746},
pmid = {39092808},
issn = {1949-0984},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects/genetics ; Infant ; Female ; *Feces/microbiology ; Male ; Cohort Studies ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; *Bacteria/genetics/classification/drug effects/isolation & purification ; Infant, Newborn ; Bacteroides/genetics/drug effects/growth & development ; Child, Preschool ; Metagenome ; Drug Resistance, Bacterial/genetics ; },
abstract = {Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are prevalent in the infant gut microbiota and make up the intestinal resistome, representing a community ARG reservoir. This study focuses on the dynamics and persistence of ARGs in the early gut microbiota, and the effect of early exposures therein. We leveraged 2,328 stool metagenomes from 475 children in the HELMi cohort and the available parental samples to study the diversity, dynamics, and intra-familial sharing of the resistome during the first two years of life. We found higher within-family similarity of the gut resistome composition and ARG load in infant-mother pairs, and between spouses, but not in father-infant pairs. Early gut microbiota composition and development correlated with the ARG load; Bacteroides correlated positively and Bifidobacterium negatively with the load, reflecting the typical resistance levels in these taxa. Caesarean delivered infants harbored lower ARG loads, partly reflecting the scarcity of Bacteroides compared to vaginally delivered. Exposure to intrapartum or post-natal antibiotics showed only modest associations with the ARG load and composition, mainly before 12 months. Our results indicate that the resistome is strongly driven by the normal development of the microbiota in early life, and suggest importance of longer evolution of ARGs over effects of recent antibiotic exposure.},
}
@article {pmid39086645,
year = {2024},
author = {Xie, S and Meng, Q and Wang, L},
title = {The effect of gut microbiome and plasma metabolome on systemic sclerosis: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1427195},
pmid = {39086645},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Cellular and molecular biology, combined with research on the human microbiome and metabolome, have provided new insights into the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc). However, most studies on gut microbiota (GM) and metabolome in SSc are observational studies. The impact of confounding factors and reverse causation leads to different insights. To shed light on this matter, we utilized Mendelian randomization (MR) to determine the causal effect of GM/metabolites on SSc.
METHODS: Based on summary-level data from genome-wide association studies, bidirectional Two-sample MR was conducted involving 196 GM, 1400 plasma metabolism, and 9,095 SSc. Inverse Variance Weighting (IVW) was mainly used for effect estimation.
RESULTS: Forward MR analysis found that three GM and two plasma metabolites are causally related to SSc. IVW results showed Victivallaceae (family) (OR, 1.469; 95%CI, 1.099-1.963; p = 0.009) and LachnospiraceaeUCG004 (genus) (OR, 1.548; 95%CI, 1.020-2.349; p = 0.04) were risk factor of SSc. Conversely, Prevotella7 (genus) (OR, 0.759; 95%CI, 0.578-0.997; p = 0.048)was a protective factor of SSc. The results on plasma metabolites indicated that Pregnenediol disulfate (C21H34O8S2) levels (OR, 1.164; 95%CI, 1.006-1.347; p = 0.041)was a risk factor of SSc, while Sphingomyelin (d18:1/19:0, d19:1/18:0) levels (OR, 0.821; 95%CI, 0.677-0.996; p = 0.045)was a protective factor of SSc. Reverse MR analysis did not find causally relationship between SSc and the above GM/plasma metabolites.
CONCLUSION: Our results revealed the causally effect between GM/plasma metabolites and SSc. These findings provided new insights into the mechanism of SSc. In particular, we demonstrated Prevotella7 was a protective factor of SSc despite its controversial role in SSc in previous researches.},
}
@article {pmid39085612,
year = {2024},
author = {Roje, B and Zhang, B and Mastrorilli, E and Kovačić, A and Sušak, L and Ljubenkov, I and Ćosić, E and Vilović, K and Meštrović, A and Vukovac, EL and Bučević-Popović, V and Puljiz, Ž and Karaman, I and Terzić, J and Zimmermann, M},
title = {Gut microbiota carcinogen metabolism causes distal tissue tumours.},
journal = {Nature},
volume = {632},
number = {8027},
pages = {1137-1144},
pmid = {39085612},
issn = {1476-4687},
mesh = {Animals ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mice ; Biotransformation ; *Carcinogenesis/chemically induced/metabolism/pathology ; *Carcinogens/chemistry/metabolism/pharmacokinetics/toxicity ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; Germ-Free Life ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; *Nitrosamines/chemistry/metabolism/pharmacokinetics/toxicity ; *Urinary Bladder Neoplasms/chemically induced/etiology/metabolism/pathology/prevention & control ; Disease Susceptibility ; },
abstract = {Exposure to environmental pollutants and human microbiome composition are important predisposition factors for tumour development[1,2]. Similar to drug molecules, pollutants are typically metabolized in the body, which can change their carcinogenic potential and affect tissue distribution through altered toxicokinetics[3]. Although recent studies demonstrated that human-associated microorganisms can chemically convert a wide range of xenobiotics and influence the profile and tissue exposure of resulting metabolites[4,5], the effect of microbial biotransformation on chemical-induced tumour development remains unclear. Here we show that the depletion of the gut microbiota affects the toxicokinetics of nitrosamines, which markedly reduces the development and severity of nitrosamine-induced urinary bladder cancer in mice[6,7]. We causally linked this carcinogen biotransformation to specific gut bacterial isolates in vitro and in vivo using individualized bacterial culture collections and gnotobiotic mouse models, respectively. We tested gut communities from different human donors to demonstrate that microbial carcinogen metabolism varies between individuals and we showed that this metabolic activity applies to structurally related nitrosamine carcinogens. Altogether, these results indicate that gut microbiota carcinogen metabolism may be a contributing factor for chemical-induced carcinogenesis, which could open avenues to target the microbiome for improved predisposition risk assessment and prevention of cancer.},
}
@article {pmid39073834,
year = {2024},
author = {Scheperjans, F and Levo, R and Bosch, B and Lääperi, M and Pereira, PAB and Smolander, OP and Aho, VTE and Vetkas, N and Toivio, L and Kainulainen, V and Fedorova, TD and Lahtinen, P and Ortiz, R and Kaasinen, V and Satokari, R and Arkkila, P},
title = {Fecal Microbiota Transplantation for Treatment of Parkinson Disease: A Randomized Clinical Trial.},
journal = {JAMA neurology},
volume = {81},
number = {9},
pages = {925-938},
pmid = {39073834},
issn = {2168-6157},
mesh = {Humans ; *Parkinson Disease/therapy ; Middle Aged ; Male ; *Fecal Microbiota Transplantation/methods ; Female ; Aged ; Double-Blind Method ; Adult ; Treatment Outcome ; Dysbiosis/therapy ; },
abstract = {IMPORTANCE: Dysbiosis has been robustly demonstrated in Parkinson disease (PD), and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has shown promising effects in preclinical PD models.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the safety and symptomatic efficacy of colonic single-dose anaerobically prepared FMT.
This was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial conducted between November 2020 and June 2023 with a follow-up period of 12 months at 4 hospitals in Finland. Patients with PD aged 35 to 75 years in Hoehn & Yahr stage 1-3 with a mild to moderate symptom burden and dysbiosis of fecal microbiota were included. Of 229 patients screened, 48 were randomized and 47 received the intervention. One patient discontinued due to worsening of PD symptoms. Two further patients were excluded before analysis and 45 were included in the intention-to-treat analysis.
INTERVENTION: Participants were randomized in a 2:1 ratio to receive FMT or placebo via colonoscopy.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary end point was the change of Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale parts I-III (part III off medication) at 6 months. Safety was assessed by recording adverse events (AEs).
RESULTS: The median (IQR) age was 65 (52.5-70.0) years in the placebo group and 66 (59.25-69.75) years in the FMT group; 9 (60.0%) and 16 (53.3%) patients were male in the placebo group and the FMT group, respectively. The primary outcome did not differ between the groups (0.97 points, 95% CI, -5.10 to 7.03, P = .75). Gastrointestinal AEs were more frequent in the FMT group (16 [53%] vs 1 [7%]; P = .003). Secondary outcomes and post hoc analyses showed stronger increase of dopaminergic medication and improvement of certain motor and nonmotor outcomes in the placebo group. Microbiota changes were more pronounced after FMT but differed by donor. Nevertheless, dysbiosis status was reversed more frequently in the placebo group.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: FMT was safe but did not offer clinically meaningful improvements. Further studies-for example, through modified FMT approaches or bowel cleansing-are warranted regarding the specific impact of donor microbiota composition and dysbiosis conversion on motor and nonmotor outcomes as well as medication needs in PD.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04854291.},
}
@article {pmid39069614,
year = {2024},
author = {Dwaraka, VB and Aronica, L and Carreras-Gallo, N and Robinson, JL and Hennings, T and Carter, MM and Corley, MJ and Lin, A and Turner, L and Smith, R and Mendez, TL and Went, H and Ebel, ER and Sonnenburg, ED and Sonnenburg, JL and Gardner, CD},
title = {Unveiling the epigenetic impact of vegan vs. omnivorous diets on aging: insights from the Twins Nutrition Study (TwiNS).},
journal = {BMC medicine},
volume = {22},
number = {1},
pages = {301},
pmid = {39069614},
issn = {1741-7015},
mesh = {Humans ; *Epigenesis, Genetic ; *Diet, Vegan ; Female ; *DNA Methylation ; Male ; *Aging/genetics ; Middle Aged ; Aged ; Diet ; Twins/genetics ; Diet, Vegetarian ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Geroscience focuses on interventions to mitigate molecular changes associated with aging. Lifestyle modifications, medications, and social factors influence the aging process, yet the complex molecular mechanisms require an in-depth exploration of the epigenetic landscape. The specific epigenetic clock and predictor effects of a vegan diet, compared to an omnivorous diet, remain underexplored despite potential impacts on aging-related outcomes.
METHODS: This study examined the impact of an entirely plant-based or healthy omnivorous diet over 8 weeks on blood DNA methylation in paired twins. Various measures of epigenetic age acceleration (PC GrimAge, PC PhenoAge, DunedinPACE) were assessed, along with system-specific effects (Inflammation, Heart, Hormone, Liver, and Metabolic). Methylation surrogates of clinical, metabolite, and protein markers were analyzed to observe diet-specific shifts.
RESULTS: Distinct responses were observed, with the vegan cohort exhibiting significant decreases in overall epigenetic age acceleration, aligning with anti-aging effects of plant-based diets. Diet-specific shifts were noted in the analysis of methylation surrogates, demonstrating the influence of diet on complex trait prediction through DNA methylation markers. An epigenome-wide analysis revealed differentially methylated loci specific to each diet, providing insights into the affected pathways.
CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that a short-term vegan diet is associated with epigenetic age benefits and reduced calorie intake. The use of epigenetic biomarker proxies (EBPs) highlights their potential for assessing dietary impacts and facilitating personalized nutrition strategies for healthy aging. Future research should explore the long-term effects of vegan diets on epigenetic health and overall well-being, considering the importance of proper nutrient supplementation.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT05297825.},
}
@article {pmid39069097,
year = {2024},
author = {Skolnick, S},
title = {Prospecting for para-endogenous anxiolytics in the human microbiome: Some promising pathways.},
journal = {Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior},
volume = {244},
number = {},
pages = {173842},
doi = {10.1016/j.pbb.2024.173842},
pmid = {39069097},
issn = {1873-5177},
mesh = {Humans ; *Anti-Anxiety Agents/pharmacology/therapeutic use ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects ; Anxiety Disorders/drug therapy/microbiology/metabolism ; Pregnanolone/therapeutic use/pharmacology ; Animals ; Anxiety/drug therapy/microbiology ; },
abstract = {The gut microbiome is a vast, variable, and largely unexplored component of human biology that sits at the intersection of heritable and environmental factors, and represents a rich source of novel chemistry that is already known to be compatible with the human body. This alone would make it a promising place to search for new therapeutics, but recent work has also identified gut microbiome abnormalities in patients with a number of psychiatric disorders, including anxiety disorders-suggesting that not only treatments, but cures may lie therein. Here, we'll discuss two known "para-endogenous" anxiolytics-γ-hydroxybutyrate and the neurosteroid allopregnanolone-which have recently been discovered to be produced by the microbiome.},
}
@article {pmid39068184,
year = {2024},
author = {de Jonge, PA and van den Born, BH and Zwinderman, AH and Nieuwdorp, M and Dutilh, BE and Herrema, H},
title = {Phylogeny and disease associations of a widespread and ancient intestinal bacteriophage lineage.},
journal = {Nature communications},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {6346},
pmid = {39068184},
issn = {2041-1723},
support = {955974//EC | Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation H2020)/ ; 955974//EC | Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation H2020)/ ; 0915018201002//ZonMw (Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development)/ ; 015.017.050//ZonMw (Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development)/ ; 390713860//Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation)/ ; 2019.82.004//Diabetes Fonds (Dutch Diabetes Research Foundation)/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Phylogeny ; *Bacteriophages/genetics/isolation & purification/classification ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; Genome, Viral/genetics ; Metagenome/genetics ; Virome/genetics ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/virology ; Biodiversity ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/virology ; Female ; Male ; Europe ; Netherlands ; Adult ; },
abstract = {Viruses are core components of the human microbiome, impacting health through interactions with gut bacteria and the immune system. Most human microbiome viruses are bacteriophages, which exclusively infect bacteria. Until recently, most gut virome studies focused on low taxonomic resolution (e.g., viral operational taxonomic units), hampering population-level analyses. We previously identified an expansive and widespread bacteriophage lineage in inhabitants of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Here, we study their biodiversity and evolution in various human populations. Based on a phylogeny using sequences from six viral genome databases, we propose the Candidatus order Heliusvirales. We identify heliusviruses in 82% of 5441 individuals across 39 studies, and in nine metagenomes from humans that lived in Europe and North America between 1000 and 5000 years ago. We show that a large lineage started to diversify when Homo sapiens first appeared some 300,000 years ago. Ancient peoples and modern hunter-gatherers have distinct Ca. Heliusvirales populations with lower richness than modern urbanized people. Urbanized people suffering from type 1 and type 2 diabetes, as well as inflammatory bowel disease, have higher Ca. Heliusvirales richness than healthy controls. We thus conclude that these ancient core members of the human gut virome have thrived with increasingly westernized lifestyles.},
}
@article {pmid39066214,
year = {2024},
author = {Alipour-Khezri, E and Skurnik, M and Zarrini, G},
title = {Pseudomonas aeruginosa Bacteriophages and Their Clinical Applications.},
journal = {Viruses},
volume = {16},
number = {7},
pages = {},
pmid = {39066214},
issn = {1999-4915},
mesh = {*Pseudomonas aeruginosa/virology ; Humans ; *Pseudomonas Infections/microbiology/therapy ; *Phage Therapy ; *Cystic Fibrosis/microbiology ; *Pseudomonas Phages/genetics/physiology ; Animals ; Bacteriophages/physiology/genetics ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology/therapeutic use ; },
abstract = {Antimicrobial resistance poses a serious risk to contemporary healthcare since it reduces the number of bacterial illnesses that may be treated with antibiotics, particularly for patients with long-term conditions like cystic fibrosis (CF). People with a genetic predisposition to CF often have recurrent bacterial infections in their lungs due to a buildup of sticky mucus, necessitating long-term antibiotic treatment. Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections are a major cause of CF lung illness, and P. aeruginosa airway isolates are frequently resistant to many antibiotics. Bacteriophages (also known as phages), viruses that infect bacteria, are a viable substitute for antimicrobials to treat P. aeruginosa infections in individuals with CF. Here, we reviewed the utilization of P. aeruginosa bacteriophages both in vivo and in vitro, as well as in the treatment of illnesses and diseases, and the outcomes of the latter.},
}
@article {pmid39065154,
year = {2024},
author = {Merra, G and Gualtieri, P and La Placa, G and Frank, G and Della Morte, D and De Lorenzo, A and Di Renzo, L},
title = {The Relationship between Exposome and Microbiome.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {12},
number = {7},
pages = {},
pmid = {39065154},
issn = {2076-2607},
abstract = {Currently, exposome studies include a raft of different monitoring tools, including remote sensors, smartphones, omics analyses, distributed lag models, etc. The similarity in structure between the exposome and the microbiota plus their functions led us to pose three pertinent questions from this viewpoint, looking at the actual relationship between the exposome and the microbiota. In terms of the exposome, a bistable equilibrium between health and disease depends on constantly dealing with an ever-changing totality of exposures that together shape an individual from conception to death. Regarding scientific knowledge, the exposome is still lagging in certain areas, like the importance of microorganisms in the equation. The human microbiome is defined as an aggregate assemblage of gut commensals that are hosted by our surfaces related to the external environment. Commensals' resistance to a variety of environmental exposures, such as antibiotic administration, confirms that a layer of these organisms is protected within the host. The exposome is a conceptual framework defined as the environmental component of the science-inspired systems ideology that shifts from a specificity-based medical approach to reasoning in terms of complexity. A parallel concept in population health research and precision public health is the human flourishing index, which aims to account for the numerous environmental factors that affect individual and population well-being beyond ambient pollution.},
}
@article {pmid39064765,
year = {2024},
author = {Bui, TPN},
title = {The Human Microbiome as a Therapeutic Target for Metabolic Diseases.},
journal = {Nutrients},
volume = {16},
number = {14},
pages = {},
pmid = {39064765},
issn = {2072-6643},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology/drug effects ; *Metabolic Diseases/microbiology/therapy ; Symbiosis ; Dysbiosis ; Probiotics/therapeutic use ; Host Microbial Interactions/physiology ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome functions as a separate organ in a symbiotic relationship with the host. Disruption of this host-microbe symbiosis can lead to serious health problems. Modifications to the composition and function of the microbiome have been linked to changes in host metabolic outcomes. Industrial lifestyles with high consumption of processed foods, alcoholic beverages and antibiotic use have significantly altered the gut microbiome in unfavorable ways. Therefore, understanding the causal relationship between the human microbiome and host metabolism will provide important insights into how we can better intervene in metabolic health. In this review, I will discuss the potential use of the human microbiome as a therapeutic target to improve host metabolism.},
}
@article {pmid39063655,
year = {2024},
author = {Mpakosi, A and Sokou, R and Theodoraki, M and Kaliouli-Antonopoulou, C},
title = {Neonatal Gut Mycobiome: Immunity, Diversity of Fungal Strains, and Individual and Non-Individual Factors.},
journal = {Life (Basel, Switzerland)},
volume = {14},
number = {7},
pages = {},
pmid = {39063655},
issn = {2075-1729},
abstract = {The human gastrointestinal ecosystem, or microbiome (comprising the total bacterial genome in an environment), plays a crucial role in influencing host physiology, immune function, metabolism, and the gut-brain axis. While bacteria, fungi, viruses, and archaea are all present in the gastrointestinal ecosystem, research on the human microbiome has predominantly focused on the bacterial component. The colonization of the human intestine by microbes during the first two years of life significantly impacts subsequent composition and diversity, influencing immune system development and long-term health. Early-life exposure to pathogens is crucial for establishing immunological memory and acquired immunity. Factors such as maternal health habits, delivery mode, and breastfeeding duration contribute to gut dysbiosis. Despite fungi's critical role in health, particularly for vulnerable newborns, research on the gut mycobiome in infants and children remains limited. Understanding early-life factors shaping the gut mycobiome and its interactions with other microbial communities is a significant research challenge. This review explores potential factors influencing the gut mycobiome, microbial kingdom interactions, and their connections to health outcomes from childhood to adulthood. We identify gaps in current knowledge and propose future research directions in this complex field.},
}
@article {pmid39061954,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhao, Y and Li, C and Wu, K and Chen, H and Wang, Q and Xiao, Y and Yao, S and Hong, A and Zhang, M and Lei, S and Yang, W and Zhong, S and Umar, A and Huang, J and Yu, Z},
title = {Exploring the Impact of Short Term Travel on Gut Microbiota and Probiotic Bacteria Mediated Stability.},
journal = {Biomedicines},
volume = {12},
number = {7},
pages = {},
pmid = {39061954},
issn = {2227-9059},
support = {32170071//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 32300051//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 2023CXQD059//Central South University Innovation-Driven Research Programme/ ; },
abstract = {Although travelers are frequently accompanied by abdominal discomfort and even diarrhea, not every trip can cause this issue. Many studies have reported that intestinal microbes play an important role in it. However, little is known about the reason for the dynamics of these intestinal microbes. Here, we delved into the effects of short-term travel on the gut microbiota of 12 healthy individuals. A total of 72 fecal samples collected before and after one-week travel, alongside non-traveling controls, underwent amplicon sequencing and a series of bioinformatic analyses. We found that travel significantly increased intra-individual gut microbiota fluctuations without diarrhea symptoms. In addition, the initial composition of the gut microbiota before travel emerged as a crucial factor in understanding these fluctuations. Travelers with stable microbiota exhibited an enrichment of specific probiotic bacteria (Agathobaculum, Faecalibacterium, Bifidobacterium, Roseburia, Lactobacillus) before travel. Another batch of data validated their predictive role in distinguishing travelers with and without the gut microbial disorder. This work provided valuable insights into understanding the relationship between gut microbiota and travel. It offered a microbiota-centric perspective and a potential avenue for interventions to preserve gut health during travel.},
}
@article {pmid39061792,
year = {2024},
author = {D'Ambrosio, A and Altomare, A and Boscarino, T and Gori, M and Balestrieri, P and Putignani, L and Del Chierico, F and Carotti, S and Cicala, M and Guarino, MPL and Piemonte, V},
title = {Mathematical Modeling of Vedolizumab Treatment's Effect on Microbiota and Intestinal Permeability in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients.},
journal = {Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland)},
volume = {11},
number = {7},
pages = {},
pmid = {39061792},
issn = {2306-5354},
support = {N.A.//Takeda Italia S.p.A./ ; },
abstract = {Growing evidence suggests that impaired gut permeability and gut microbiota alterations are involved in the pathogenesis of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBDs), which include Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn's Disease (CD). Vedolizumab is an anti-α4β7 antibody approved for IBD treatment, used as the first treatment or second-line therapy when the first line results in inadequate effectiveness. The aim of this study is to develop a mathematical model capable of describing the pathophysiological mechanisms of Vedolizumab treatment in IBD patients. In particular, the relationship between drug concentration in the blood, colonic mucosal permeability and fecal microbiota composition was investigated and modeled to detect and predict trends in order to support and tailor Vedolizumab therapies. To pursue this aim, clinical data from a pilot study on a cluster of 11 IBD patients were analyzed. Enrolled patients underwent colonoscopy in three phases (before (t0), after 24 weeks of (t1) and after 52 weeks of (t2) Vedolizumab treatment) to collect mucosal biopsies for transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) evaluation (permeability to ions), intestinal permeability measurement and histological analysis. Moreover, fecal samples were collected for the intestinal microbiota analysis at the three time points. The collected data were compared to those of 11 healthy subjects at t0, who underwent colonoscopy for screening surveillance, and used to implement a three-compartmental mathematical model (comprising central blood, peripheral blood and the intestine). The latter extends previous evidence from the literature, based on the regression of experimental data, to link drug concentration in the peripheral blood compartment with Roseburia abundance and intestinal permeability. The clinical data showed that Vedolizumab treatment leads to an increase in TEER and a reduction in intestinal permeability to a paracellular probe, improving tissue inflammation status. Microbiota analysis showed increasing values of Roseburia, albeit not statistically significant. This trend was adequately reproduced by the mathematical model, which offers a useful tool to describe the pathophysiological effects of Vedolizumab therapy on colonic mucosal permeability and fecal microbiota composition. The model's satisfactory predictive capabilities and simplicity shed light on the relationship between the drug, the microbiota and permeability and allow for its straightforward extension to diverse therapeutic conditions.},
}
@article {pmid39053136,
year = {2024},
author = {Gholamzad, A and Khakpour, N and Hashemi, SMA and Goudarzi, Y and Ahmadi, P and Gholamzad, M and Mohammadi, M and Hashemi, M},
title = {Exploring the virome: An integral part of human health and disease.},
journal = {Pathology, research and practice},
volume = {260},
number = {},
pages = {155466},
doi = {10.1016/j.prp.2024.155466},
pmid = {39053136},
issn = {1618-0631},
mesh = {Humans ; *Virome ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/virology ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome is a complex network of microorganisms that includes viruses, bacteria, and fungi. The gut virome is an essential component of the immune system, which is responsible for regulating the growth and responses of the host's immune system. The virome maintains a crucial role in the development of numerous diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn's disease, and neurodegenerative disorders. The human virome has emerged as a promising biomarker and therapeutic target. This comprehensive review summarizes the present understanding of the virome and its implications in matters of health and disease, with a focus on the Human Microbiome Project.},
}
@article {pmid39043386,
year = {2024},
author = {Duller, S and Moissl-Eichinger, C},
title = {Archaea in the Human Microbiome and Potential Effects on Human Infectious Disease.},
journal = {Emerging infectious diseases},
volume = {30},
number = {8},
pages = {1505-1513},
pmid = {39043386},
issn = {1080-6059},
mesh = {Humans ; *Archaea/genetics ; *Microbiota ; Communicable Diseases/microbiology ; },
abstract = {Archaea represent a separate domain of life, next to bacteria and eukarya. As components of the human microbiome, archaea have been associated with various diseases, including periodontitis, endodontic infections, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, and urogenital tract infections. Archaea are generally considered nonpathogenic; the reasons are speculative because of limited knowledge and gene annotation challenges. Nevertheless, archaeal syntrophic principles that shape global microbial networks aid both archaea and potentially pathogenic bacteria. Evaluating archaea interactions remains challenging, requiring clinical studies on inflammatory potential and the effects of archaeal metabolism. Establishing a culture collection is crucial for investigating archaea functions within the human microbiome, which could improve health outcomes in infectious diseases. We summarize potential reasons for archaeal nonpathogenicity, assess the association with infectious diseases in humans, and discuss the necessary experimental steps to enable mechanistic studies involving archaea.},
}
@article {pmid39041015,
year = {2024},
author = {Brame, JE and Liddicoat, C and Abbott, CA and Cando-Dumancela, C and Fickling, NW and Robinson, JM and Breed, MF},
title = {Urban sports fields support higher levels of soil butyrate and butyrate-producing bacteria than urban nature parks.},
journal = {Ecology and evolution},
volume = {14},
number = {7},
pages = {e70057},
pmid = {39041015},
issn = {2045-7758},
abstract = {Butyrate-producing bacteria colonise the gut of humans and non-human animals, where they produce butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid with known health benefits. Butyrate-producing bacteria also reside in soils and soil bacteria can drive the assembly of airborne bacterial communities (the aerobiome). Aerobiomes in urban greenspaces are important reservoirs of butyrate-producing bacteria as they supplement the human microbiome, but soil butyrate producer communities have rarely been examined in detail. Here, we studied soil metagenome taxonomic and functional profiles and soil physicochemical data from two urban greenspace types: sports fields (n = 11) and nature parks (n = 22). We also developed a novel method to quantify soil butyrate and characterised the in situ activity of butyrate-producing bacteria. We show that soil butyrate was higher in sports fields than nature parks and that sports fields also had significantly higher relative abundances of the terminal butyrate production genes buk and butCoAT than nature parks. Soil butyrate positively correlated with buk gene abundance (but not butCoAT). Soil moisture (r = .50), calcium (r = -.62), iron (ρ = .54), ammonium nitrogen (ρ = .58) and organic carbon (r = .45) had the strongest soil abiotic effects on soil butyrate concentrations and iron (ρ = .56) and calcium (ρ = -.57) had the strongest soil abiotic effects on buk read abundances. Overall, our findings contribute important new insights into the role of sports fields as key exposure reservoirs of butyrate producing bacteria, with important implications for the provision of microbiome-mediated human health benefits via butyrate.},
}
@article {pmid39040076,
year = {2024},
author = {Onwuka, S and Bravo-Merodio, L and Gkoutos, GV and Acharjee, A},
title = {Explainable AI-prioritized plasma and fecal metabolites in inflammatory bowel disease and their dietary associations.},
journal = {iScience},
volume = {27},
number = {7},
pages = {110298},
pmid = {39040076},
issn = {2589-0042},
abstract = {Fecal metabolites effectively discriminate inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and show differential associations with diet. Metabolomics and AI-based models, including explainable AI (XAI), play crucial roles in understanding IBD. Using datasets from the UK Biobank and the Human Microbiome Project Phase II IBD Multi'omics Database (HMP2 IBDMDB), this study uses multiple machine learning (ML) classifiers and Shapley additive explanations (SHAP)-based XAI to prioritize plasma and fecal metabolites and analyze their diet correlations. Key findings include the identification of discriminative metabolites like glycoprotein acetyl and albumin in plasma, as well as nicotinic acid metabolites andurobilin in feces. Fecal metabolites provided a more robust disease predictor model (AUC [95%]: 0.93 [0.87-0.99]) compared to plasma metabolites (AUC [95%]: 0.74 [0.69-0.79]), with stronger and more group-differential diet-metabolite associations in feces. The study validates known metabolite associations and highlights the impact of IBD on the interplay between gut microbial metabolites and diet.},
}
@article {pmid39031651,
year = {2024},
author = {Liu, Y and Yang, H and Wang, P and Shi, Y and Shi, R and Zhang, S and Zhao, Y and Lan, J and Ge, S},
title = {Correlation between short-chain fatty acids and peri-implant disease: A cross-sectional study.},
journal = {Journal of periodontology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1002/JPER.23-0682},
pmid = {39031651},
issn = {1943-3670},
support = {82100977//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 2022LHM-KFKT004//Key Laboratory of Shaanxi Province for Craniofacial Precision Medicine Research/ ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: To explore the correlation between short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in the peri-implant sulcular fluid (PISF) and peri-implant diseases.
METHODS: PISF samples were obtained from implants that have been placed for at least 5 years, and peri-implant clinical parameters were examined. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and high-performance liquid chromatography were used to detect SCFAs in PISF. The correlation between SCFAs and clinical parameters was analyzed by Spearman's correlation. SCFAs related to peri-implant disease were identified by logistic regression and ranked by random forest analysis.
RESULTS: Eighty-six implants were divided into a peri-implant health group (PIH-group, 35 implants), peri-implant mucositis group (PIM-group, 25 implants), and peri-implantitis group (PI-group, 26 implants) according to clinical and radiographic examination results. The PIM-group had significantly lower formic acid detection rate than the other two groups (p < 0.001). The PIM-group had significantly higher levels of acetic, propionic, and isovaleric acids than the PIH-group (p < 0.05). The PI-group had significantly higher levels of propionic, butyric, isobutyric, valeric, and isovaleric acids than the PIH-group (p < 0.05). The PI-group had significantly higher levels of butyric, isobutyric, and isovaleric acids than the PIM-group (p < 0.05). SCFAs (apart from hexanoic and succinic acids) were significantly and positively correlated with clinical parameters (p < 0.05). SCFAs related to peri-implant disease were ranked as follows: butyric, isovaleric, isobutyric, propionic, acetic, formic, and lactic acids.
CONCLUSIONS: Elevated specific SCFAs are correlated with peri-implant disease. Recognition of this correlation may help in early identification of peri-implant disease and guide further clinical interventions.},
}
@article {pmid39030525,
year = {2024},
author = {Lu, L and Li, F and Gao, Y and Kang, S and Li, J and Guo, J},
title = {Microbiome in radiotherapy: an emerging approach to enhance treatment efficacy and reduce tissue injury.},
journal = {Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.)},
volume = {30},
number = {1},
pages = {105},
pmid = {39030525},
issn = {1528-3658},
support = {31920210037//Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities of the Central South University/ ; No. xbmuyjrc202217//Northwest Minzu University/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/radiation effects ; *Neoplasms/radiotherapy/microbiology/immunology/therapy ; *Probiotics/therapeutic use ; *Radiotherapy/adverse effects/methods ; Animals ; Microbiota/radiation effects ; Radiation Injuries/microbiology/therapy/etiology ; Treatment Outcome ; },
abstract = {Radiotherapy is a widely used cancer treatment that utilizes powerful radiation to destroy cancer cells and shrink tumors. While radiation can be beneficial, it can also harm the healthy tissues surrounding the tumor. Recent research indicates that the microbiota, the collection of microorganisms in our body, may play a role in influencing the effectiveness and side effects of radiation therapy. Studies have shown that specific species of bacteria living in the stomach can influence the immune system's response to radiation, potentially increasing the effectiveness of treatment. Additionally, the microbiota may contribute to adverse effects like radiation-induced diarrhea. A potential strategy to enhance radiotherapy outcomes and capitalize on the microbiome involves using probiotics. Probiotics are living microorganisms that offer health benefits when consumed in sufficient quantities. Several studies have indicated that probiotics have the potential to alter the composition of the gut microbiota, resulting in an enhanced immune response to radiation therapy and consequently improving the efficacy of the treatment. It is important to note that radiation can disrupt the natural balance of gut bacteria, resulting in increased intestinal permeability and inflammatory conditions. These disruptions can lead to adverse effects such as diarrhea and damage to the intestinal lining. The emerging field of radiotherapy microbiome research offers a promising avenue for optimizing cancer treatment outcomes. This paper aims to provide an overview of the human microbiome and its role in augmenting radiation effectiveness while minimizing damage.},
}
@article {pmid39030408,
year = {2024},
author = {Gilbert, JA and Hartmann, EM},
title = {The indoors microbiome and human health.},
journal = {Nature reviews. Microbiology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39030408},
issn = {1740-1534},
abstract = {Indoor environments serve as habitat for humans and are replete with various reservoirs and niches for microorganisms. Microorganisms enter indoor spaces with their human and non-human hosts, as well as via exchange with outdoor sources, such as ventilation and plumbing. Once inside, many microorganisms do not survive, especially on dry, barren surfaces. Even reduced, this microbial biomass has critical implications for the health of human occupants. As urbanization escalates, exploring the intersection of the indoor environment with the human microbiome and health is increasingly vital. The indoor microbiome, a complex ecosystem of microorganisms influenced by human activities and environmental factors, plays a pivotal role in modulating infectious diseases and fostering healthy immune development. Recent advancements in microbiome research shed light on this unique ecological system, highlighting the need for innovative approaches in creating health-promoting living spaces. In this Review, we explore the microbial ecology of built environments - places where humans spend most of their lives - and its implications for immune, endocrine and neurological health. We further propose strategies to harness the indoor microbiome for better health outcomes.},
}
@article {pmid39026867,
year = {2024},
author = {Rudzite, M and O'Toole, GA},
title = {An energy coupling factor transporter of Streptococcus sanguinis impacts antibiotic susceptibility as well as metal and membrane homeostasis.},
journal = {bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {39026867},
issn = {2692-8205},
support = {P30 CA023108/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; R01 AI155424/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {Streptococcus sanguinis is a prevalent member of human microbiome capable of acting as a causative agent of oral and respiratory infections. S. sanguinis competitive success within the infection niche is dependent on acquisition of metal ions and vitamins. Among the systems that bacteria use for micronutrient uptake is the energy coupling factor (ECF) transporter system EcfAAT. Here we describe physiological changes arising from EcfAAT transporter disruption. We found that EcfAAT contributes to S. sanguinis antibiotic sensitivity as well as metal and membrane homeostasis. Specifically, our work found that disruption of EcfAAT results in increased polymyxin susceptibility. We performed assessment of cell-associated metal content and found depletion of iron, magnesium, and manganese. Furthermore, membrane composition analysis revealed significant enrichment in unsaturated fatty acid species resulting in increased membrane fluidity. Our results demonstrate how disruption of a single EcfAAT transporter can have broad consequences on bacterial cell homeostasis. ECF transporters are of interest within the context of infection biology in bacterial species other than streptococci, hence work described here will further the understanding of how micronutrient uptake systems contribute to bacterial pathogenesis.},
}
@article {pmid39026688,
year = {2024},
author = {Agnew, A and Humm, E and Zhou, K and Gunsalus, RP and Zhou, ZH},
title = {Reconstruction and identification of the native PLP synthase complex from Methanosarcina acetivorans lysate.},
journal = {bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1101/2024.07.09.602819},
pmid = {39026688},
issn = {2692-8205},
abstract = {Many protein-protein interactions behave differently in biochemically purified forms as compared to their in vivo states. As such, determining native protein structures may elucidate structural states previously unknown for even well-characterized proteins. Here we apply the bottom-up structural proteomics method, cryoID , toward a model methanogenic archaeon. While they are keystone organisms in the global carbon cycle and active members of the human microbiome, there is a general lack of characterization of methanogen enzyme structure and function. Through the cryoID approach, we successfully reconstructed and identified the native Methanosarcina acetivorans pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) synthase (PdxS) complex directly from cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM) images of fractionated cellular lysate. We found that the native PdxS complex exists as a homo-dodecamer of PdxS subunits, and the previously proposed supracomplex containing both the synthase (PdxS) and glutaminase (PdxT) was not observed in cellular lysate. Our structure shows that the native PdxS monomer fashions a single 8α/8β TIM-barrel domain, surrounded by seven additional helices to mediate solvent and interface contacts. A density is present at the active site in the cryoEM map and is interpreted as ribose 5-phosphate. In addition to being the first reconstruction of the PdxS enzyme from a heterogeneous cellular sample, our results reveal a departure from previously published archaeal PdxS crystal structures, lacking the 37 amino acid insertion present in these prior cases. This study demonstrates the potential of applying the cryoID workflow to capture native structural states at atomic resolution for archaeal systems, for which traditional biochemical sample preparation is nontrivial.},
}
@article {pmid39023173,
year = {2024},
author = {Ivashkin, V and Maev, I and Poluektova, E and Sinitsa, A and Avalueva, E and Mnatsakanyan, M and Simanenkov, V and Karpeeva, J and Kopylova, D and Kuprina, I and Kucheryavyy, Y and Lapina, T and Solovyeva, O and Soom, M and Cheremushkina, N and Maevskaya, E and Maslennikov, R},
title = {Efficacy and Safety of Postbiotic Contained Inactivated Lactobacillus reuteri (Limosilactobacillus reuteri) DSM 17648 as Adjuvant Therapy in the Eradication of Helicobacter pylori in Adults With Functional Dyspepsia: A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial.},
journal = {Clinical and translational gastroenterology},
volume = {15},
number = {9},
pages = {e1},
pmid = {39023173},
issn = {2155-384X},
mesh = {Humans ; Double-Blind Method ; *Limosilactobacillus reuteri ; *Dyspepsia/microbiology/diagnosis/drug therapy/therapy ; Male ; Female ; *Helicobacter Infections/drug therapy/diagnosis/therapy/microbiology ; Adult ; *Helicobacter pylori/isolation & purification ; *Probiotics/administration & dosage/adverse effects/therapeutic use ; Middle Aged ; *Amoxicillin/administration & dosage/adverse effects/therapeutic use ; *Clarithromycin/administration & dosage/therapeutic use/adverse effects ; *Drug Therapy, Combination ; Treatment Outcome ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/adverse effects/administration & dosage/therapeutic use ; *Quality of Life ; Esomeprazole/administration & dosage/adverse effects/therapeutic use ; Young Adult ; },
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Increasing the effectiveness of eradication therapy is an important task in gastroenterology. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of postbiotic containing inactivated (nonviable) Limosilactobacillus (Lactobacillus) reuteri DSM 17648 (Pylopass) as adjuvant treatment of Helicobacter pylori eradication in patients with functional dyspepsia (FD).
METHODS: This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, parallel study included H. pylori -positive patients with FD. The postbiotic group received Pylopass 200 mg bid for 14 days in combination with eradication therapy (esomeprazole 20 mg bid + amoxicillin 1,000 mg bid + clarithromycin 500 mg bid for 14 days) and another 14 days after the completion of eradication therapy. The study was registered in the ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN20716052).
RESULTS: Eradication efficiency was 96.7% for the postbiotic group vs 86.0% for the placebo group (P = 0.039). Both groups showed significant improvements in quality of life and reduction of most gastrointestinal symptoms with no significant differences between groups. The overall number of digestive adverse effects in the postbiotic group was lower than in the placebo group. Serious adverse effects were not registered.
DISCUSSION: The postbiotic containing inactivated L. reuteri DSM 17648 significantly improves the effectiveness of H. pylori eradication therapy in FD and decreases overall number of digestive adverse effects of this therapy.},
}
@article {pmid39022135,
year = {2020},
author = {Jiang, J and Warren, CM and Browning, RL and Ciaccio, CE and Gupta, RS},
title = {Food allergy epidemiology and racial and/or ethnic differences.},
journal = {Journal of food allergy},
volume = {2},
number = {1},
pages = {11-16},
pmid = {39022135},
issn = {2689-0275},
abstract = {In recent decades, immunoglobulin E (IgE) mediated food allergy has become a growing public health concern. Converging evidence from cross-sectional prevalence studies, health care utilization records, and cohort studies indicate that food allergies are increasingly prevalent and often severe. Although IgE-mediated food allergy has long been considered a predominantly pediatric concern, analysis of recent self-reported data suggests that food allergies may be more prevalent among adult populations than previously acknowledged, with many reported cases of adult-onset allergies as well as persistent childhood-onset allergies. Results of studies also suggest that food allergy-related health care utilization is increasing as more individuals seek emergency treatment for food-induced anaphylaxis. Analysis of epidemiologic data also indicates that the burden of food allergies is unequally distributed. Published prevalence rates are highest in Western countries, e.g., the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Within these countries, there also is heterogeneity across racial and/or ethnic groups, with non-White and second-generation immigrant populations disproportionately affected. Importantly, such observations can shed light on the etiology of food allergy and inform improved clinical management, treatment, and prevention efforts. For example, there is a growing consensus that earlier introduction of allergenic foods, e.g., peanut, promotes oral tolerance and can dramatically reduce food allergy risk. In addition, much attention has been paid to the potentially deleterious effects of cutaneous allergen exposure, e.g., through eczematous skin, which can skew the immune response away from tolerance and toward allergic sensitization, thereby increasing food allergy risk. Furthermore, there is a growing appreciation for the potential protective effects of diverse microbial exposures, given mounting evidence for the immunomodulatory effects of the human microbiome. Also, when considering the geographic variability in the prevalence of certain food and environmental allergies as well as their structural similarities at the molecular level, it is believed that co-sensitization between food and environmental allergens may be a key driver of rising food allergy prevalence.},
}
@article {pmid39015605,
year = {2024},
author = {Sermsaksasithorn, P and Asawanonda, P and Phutrakool, P and Ondee, T and Chariyavilaskul, P and Payungporn, S and Pongpirul, K and Hirankarn, N},
title = {Efficacy and Safety of Cannabis Transdermal Patch for Alleviating Psoriasis Symptoms: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial (CanPatch).},
journal = {Medical cannabis and cannabinoids},
volume = {7},
number = {1},
pages = {99-110},
pmid = {39015605},
issn = {2504-3889},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Current topical treatments for psoriasis offer limited efficacy and are associated with long-term adverse effects in a subset of patients, highlighting the need for new therapeutic options. Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive cannabinoid derived from Cannabis sativa L., has shown potential in reversing psoriasis pathology through its action on skin receptors in preclinical studies. Given the promising properties of CBD, transdermal patches containing this compound represent a novel approach to psoriasis treatment. However, comprehensive data on their efficacy and safety remain scarce.
METHODS: We outline a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to assess the efficacy and safety of CBD transdermal patches with minimal tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in 60 patients with mild to moderate plaque-type psoriasis at a university hospital in Thailand (n = 60). This study aims to evaluate the changes in the local psoriasis severity index (LPSI), itch score via a visual analog scale, and occurrence of adverse events on day 0, 30, 60, and 90 of the study. Additionally, we will examine the alteration in the skin, gut, and oral microbiome in a subset of participants to explore potential correlations with treatment outcomes. The primary outcome will focus on the difference in LPSI scores at the end of the study period, employing an intention-to-treat analysis. Multivariate logistic regression will be used to identify baseline clinical and microbiological predictors of treatment response.
CONCLUSION: This study aims to investigate the efficacy and safety of CBD transdermal patches in alleviating the symptoms of psoriasis. The results of this study may highlight a novel topical treatment option that reduces suffering in patients with psoriasis. We also designed to provide a holistic evaluation by considering both clinical outcomes and the underlying biological mechanisms, including the interaction with the human microbiome. Through this trial, we aim to contribute valuable insights into personalized psoriasis management strategies.},
}
@article {pmid39013264,
year = {2024},
author = {Kim, J and Park, S and Kim, SJ and Yoo, I and Kim, H and Hwang, S and Sim, KM and Kim, I and Jun, E},
title = {High-throughput drug screening using a library of antibiotics targeting cancer cell lines that are resistant and sensitive to gemcitabine.},
journal = {Biochemical and biophysical research communications},
volume = {730},
number = {},
pages = {150369},
doi = {10.1016/j.bbrc.2024.150369},
pmid = {39013264},
issn = {1090-2104},
mesh = {*Gemcitabine ; *Deoxycytidine/analogs & derivatives/pharmacology ; Humans ; *High-Throughput Screening Assays/methods ; *Drug Resistance, Neoplasm/drug effects ; Cell Line, Tumor ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; *Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor/methods ; Puromycin/pharmacology ; Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic/pharmacology ; Drug Synergism ; Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacology ; Small Molecule Libraries/pharmacology ; },
abstract = {Gemcitabine is a nucleoside analog widely used as an anticancer agent against several types of cancer. Although gemcitabine sometimes shows excellent effectiveness, cancer cells are often poorly responsive to or resistant to the drug. Recently, specific strains or dysbiosis of the human microbiome were correlated with drug reactivity and resistance acquisition. Therefore, we aimed to identify antibiotic compounds that can modulate the microbiome to enhance the responsiveness to gemcitabine. To achieve this, we confirmed the gemcitabine responsiveness based on public data and conducted drug screening on a set of 250 antibiotics compounds. Subsequently, we performed experiments to investigate whether the selected compounds could enhance the responsiveness to gemcitabine. First, we grouped a total of seven tumor cell lines into resistant and sensitive group based on the IC50 value (1 μM) of gemcitabine obtained from the public data. Second, we performed high-throughput screening with compound treatments, identifying seven compounds from the resistant group and five from the sensitive group based on dose dependency. Finally, the combination of the selected compound, puromycin dihydrochloride, with gemcitabine in gemcitabine-resistant cell lines resulted in extensive cell death and a significant increase in cytotoxic efficacy. Additionally, mRNA levels associated with cell viability and stemness were reduced. Through this study, we screened antibiotics to further improve the efficacy of existing anticancer drugs and overcome resistance. By combining existing anticancer agents and antibiotic substances, we hope to establish various drug combination therapies and ultimately improve cancer treatment efficacy.},
}
@article {pmid39011022,
year = {2024},
author = {Sarkar, P and Chintaluri, S and Sarkar, S and Unnisa, M and Jakkampudi, A and Mulukutla, AP and Kumari, S and Reddy, DN and Talukdar, R},
title = {Evaluation of the Crosstalk Between the Host Mycobiome and Bacteriome in Patients with Chronic Pancreatitis.},
journal = {Indian journal of microbiology},
volume = {64},
number = {2},
pages = {603-617},
pmid = {39011022},
issn = {0046-8991},
abstract = {UNLABELLED: The human microbiome is a diverse consortium of microbial kingdoms that play pivotal roles in host health and diseases. We previously reported a dysbiotic bacteriome in chronic pancreatitis patients with diabetes (CPD) compared with patients with it's nondiabetic (CPND) phenotype. In this study, we extended our exploration to elucidate the intricate interactions between the mycobiome, bacteriome, and hosts' plasma metabolome with the disease phenotypes. A total of 25 participants (CPD, n = 7; CPND, n = 10; healthy control, n = 8) were recruited for the study. We observed elevated species richness in both the bacterial and fungal profiles within the CP diabetic cohort compared to the nondiabetic CP phenotype and healthy control cohorts. Notably, the CP group displayed heterogeneous fungal diversity, with only 40% of the CP nondiabetic patients and 20% of the CP diabetic patients exhibiting common core gut fungal profiles. Specific microbial taxa alterations were identified, including a reduction in Bifidobacterium adolescentis and an increase in the prevalence of Aspergillus penicilloides and Klebsiella sp. in the disease groups. In silico analysis revealed the enrichment of pathways related to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), apoptosis, and peptidase, as well as reduced counts of the genes responsible for carbohydrate metabolism in the CP groups. Additionally, distinct plasma metabolome signatures were observed, with CPD group exhibiting higher concentrations of sugars and glycerolipids, while the CPND cohort displayed elevated levels of amino acids in their blood. The fatty acid-binding protein (FABP) concentration was notably greater in the CPD group than in the HC group (4.220 vs. 1.10 ng/ml, p = 0.04). Furthermore, compared with healthy controls, disease groups exhibited fewer correlations between key fungal taxa (Aspergillus sp., Candida sp.) and bacterial taxa (Prevotella copri, Bifidobacteria sp., Rumminococcaceae). Our study unveils, for the first time, a dysbiotic mycobiome and emphasizes unique host bacterial-mycobial interactions in CP patient with diabetes, potentially influencing disease severity. These findings provide crucial insights for future mechanistic studies aiming to unravel the determinants of disease severity in this complex clinical context.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12088-024-01207-8.},
}
@article {pmid39009231,
year = {2024},
author = {Réthi-Nagy, Z and Juhász, S},
title = {Microbiome's Universe: Impact on health, disease and cancer treatment.},
journal = {Journal of biotechnology},
volume = {392},
number = {},
pages = {161-179},
doi = {10.1016/j.jbiotec.2024.07.002},
pmid = {39009231},
issn = {1873-4863},
mesh = {Humans ; *Neoplasms/therapy/microbiology ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Probiotics/therapeutic use ; *Fecal Microbiota Transplantation/methods ; Dysbiosis/microbiology/therapy ; Microbiota ; Animals ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome is a diverse ecosystem of microorganisms that reside in the body and influence various aspects of health and well-being. Recent advances in sequencing technology have brought to light microbial communities in organs and tissues that were previously considered sterile. The gut microbiota plays an important role in host physiology, including metabolic functions and immune modulation. Disruptions in the balance of the microbiome, known as dysbiosis, have been linked to diseases such as cancer, inflammatory bowel disease and metabolic disorders. In addition, the administration of antibiotics can lead to dysbiosis by disrupting the structure and function of the gut microbial community. Targeting strategies are the key to rebalancing the microbiome and fighting disease, including cancer, through interventions such as probiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), and bacteria-based therapies. Future research must focus on understanding the complex interactions between diet, the microbiome and cancer in order to optimize personalized interventions. Multidisciplinary collaborations are essential if we are going to translate microbiome research into clinical practice. This will revolutionize approaches to cancer prevention and treatment.},
}
@article {pmid39006241,
year = {2024},
author = {Hu, Y and Zhang, R and Li, J and Wang, H and Wang, M and Ren, Q and Fang, Y and Tian, L},
title = {Association Between Gut and Nasal Microbiota and Allergic Rhinitis: A Systematic Review.},
journal = {Journal of asthma and allergy},
volume = {17},
number = {},
pages = {633-651},
pmid = {39006241},
issn = {1178-6965},
abstract = {Allergic rhinitis is a chronic non-infectious inflammation of the nasal mucosa mediated by specific IgE. Recently, the human microbiome has drawn broad interest as a potential new target for treating this condition. This paper succinctly summarizes the main findings of 17 eligible studies published by February 2024, involving 1044 allergic rhinitis patients and 954 healthy controls from 5 countries. These studies examine differences in the human microbiome across important mucosal interfaces, including the nasal and intestinal areas, between patients and controls. Overall, findings suggest variations in the gut microbiota between allergic rhinitis patients and healthy individuals, although the specific bacterial taxa that significantly changed were not always consistent across studies. Due to the limited scope of existing research and patient coverage, the relationship between the nasal microbiome and allergic rhinitis remains inconclusive. The article discusses the potential immune-regulating role of the gut microbiome in allergic rhinitis. Further well-designed clinical trials with large-scale recruitment of allergic rhinitis patients are encouraged.},
}
@article {pmid39002973,
year = {2024},
author = {Vich Vila, A and Zhang, J and Liu, M and Faber, KN and Weersma, RK},
title = {Untargeted faecal metabolomics for the discovery of biomarkers and treatment targets for inflammatory bowel diseases.},
journal = {Gut},
volume = {73},
number = {11},
pages = {1909-1920},
pmid = {39002973},
issn = {1468-3288},
mesh = {Humans ; *Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/metabolism ; *Metabolomics/methods ; *Feces/chemistry/microbiology ; *Biomarkers/metabolism/analysis ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; Bile Acids and Salts/metabolism ; },
abstract = {The gut microbiome has been recognised as a key component in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), and the wide range of metabolites produced by gut bacteria are an important mechanism by which the human microbiome interacts with host immunity or host metabolism. High-throughput metabolomic profiling and novel computational approaches now allow for comprehensive assessment of thousands of metabolites in diverse biomaterials, including faecal samples. Several groups of metabolites, including short-chain fatty acids, tryptophan metabolites and bile acids, have been associated with IBD. In this Recent Advances article, we describe the contribution of metabolomics research to the field of IBD, with a focus on faecal metabolomics. We discuss the latest findings on the significance of these metabolites for IBD prognosis and therapeutic interventions and offer insights into the future directions of metabolomics research.},
}
@article {pmid38997154,
year = {2024},
author = {Rysbekov, K and Abrakhmanova, S and Satybaeva, R and Starosvetova, Y and Kushugulova, A},
title = {Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy for children.},
journal = {Drug metabolism and personalized therapy},
volume = {39},
number = {2},
pages = {59-67},
pmid = {38997154},
issn = {2363-8915},
mesh = {Humans ; *Helicobacter Infections/drug therapy ; *Helicobacter pylori/drug effects/isolation & purification ; Child ; Male ; Female ; *Drug Therapy, Combination ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/administration & dosage/therapeutic use ; *Vitamin D/administration & dosage/blood ; Adolescent ; Treatment Outcome ; Proton Pump Inhibitors/administration & dosage/therapeutic use ; Child, Preschool ; Amoxicillin/administration & dosage/therapeutic use ; },
abstract = {OBJECTIVES: The research aims to investigate the effect of vitamin D supplementation on the efficacy of Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy and to find new drug combinations for the eradication of the bacterium.
METHODS: A total of 128 children participated in the research. They were distributed under the following criteria: group A were children who tested positive for H. pylori and were treated with the standard so-called triple therapy including vitamin D; group B were children who tested positive for H. pylori and received the standard triple therapy without including vitamin D in the treatment; and group C were children who tested negative for H. pylori. After endoscopic examination, additional venous blood samples were taken from the children to determine vitamin D levels. A controlled study was carried out 45 days after the initial treatment.
RESULTS: The overall success rate of eradication therapy was 84.1 %. In group A, the success rate of treatment was 93.5 %, contrary to group B, where the success rate was 75 %. Although there was a difference in the percentage of H. pylori eradication therapy in the main group compared to the control group, there was no significant difference in group B. The success rate of eradication is p=0.082.
CONCLUSIONS: Following the research results, the addition of vitamin D to the standard triple therapy regimen for H. pylori had no effect. It can therefore be concluded that vitamin D does not significantly increase the efficacy of eradication therapy.},
}
@article {pmid38996003,
year = {2024},
author = {Byndloss, M and Devkota, S and Duca, F and Hendrik Niess, J and Nieuwdorp, M and Orho-Melander, M and Sanz, Y and Tremaroli, V and Zhao, L},
title = {The Gut Microbiota and Diabetes: Research, Translation, and Clinical Applications-2023 Diabetes, Diabetes Care, and Diabetologia Expert Forum.},
journal = {Diabetes care},
volume = {47},
number = {9},
pages = {1491-1508},
pmid = {38996003},
issn = {1935-5548},
support = {DP1 DK130687/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; R01 DK123446/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; R01 DK131104/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; //Novo Nordisk/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; *Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/microbiology ; Diabetes Mellitus/microbiology ; },
abstract = {This article summarizes the state of the science on the role of the gut microbiota (GM) in diabetes from a recent international expert forum organized by Diabetes, Diabetes Care, and Diabetologia, which was held at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes 2023 Annual Meeting in Hamburg, Germany. Forum participants included clinicians and basic scientists who are leading investigators in the field of the intestinal microbiome and metabolism. Their conclusions were as follows: 1) the GM may be involved in the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes, as microbially produced metabolites associate both positively and negatively with the disease, and mechanistic links of GM functions (e.g., genes for butyrate production) with glucose metabolism have recently emerged through the use of Mendelian randomization in humans; 2) the highly individualized nature of the GM poses a major research obstacle, and large cohorts and a deep-sequencing metagenomic approach are required for robust assessments of associations and causation; 3) because single-time point sampling misses intraindividual GM dynamics, future studies with repeated measures within individuals are needed; and 4) much future research will be required to determine the applicability of this expanding knowledge to diabetes diagnosis and treatment, and novel technologies and improved computational tools will be important to achieve this goal.},
}
@article {pmid38992611,
year = {2024},
author = {Chen, L and Li, Q and Huang, X and Li, Z},
title = {Association between sleep duration and possible sarcopenia in middle-aged and elderly Chinese individuals: evidence from the China health and retirement longitudinal study.},
journal = {BMC geriatrics},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
pages = {594},
pmid = {38992611},
issn = {1471-2318},
support = {2021B1515140026//The Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Fund Local Incubation Projects/ ; 20211800904952//Dongguan City Social Science and Technology Development Project (Key)/ ; 202206010142//The Key Project of Guangzhou Science and Technology Program, China/ ; 2023B1212060018//The Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China/ ; },
mesh = {Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; China/epidemiology ; East Asian People ; Longitudinal Studies ; Prevalence ; *Sarcopenia/epidemiology/diagnosis/physiopathology ; *Sleep Duration ; Time Factors ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia is a common cause of disability in the aging population, and managing sarcopenia is an important step in building intrinsic capacity and promoting healthy aging. A growing body of evidence suggests that sleep deprivation may be a mediator of the development of sarcopenia. The purpose of this study was to explore the longitudinal association between sleep duration and possible sarcopenia using data from a national sample.
METHODS: Two waves of data from the CHARLS database for 2011 and 2015 were used in this study. All possible sarcopenia participants met the Asia Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019 (AWGS 2019) diagnostic criteria. Sleep duration was assessed using a self-report questionnaire, and sleep duration was categorized as short (≤ 6 h), medium (6-8 h), or long (> 8 h) based on previous studies. Longitudinal associations between sleep duration and possible sarcopenia will be calculated by univariate and multifactorial logistic regression analyses and expressed as odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
RESULTS: A total of 5654 individuals participated in the follow-up study, with a prevalence of possible sarcopenia of 53.72% (578) in the short sleep duration group, 38.29% (412) in the medium sleep duration group, and 7.99% (86) in the long sleep duration group. According to the crude model of the second-wave follow-up study, short sleep durations were significantly more strongly associated with possible sarcopenia than were medium and long sleep durations (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.17-1.55, P = 0.000). The association between short sleep duration and possible sarcopenia was maintained even after adjustment for covariates such as age, gender, residence, education level, BMI, smoking status, alcohol consumption and comorbidities (OR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.02-1.36, P = 0.029). In the subgroup analysis, short sleep duration was associated with low grip strength (OR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.02-1.41, P = 0.031).
CONCLUSIONS: Sleep deprivation may be closely associated with the development of possible sarcopenia in middle-aged and elderly people, which provides new insights and ideas for sarcopenia intervention, and further studies are needed to reveal the underlying mechanisms involved.},
}
@article {pmid38987933,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhao, Y and Bitzer, A and Power, JJ and Belikova, D and Torres Salazar, BO and Adolf, LA and Gerlach, D and Krismer, B and Heilbronner, S},
title = {Nasal commensals reduce Staphylococcus aureus proliferation by restricting siderophore availability.},
journal = {The ISME journal},
volume = {18},
number = {1},
pages = {},
pmid = {38987933},
issn = {1751-7370},
support = {TTU 08.708_00//German Center of Infection Research/ ; //Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft/ ; //German Research Foundation/ ; 2124-390838134/EXC-2124/1-05.002_0//Germany's Excellence Strategy-EXC/ ; 8180207//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; PRJNA1028639//NCBI/ ; },
mesh = {*Siderophores/metabolism ; *Staphylococcus aureus/metabolism/growth & development ; Humans ; Animals ; *Staphylococcal Infections/microbiology ; Microbiota ; Mice ; Nasal Cavity/microbiology ; Iron/metabolism ; Symbiosis ; Microbial Interactions ; Bacteria/metabolism/classification/growth & development ; Nose/microbiology ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome is critically associated with human health and disease. One aspect of this is that antibiotic-resistant opportunistic bacterial pathogens, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, can reside within the nasal microbiota, which increases the risk of infection. Epidemiological studies of the nasal microbiome have revealed positive and negative correlations between non-pathogenic species and S. aureus, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. The nasal cavity is iron-limited, and bacteria are known to produce iron-scavenging siderophores to proliferate in such environments. Siderophores are public goods that can be consumed by all members of a bacterial community. Accordingly, siderophores are known to mediate bacterial competition and collaboration, but their role in the nasal microbiome is unknown. Here, we show that siderophore acquisition is crucial for S. aureus nasal colonization in vivo. We screened 94 nasal bacterial strains from seven genera for their capacity to produce siderophores as well as to consume the siderophores produced by S. aureus. We found that 80% of the strains engaged in siderophore-mediated interactions with S. aureus. Non-pathogenic corynebacterial species were found to be prominent consumers of S. aureus siderophores. In co-culture experiments, consumption of siderophores by competitors reduced S. aureus growth in an iron-dependent fashion. Our data show a wide network of siderophore-mediated interactions between the species of the human nasal microbiome and provide mechanistic evidence for inter-species competition and collaboration impacting pathogen proliferation. This opens avenues for designing nasal probiotics to displace S. aureus from the nasal cavity of humans.},
}
@article {pmid38987811,
year = {2024},
author = {Won, C and Yim, SS},
title = {Emerging methylation-based approaches in microbiome engineering.},
journal = {Biotechnology for biofuels and bioproducts},
volume = {17},
number = {1},
pages = {96},
pmid = {38987811},
issn = {2731-3654},
support = {G04220037//KAIST/ ; N10230105//KAIST/ ; N11230043//KAIST/ ; N10240028//KAIST/ ; N10240039//KAIST/ ; },
abstract = {Bacterial epigenetics, particularly through DNA methylation, exerts significant influence over various biological processes such as DNA replication, uptake, and gene regulation in bacteria. In this review, we explore recent advances in characterizing bacterial epigenomes, accompanied by emerging strategies that harness bacterial epigenetics to elucidate and engineer diverse bacterial species with precision and effectiveness. Furthermore, we delve into the potential of epigenetic modifications to steer microbial functions and influence community dynamics, offering promising opportunities for understanding and modulating microbiomes. Additionally, we investigate the extensive diversity of DNA methyltransferases and emphasize their potential utility in the context of the human microbiome. In summary, this review highlights the potential of DNA methylation as a powerful toolkit for engineering microbiomes.},
}
@article {pmid38979233,
year = {2024},
author = {Dong, PT and Shi, W and He, X and Borisy, GG},
title = {Adhesive interactions within microbial consortia can be differentiated at the single-cell level through expansion microscopy.},
journal = {bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {38979233},
issn = {2692-8205},
support = {R01 DE022586/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/United States ; R01 DE023810/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/United States ; R01 DE030943/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/United States ; T90 DE026110/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {Investigating microbe-microbe interactions at the single-cell level is critical to unraveling the ecology and dynamics of microbial communities. In many situations, microbes assemble themselves into densely packed multi-species biofilms. The density and complexity pose acute difficulties for visualizing individual cells and analyzing their interactions. Here, we address this problem through an unconventional application of expansion microscopy, which allows for the 'decrowding' of individual bacterial cells within a multispecies community. Expansion microscopy generally has been carried out under isotropic expansion conditions and used as a resolution-enhancing method. In our variation of expansion microscopy, we carry out expansion under heterotropic conditions; that is, we expand the space between bacterial cells but not the space within individual cells. The separation of individual bacterial cells from each other reflects the competition between the expansion force pulling them apart and the adhesion force holding them together. We employed heterotropic expansion microscopy to study the relative strength of adhesion in model biofilm communities. These included mono and dual-species Streptococcus biofilms, and a three-species synthetic community (Fusobacterium nucleatum, Streptococcus mutans, and Streptococcus sanguinis) under conditions that facilitated interspecies coaggregation. Using adhesion mutants, we investigated the interplay between F. nucleatum outer membrane protein RadD and different Streptococcus species. We also examined the Schaalia-TM7 epibiont association. Quantitative proximity analysis was used to evaluate the separation of individual microbial members. Our study demonstrates that heterotropic expansion microscopy can 'decrowd' dense biofilm communities, improve visualization of individual bacterial members, and enable analysis of microbe-microbe adhesive interactions at the single-cell level.},
}
@article {pmid38977511,
year = {2024},
author = {Rahim, MA and Seo, H and Kim, S and Barman, I and Ghorbanian, F and Hossain, MS and Shuvo, MSH and Lee, S and Song, HY},
title = {Exploring the potential of Lactocaseibacillus rhamnosus PMC203 in inducing autophagy to reduce the burden of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.},
journal = {Medical microbiology and immunology},
volume = {213},
number = {1},
pages = {14},
pmid = {38977511},
issn = {1432-1831},
support = {RS-2023-00219563//National Research Foundation of Korea/ ; Soonchunhyang University Research Fund//Soonchunhyang University/ ; 20018499//Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE, Korea)/ ; },
mesh = {*Autophagy ; *Mycobacterium tuberculosis/genetics ; *Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus/physiology/metabolism ; *Probiotics ; *Macrophages/microbiology ; Humans ; Lysosomes/metabolism ; Microtubule-Associated Proteins/metabolism/genetics ; Bacterial Load ; Tuberculosis/microbiology ; },
abstract = {Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a lethal pathogen in human history, causes millions of deaths annually, which demands the development of new concepts of drugs. Considering this fact, earlier research has explored the anti-tuberculosis potential of a probiotic strain, Lactocaseibacillus rhamnosus PMC203, leading to a subsequent focus on the molecular mechanism involved in its effect, particularly on autophagy. In this current study, immunoblotting-based assay exhibited a remarkable expression of autophagy marker LC3-II in the PMC203 treated group compared to an untreated group. A remarkable degradation of p62 was also noticed within treated cells compared to control. Furthermore, the immunofluorescence-based assay showed significant fold change in fluorescence intensity for alexa-647-LC3 and alexa-488-LC3, whereas p62 was degraded noticeably. Moreover, lysosomal biogenesis generation was elevated significantly in terms of LAMP1 and acidic vesicular organelles. As a result, PMC203-induced autophagy played a vital role in reducing M. tuberculosis burden within the macrophages in treated groups compared to untreated group. A colony -forming unit assay also revealed a significant reduction in M. tuberculosis in the treated cells over time. Additionally, the candidate strain significantly upregulated the expression of autophagy induction and lysosomal biogenesis genes. Together, these results could enrich our current knowledge of probiotics-mediated autophagy in tuberculosis and suggest its implications for innovatively managing tuberculosis.},
}
@article {pmid38974672,
year = {2024},
author = {Castaño-Henao, L and Mendez, DFG and Egan, S and Sanabria, J},
title = {Changes in groundwater and surface water bacterial communities under disinfection processes: Chlorination, ozonization, photo-fenton and ultraviolet radiation.},
journal = {Current research in microbial sciences},
volume = {7},
number = {},
pages = {100244},
pmid = {38974672},
issn = {2666-5174},
abstract = {Pathogenic bacteria, introduced in water sources through faecal contamination, have traditionally been investigated as individual species, leading to the establishment of microbial, sanitary, and environmental quality indicators. Recent advancements in our understanding of the microbiome and its intricate interactions within the human-microbiome-environment network advocate for a broader evaluation of the impact of disinfection on the entire microbial community. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive screening experiment involving four disinfection processes; ozone, ultraviolet radiation with wavelengths between 200 - 280 nm (UV-C), photo-Fenton, and chlorination, applied to two distinct water sources; surface (SW) and groundwater (GW). The cells that remained viable after treatment were recovered using Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) broth, and 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used for their identification. Our findings confirmed the presence of faecal contamination in the water sources and revealed distinct effects of each treatment on the recovered bacterial populations. The chlorination of groundwater samples likely had a greater impact on bacteria in a vegetative state than on spores. Consequently, this led to a higher abundance in the BHI cultures of sporulating bacteria such as Bacillus (increasing from 0.36 to 93.62 %), while ozonation led to an elevated recovery of Pseudomonas (increasing from 45.2 to 69.9 %). Conversely, in surface water, calcium hypochlorite and ozone treatments favored the selection of Staphylococcus and Bacillus, whose relative abundance in the cultures increased from 0 to 39.22 % and from 0.35 to 96.6 %, respectively. In groundwater, Pseudomonas was resistant to UV-C radiation and their relative abundance increased from 45.2 % to 93.56 %, while photo-Fenton was effective against this bacterial group decreasing its relative abundance to 0.46 %. However, other genera such as Bacteroides, Aeromonas, and Citrobacter seemed to be less injured by this disinfection process. BHI broth was successful in recovering various bacterial groups that exhibited resistance to sublethal water disinfection.},
}
@article {pmid38967872,
year = {2024},
author = {Lyytinen, OL and Dapuliga, C and Wallinger, D and Patpatia, S and Audu, BJ and Kiljunen, SJ},
title = {Three novel Enterobacter cloacae bacteriophages for therapeutic use from Ghanaian natural waters.},
journal = {Archives of virology},
volume = {169},
number = {8},
pages = {156},
pmid = {38967872},
issn = {1432-8798},
mesh = {*Enterobacter cloacae/virology/drug effects ; Ghana ; *Bacteriophages/genetics/isolation & purification/physiology/classification ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; Phage Therapy/methods ; Genome, Viral ; Enterobacteriaceae Infections/therapy/microbiology ; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial ; Finland ; Humans ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Ciprofloxacin/pharmacology ; Meropenem/pharmacology ; },
abstract = {Infections caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria are a growing global concern. Enterobacter cloacae complex (ECC) species are particularly adept at developing antibiotic resistance. Phage therapy is proposed as an alternative treatment for pathogens that no longer respond to antibiotics. Unfortunately, ECC phages are understudied when compared to phages of many other bacterial species. In this Ghanaian-Finnish study, we isolated two ECC strains from ready-to-eat food samples and three novel phages from natural waters against these strains. We sequenced the genomic DNA of the novel Enterobacter phages, fGh-Ecl01, fGh-Ecl02, and fGh-Ecl04, and assessed their therapeutic potential. All of the phages were found to be lytic, easy to propagate, and lacking any toxic, integrase, or antibiotic resistance genes and were thus considered suitable for therapy purposes. They all were found to be related to T4-type viruses: fGh-Ecl01 and fGh-Ecl04 to karamviruses and fGh-Ecl02 to agtreviruses. Testing of Finnish clinical ECC strains showed promising susceptibility to these novel phages. As many as 61.1% of the strains were susceptible to fGh-Ecl01 and fGh-Ecl04, and 7.4% were susceptible to fGh-Ecl02. Finally, we investigated the susceptibility of the newly isolated ECC strains to three antibiotics - meropenem, ciprofloxacin, and cefepime - in combination with the novel phages. The use of phages and antibiotics together had synergistic effects. When using an antibiotic-phage combination, even low concentrations of antibiotics fully inhibited the growth of bacteria.},
}
@article {pmid38963518,
year = {2024},
author = {Wang, B and Luan, J and Zhao, W and Yu, J and Li, A and Li, X and Zhong, X and Cao, H and Wang, R and Liu, B and Lu, S and Shi, M},
title = {Comprehensive multiomics analysis of the signatures of gastric mucosal bacteria and plasma metabolites across different stomach microhabitats in the development of gastric cancer.},
journal = {Cellular oncology (Dordrecht, Netherlands)},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {38963518},
issn = {2211-3436},
support = {2021YFA0717002//National Key Research and Development Program of China/ ; 22-3-7-smjk-8-nsh//Funds for Qingdao Science and Technology Benefit People Demonstration Guide Special Project/ ; },
abstract = {PURPOSE: As an important component of the microenvironment, the gastric microbiota and its metabolites are associated with tumour occurrence, progression, and metastasis. However, the relationship between the gastric microbiota and the development of gastric cancer is unclear. The present study investigated the role of the gastric mucosa microbiome and metabolites as aetiological factors in gastric carcinogenesis.
METHODS: Gastric biopsies from different stomach microhabitats (n = 70) were subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and blood samples (n = 95) were subjected to untargeted metabolome (gas chromatography‒mass spectrometry, GC‒MS) analyses. The datasets were analysed using various bioinformatics approaches.
RESULTS: The microbiota diversity and community composition markedly changed during gastric carcinogenesis. High Helicobacter. pylori colonization modified the overall diversity and composition of the microbiota associated with gastritis and cancer in the stomach. Most importantly, analysis of the functional features of the microbiota revealed that nitrate reductase genes were significantly enriched in the tumoral microbiota, while urease-producing genes were significantly enriched in the microbiota of H. pylori-positive patients. A panel of 81 metabolites was constructed to discriminate gastric cancer patients from gastritis patients, and a panel of 15 metabolites was constructed to discriminate H. pylori-positive patients from H. pylori-negative patients. receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis identified a series of gastric microbes and plasma metabolites as potential biomarkers of gastric cancer.
CONCLUSION: The present study identified a series of signatures that may play important roles in gastric carcinogenesis and have the potential to be used as biomarkers for diagnosis and for the surveillance of gastric cancer patients with minimal invasiveness.},
}
@article {pmid38962127,
year = {2024},
author = {Lange, E and Kranert, L and Krüger, J and Benndorf, D and Heyer, R},
title = {Microbiome modeling: a beginner's guide.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1368377},
pmid = {38962127},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {Microbiomes, comprised of diverse microbial species and viruses, play pivotal roles in human health, environmental processes, and biotechnological applications and interact with each other, their environment, and hosts via ecological interactions. Our understanding of microbiomes is still limited and hampered by their complexity. A concept improving this understanding is systems biology, which focuses on the holistic description of biological systems utilizing experimental and computational methods. An important set of such experimental methods are metaomics methods which analyze microbiomes and output lists of molecular features. These lists of data are integrated, interpreted, and compiled into computational microbiome models, to predict, optimize, and control microbiome behavior. There exists a gap in understanding between microbiologists and modelers/bioinformaticians, stemming from a lack of interdisciplinary knowledge. This knowledge gap hinders the establishment of computational models in microbiome analysis. This review aims to bridge this gap and is tailored for microbiologists, researchers new to microbiome modeling, and bioinformaticians. To achieve this goal, it provides an interdisciplinary overview of microbiome modeling, starting with fundamental knowledge of microbiomes, metaomics methods, common modeling formalisms, and how models facilitate microbiome control. It concludes with guidelines and repositories for modeling. Each section provides entry-level information, example applications, and important references, serving as a valuable resource for comprehending and navigating the complex landscape of microbiome research and modeling.},
}
@article {pmid38955124,
year = {2024},
author = {Maryam, and Rehman, MU and Hussain, I and Tayara, H and Chong, KT},
title = {A graph neural network approach for predicting drug susceptibility in the human microbiome.},
journal = {Computers in biology and medicine},
volume = {179},
number = {},
pages = {108729},
doi = {10.1016/j.compbiomed.2024.108729},
pmid = {38955124},
issn = {1879-0534},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects ; *Neural Networks, Computer ; Microbiota/drug effects ; Machine Learning ; Deep Learning ; },
abstract = {Recent studies have illuminated the critical role of the human microbiome in maintaining health and influencing the pharmacological responses of drugs. Clinical trials, encompassing approximately 150 drugs, have unveiled interactions with the gastrointestinal microbiome, resulting in the conversion of these drugs into inactive metabolites. It is imperative to explore the field of pharmacomicrobiomics during the early stages of drug discovery, prior to clinical trials. To achieve this, the utilization of machine learning and deep learning models is highly desirable. In this study, we have proposed graph-based neural network models, namely GCN, GAT, and GINCOV models, utilizing the SMILES dataset of drug microbiome. Our primary objective was to classify the susceptibility of drugs to depletion by gut microbiota. Our results indicate that the GINCOV surpassed the other models, achieving impressive performance metrics, with an accuracy of 93% on the test dataset. This proposed Graph Neural Network (GNN) model offers a rapid and efficient method for screening drugs susceptible to gut microbiota depletion and also encourages the improvement of patient-specific dosage responses and formulations.},
}
@article {pmid38951769,
year = {2024},
author = {Ranta, K and Skurnik, M and Kiljunen, S},
title = {fENko-Kae01 is a flagellum-specific jumbo phage infecting Klebsiella aerogenes.},
journal = {BMC microbiology},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
pages = {234},
pmid = {38951769},
issn = {1471-2180},
mesh = {*Bacteriophages/genetics/classification/isolation & purification/physiology ; *Genome, Viral ; *Flagella/virology/genetics ; *Enterobacter aerogenes/virology/genetics ; *Host Specificity ; Whole Genome Sequencing ; Myoviridae/genetics/isolation & purification/classification/physiology ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Klebsiella aerogenes is an opportunistic pathogen that causes a wide variety of infections. Due to the rising problem of antibiotic resistance, novel antibiotics and strategies to combat bacterial infections are needed. Host-specific bacteriophages are natural enemies of bacteria and can be used in phage therapy as an alternative form of treatment against bacterial infections. Jumbo phages are defined as phages with genomes larger than 200 kb. Relatively few studies have been done on jumbo phages compared to smaller phages.
RESULTS: A novel phage, fENko-Kae01, was isolated from a commercial phage cocktail. Genomic analysis revealed that fENko-Kae01 is a lytic jumbo phage with a 360 kb genome encoding 578 predicted genes. No highly similar phage genomes were identified and fENko-Kae01 may be a completely new genus representative. No known genes associated with lysogenic life cycle, bacterial virulence, or antibiotic resistance were identified. The phage had myovirus morphology and a narrow host range. Phage resistant bacterial mutants emerged under phage selection. Whole genome sequencing revealed that the biogenesis of the flagellum was affected in four mutants and the lack of functional flagellum was confirmed in motility assays. Furthermore, phage fENKo-Kae01 failed to adsorb on the non-motile mutants indicating that the bacterial flagellum is the phage-binding receptor.
CONCLUSIONS: fENko-Kae01 is a novel jumbo bacteriophage that is considered safe for phage therapy. fENko-Kae01 uses the flagellum as the phage-binding receptor and may represent a completely novel genus.},
}
@article {pmid38950441,
year = {2024},
author = {Chen, Y},
title = {Beyond Meta-Omics: Functional Genomics in Future Marine Microbiome Research.},
journal = {Annual review of marine science},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1146/annurev-marine-020123-100931},
pmid = {38950441},
issn = {1941-0611},
abstract = {When President Bill Clinton and Francis Collins, then the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, celebrated the near completion of the human genome sequence at the White House in the summer of 2000, it is unlikely that they or anyone else could have predicted the blossoming of meta-omics in the following two decades and their applications in modern human microbiome and environmental microbiome research. This transformation was enabled by the development of high-throughput sequencing technologies and sophisticated computational biology tools and bioinformatics software packages. Today, environmental meta-omics has undoubtedly revolutionized our understanding of ocean ecosystems, providing the genetic blueprint of oceanic microscopic organisms. In this review, I discuss the importance of functional genomics in future marine microbiome research and advocate a position for a gene-centric, bottom-up approach in modern oceanography. I propose that a synthesis of multidimensional approaches is required for a better understanding of the true functionality of the marine microbiome.},
}
@article {pmid38948147,
year = {2024},
author = {Guan, Y and Wu, D and Wang, H and Liu, NN},
title = {Microbiome-driven anticancer therapy: A step forward from natural products.},
journal = {mLife},
volume = {3},
number = {2},
pages = {219-230},
pmid = {38948147},
issn = {2770-100X},
abstract = {Human microbiomes, considered as a new emerging and enabling cancer hallmark, are increasingly recognized as critical effectors in cancer development and progression. Manipulation of microbiome revitalizing anticancer therapy from natural products shows promise toward improving cancer outcomes. Herein, we summarize our current understanding of the human microbiome-driven molecular mechanisms impacting cancer progression and anticancer therapy. We highlight the potential translational and clinical implications of natural products for cancer prevention and treatment by developing targeted therapeutic strategies as adjuvants for chemotherapy and immunotherapy against tumorigenesis. The challenges and opportunities for future investigations using modulation of the microbiome for cancer treatment are further discussed in this review.},
}
@article {pmid38945961,
year = {2024},
author = {Kim, N and Ma, J and Kim, W and Kim, J and Belenky, P and Lee, I},
title = {Genome-resolved metagenomics: a game changer for microbiome medicine.},
journal = {Experimental & molecular medicine},
volume = {56},
number = {7},
pages = {1501-1512},
pmid = {38945961},
issn = {2092-6413},
support = {R01 DK125382/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; HI19C1344//Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI)/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Metagenomics/methods ; *Metagenome ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Bacteria/genetics/classification ; Animals ; Genome, Bacterial ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; },
abstract = {Recent substantial evidence implicating commensal bacteria in human diseases has given rise to a new domain in biomedical research: microbiome medicine. This emerging field aims to understand and leverage the human microbiota and derivative molecules for disease prevention and treatment. Despite the complex and hierarchical organization of this ecosystem, most research over the years has relied on 16S amplicon sequencing, a legacy of bacterial phylogeny and taxonomy. Although advanced sequencing technologies have enabled cost-effective analysis of entire microbiota, translating the relatively short nucleotide information into the functional and taxonomic organization of the microbiome has posed challenges until recently. In the last decade, genome-resolved metagenomics, which aims to reconstruct microbial genomes directly from whole-metagenome sequencing data, has made significant strides and continues to unveil the mysteries of various human-associated microbial communities. There has been a rapid increase in the volume of whole metagenome sequencing data and in the compilation of novel metagenome-assembled genomes and protein sequences in public depositories. This review provides an overview of the capabilities and methods of genome-resolved metagenomics for studying the human microbiome, with a focus on investigating the prokaryotic microbiota of the human gut. Just as decoding the human genome and its variations marked the beginning of the genomic medicine era, unraveling the genomes of commensal microbes and their sequence variations is ushering us into the era of microbiome medicine. Genome-resolved metagenomics stands as a pivotal tool in this transition and can accelerate our journey toward achieving these scientific and medical milestones.},
}
@article {pmid38944815,
year = {2024},
author = {Del Chierico, F and Masi, L and Petito, V and Baldelli, V and Puca, P and Benvenuto, R and Fidaleo, M and Palucci, I and Lopetuso, LR and Caristo, ME and Carrozza, C and Giustiniani, MC and Nakamichi, N and Kato, Y and Putignani, L and Gasbarrini, A and Pani, G and Scaldaferri, F},
title = {Solute Transporter OCTN1/Slc22a4 Affects Disease Severity and Response to Infliximab in Experimental Colitis: Role of Gut Microbiota and Immune Modulation.},
journal = {Inflammatory bowel diseases},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/ibd/izae135},
pmid = {38944815},
issn = {1536-4844},
support = {GR-2016-02364891//Italian Ministry of Health/ ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel diseases are chronic disabling conditions with a complex and multifactorial etiology, still incompletely understood. OCTN1, an organic cation transporter, could have a role in modulating the inflammatory response, and some genetic polymorphisms of this molecule have been associated with increased risk of inflammatory bowel diseases. Until now, limited information exists on its potential in predicting/modulating patient's response to therapies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of OCTN1 in modifying gut microbiota and mucosal immunity in response to infliximab therapy in murine colitis.
METHODS: A dextran sodium sulphate model of colitis was used to assess the clinical efficacy of infliximab administered intravenously in ocnt1 gene knockout mice and their C57BL/6 controls. Stool, colon, and mesenteric lymph node samples were collected to evaluate differences in gut microbiota composition, histology, and T cell populations, respectively.
RESULTS: Octn1 -/- influences the microbiota profile and is associated with a worse dysbiosis in mice with colitis. Infliximab treatment attenuates colitis-associated dysbiosis, with an increase of bacterial richness and evenness in both strains. In comparison with wild type, octn1-/- mice have milder disease and a higher baseline percentage of Treg, Tmemory, Th2 and Th17 cells.
CONCLUSIONS: Our data support the murine model to study OCTN1 genetic contribution to inflammatory bowel diseases. This could be the first step towards the recognition of this membrane transporter as a biomarker in inflammatory conditions and a predictor of response to therapies.},
}
@article {pmid38942021,
year = {2024},
author = {Chen, W and Li, Y and Wang, W and Gao, S and Hu, J and Xiang, B and Wu, D and Jiao, N and Xu, T and Zhi, M and Zhu, L and Zhu, R},
title = {Enhanced microbiota profiling in patients with quiescent Crohn's disease through comparison with paired healthy first-degree relatives.},
journal = {Cell reports. Medicine},
volume = {5},
number = {7},
pages = {101624},
pmid = {38942021},
issn = {2666-3791},
mesh = {Humans ; *Crohn Disease/microbiology/genetics ; Female ; Male ; Adult ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; Feces/microbiology ; Family ; Middle Aged ; Case-Control Studies ; Fatty Acids, Volatile/metabolism ; Young Adult ; Metabolome ; Microbiota/genetics ; },
abstract = {Prior studies indicate no correlation between the gut microbes of healthy first-degree relatives (HFDRs) of patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and the development of CD. Here, we utilize HFDRs as controls to examine the microbiota and metabolome in individuals with active (CD-A) and quiescent (CD-R) CD, thereby minimizing the influence of genetic and environmental factors. When compared to non-relative controls, the use of HFDR controls identifies fewer differential taxa. Faecalibacterium, Dorea, and Fusicatenibacter are decreased in CD-R, independent of inflammation, and correlated with fecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Validation with a large multi-center cohort confirms decreased Faecalibacterium and other SCFA-producing genera in CD-R. Classification models based on these genera distinguish CD from healthy individuals and demonstrate superior diagnostic power than models constructed with markers identified using unrelated controls. Furthermore, these markers exhibited limited discriminatory capabilities for other diseases. Finally, our results are validated across multiple cohorts, underscoring their robustness and potential for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.},
}
@article {pmid38935049,
year = {2024},
author = {Bai, X and Nielsen, SD and Kunisaki, KM and Trøseid, M},
title = {Pulmonary comorbidities in people with HIV- the microbiome connection.},
journal = {Current opinion in HIV and AIDS},
volume = {19},
number = {5},
pages = {246-252},
doi = {10.1097/COH.0000000000000871},
pmid = {38935049},
issn = {1746-6318},
mesh = {Humans ; *HIV Infections/complications/microbiology/epidemiology ; *Microbiota ; *Comorbidity ; *Lung Diseases/microbiology/epidemiology/complications ; *Dysbiosis/microbiology ; Lung/microbiology/physiopathology ; },
abstract = {PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To report recent evidence on associations between human microbiome, particularly airway and gut, and pulmonary comorbidities in people with HIV (PWH). Furthermore, we explore how changes in the microbiome may contribute to pulmonary immune dysregulation and higher rates of pulmonary comorbidities among PWH. Finally, we propose future directions in the field.
RECENT FINDINGS: Increased risk of pulmonary comorbidities and rapid lung function decline have been reported in even well treated PWH. Altered microbiota profiles have been reported in PWH with pulmonary comorbidities and rapid lung function decline as compared to those without. The most consistent data have been the association between HIV-related pulmonary comorbidities, lung and oral microbiota dysbiosis, which has been also associated with distinct respiratory mucosal inflammatory profiles and short-term mortality. However, a possible causal link remains to be elucidated.
SUMMARY: Associations between the lung and oral microbiome, HIV-associated pulmonary comorbidities and rapid lung function decline have been reported in recent studies. Yet the underlying mechanism underpinning the observed associations is largely unknown and substantial knowledge gaps remain. Future research is warranted to unveil the role and mechanism of human microbiome from different anatomical compartments in relation to pulmonary comorbidities in PWH.},
}
@article {pmid38932188,
year = {2024},
author = {Alipour-Khezri, E and Moqadami, A and Barzegar, A and Mahdavi, M and Skurnik, M and Zarrini, G},
title = {Bacteriophages and Green Synthesized Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles in Combination Are Efficient against Biofilm Formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.},
journal = {Viruses},
volume = {16},
number = {6},
pages = {},
pmid = {38932188},
issn = {1999-4915},
mesh = {*Zinc Oxide/pharmacology ; *Pseudomonas aeruginosa/virology/drug effects/physiology ; *Biofilms/drug effects ; *Metal Nanoparticles/chemistry ; Green Chemistry Technology ; Bacteriophages/physiology ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; Nanoparticles/chemistry ; },
abstract = {Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that infect the bacteria within which their reproduction cycle takes place, a process that ends in the lysis and death of the bacterial cell. Some phages are also able to destroy bacterial biofilms. Due to increased antibiotics resistance, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, another biofilm-forming pathogen, is a problem in many parts of the world. Zinc oxide (ZnO) and other metal nanoparticles (NPs) are biologically active and also possess anti-biofilm properties. ZnO-NPs were prepared by the green synthesis method using orange peels. The vibrational peaks of the ZnO-NPs were analyzed using FTIR analysis, and their size and morphological properties were determined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The ability of the ZnO-NPs to reduce or eliminate P. aeruginosa biofilm alone or in combination with phages PB10 and PA19 was investigated. The P. aeruginosa cells were effectively killed in the preformed 48 h biofilms during a 24 h incubation with the ZnO-NP-phage combination, in comparison with the control or ZnO-NPs alone. The treatments on growing biofilms were most efficient in the final stages of biofilm development. All five treatment groups showed a significant biofilm reduction compared to the control group (p < 0.0001) at 48 h of incubation. The influence of the ZnO-NPs and phages on the quorum sensing system of P. aeruginosa was monitored by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) of the autoinducer biosynthesis gene lasI. While the ZnO-NPs repressed the lasI gene transcription, the phages slightly activated it at 24 and 48 h of incubation. Also, the effect of the ZnO-NPs and phage PA19 on the viability of HFF2 cells was investigated and the results showed that the combination of NPs with PA19 reduced the toxic effect of ZnO-NPs and also stimulated the growth in normal cells.},
}
@article {pmid38930571,
year = {2024},
author = {Sprague, KL and Rajakaruna, S and Bandow, B and Burchat, N and Bottomley, M and Sampath, H and Paliy, O},
title = {Gut Microbiota Fermentation of Digested Almond-Psyllium-Flax Seed-Based Artisan Bread Promotes Mediterranean Diet-Resembling Microbial Community.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {12},
number = {6},
pages = {},
pmid = {38930571},
issn = {2076-2607},
support = {R01 DK126963/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; DBI-1335772//National Science Foundation/ ; },
abstract = {Different modifications of the standard bread recipe have been proposed to improve its nutritional and health benefits. Here, we utilized the in vitro Human Gut Simulator (HGS) to assess the fermentation of one such artisan bread by human gut microbiota. Dried and milled bread, composed of almond flour, psyllium husks, and flax seeds as its three main ingredients, was first subjected to an in vitro protocol designed to mimic human oro-gastro-intestinal digestion. The bread digest was then supplied to complex human gut microbial communities, replacing the typical Western diet-based medium (WM) of the GHS system. Switching the medium from WM to bread digest resulted in statistically significant alterations in the community structure, encoded functions, produced short-chain fatty acids, and available antioxidants. The abundances of dietary fiber degraders Enterocloster, Mitsuokella, and Prevotella increased; levels of Gemmiger, Faecalibacterium, and Blautia decreased. These community alterations resembled the previously revealed differences in the distal gut microbiota of healthy human subjects consuming typical Mediterranean vs. Western-pattern diets. Therefore, the consumption of bread high in dietary fiber and unsaturated fatty acids might recapitulate the beneficial effects of the Mediterranean diet on the gut microbiota.},
}
@article {pmid38930451,
year = {2024},
author = {Balleza-Alejandri, LR and Peña-Durán, E and Beltrán-Ramírez, A and Reynoso-Roa, AS and Sánchez-Abundis, LD and García-Galindo, JJ and Suárez-Rico, DO},
title = {Decoding the Gut Microbiota-Gestational Diabetes Link: Insights from the Last Seven Years.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {12},
number = {6},
pages = {},
pmid = {38930451},
issn = {2076-2607},
abstract = {The human microbiome, a complex ecosystem of bacteria, viruses, and protozoans living in symbiosis with the host, plays a crucial role in human health, influencing everything from metabolism to immune function. Dysbiosis, or an imbalance in this ecosystem, has been linked to various health issues, including diabetes and gestational diabetes (GD). In diabetes, dysbiosis affects the function of adipose tissue, leading to the release of adipokines and cytokines, which increase inflammation and insulin resistance. During pregnancy, changes to the microbiome can exacerbate glucose intolerance, a common feature of GD. Over the past years, burgeoning insights into the gut microbiota have unveiled its pivotal role in human health. This article comprehensively reviews literature from the last seven years, highlighting the association between gut microbiota dysbiosis and GD, as well as the metabolism of antidiabetic drugs and the potential influences of diet and probiotics. The underlying pathophysiological mechanisms discussed include the impact of dysbiosis on systemic inflammation and the interplay with genetic and environmental factors. By focusing on recent studies, the importance of considering microbial health in the prevention and treatment of GD is emphasized, providing insights into future research directions and clinical applications to improve maternal-infant health outcomes.},
}
@article {pmid38929681,
year = {2024},
author = {Lee, J and Kim, H and Park, JS},
title = {Beyond the Bile: Exploring the Microbiome and Metabolites in Cholangiocarcinoma.},
journal = {Life (Basel, Switzerland)},
volume = {14},
number = {6},
pages = {},
pmid = {38929681},
issn = {2075-1729},
support = {N/A//INHA UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL Research Grant/ ; N/A//Shihwa medical center research fund/ ; },
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCC) still has a high mortality rate despite improvements in diagnostic and therapeutic techniques. The role of the human microbiome in CCC is poorly understood, and a recent metagenomic analysis demonstrated a significant correlation between microbiome-associated carcinogenesis and CCC. This study aimed to investigate changes in microbiome composition associated with CCC and its metabolic signature by integrating taxonomic and functional information with metabolomics data and in vitro experimental results.
METHODS: From February 2019 to January 2021, this study included patients who underwent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), both with and without a diagnosis of CCC. Bile samples were collected via endoscopic nasobiliary drainages (ENBD) and subjected to DNA extraction, PCR amplification of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene V3-V4 region, and data analysis using QIIME2. In vitro Carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) proliferation and Annexin V/PI apoptosis assays were performed to investigate the effects of metabolites on CCC cells.
RESULTS: A total of 24 patients were included in the study. Bile fluid analysis revealed a significantly higher abundance of Escherichia coli in the CCC group. Alpha diversity analyses exhibited significant differences between the CCC and non-CCC groups, and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy metabolic profiling identified 15 metabolites with significant concentration differences; isoleucine showed the most notable difference. In vitro experiments demonstrated that isoleucine suppressed CCC cell proliferation but did not induce apoptosis.
CONCLUSIONS: This research underlines the significance of biliary dysbiosis and specific bile metabolites, such as isoleucine, in influencing the development and progression of CCC.},
}
@article {pmid38927134,
year = {2024},
author = {Martins, D and Silva, C and Ferreira, AC and Dourado, S and Albuquerque, A and Saraiva, F and Batista, AB and Castro, P and Leite-Moreira, A and Barros, AS and Miranda, IM},
title = {Unravelling the Gut Microbiome Role in Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review and a Meta-Analysis.},
journal = {Biomolecules},
volume = {14},
number = {6},
pages = {},
pmid = {38927134},
issn = {2218-273X},
support = {UIDB/00051/2020//Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia/ ; UIDP/00051/2020//Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia/ ; 2021.06947.BD//Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia/ ; },
mesh = {*Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Humans ; *Cardiovascular Diseases/microbiology/metabolism ; Bacteria/metabolism/classification/genetics ; Methylamines/metabolism/blood ; },
abstract = {A notable shift in understanding the human microbiome's influence on cardiovascular disease (CVD) is underway, although the causal association remains elusive. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to synthesise current knowledge on microbial taxonomy and metabolite variations between healthy controls (HCs) and those with CVD. An extensive search encompassing three databases identified 67 relevant studies (2012-2023) covering CVD pathologies from 4707 reports. Metagenomic and metabolomic data, both qualitative and quantitative, were obtained. Analysis revealed substantial variability in microbial alpha and beta diversities. Moreover, specific changes in bacterial populations were shown, including increased Streptococcus and Proteobacteria and decreased Faecalibacterium in patients with CVD compared with HC. Additionally, elevated trimethylamine N-oxide levels were reported in CVD cases. Biochemical parameter analysis indicated increased fasting glucose and triglycerides and decreased total cholesterol and low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in diseased individuals. This study revealed a significant relationship between certain bacterial species and CVD. Additionally, it has become clear that there are substantial inconsistencies in the methodologies employed and the reporting standards adhered to in various studies. Undoubtedly, standardising research methodologies and developing extensive guidelines for microbiome studies are crucial for advancing the field.},
}
@article {pmid38926732,
year = {2024},
author = {Li, Q and Huang, Z and Yang, H and Tang, J and Zuo, T and Yang, Q and Huang, Z and Guo, Q and Li, M and Gao, X and Chao, K},
title = {Intestinal mRNA expression profiles associated with mucosal healing in ustekinumab-treated Crohn's disease patients: bioinformatics analysis and prospective cohort validation.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
volume = {22},
number = {1},
pages = {595},
pmid = {38926732},
issn = {1479-5876},
support = {2022JBGS05//the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University/ ; 2022JBGS03//the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University/ ; 2020B1111170004//the program of Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Digestive Diseases/ ; 1010CG(2023)-12//the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University Clinical Research-'1010' Program/ ; },
mesh = {Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Cluster Analysis ; *Computational Biology/methods ; *Crohn Disease/genetics/drug therapy ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Gene Ontology ; Intestinal Mucosa/metabolism/pathology ; Prospective Studies ; Reproducibility of Results ; *RNA, Messenger/genetics/metabolism ; ROC Curve ; Transcriptome/genetics ; *Ustekinumab/therapeutic use/pharmacology ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Variations exist in the response of patients with Crohn's disease (CD) to ustekinumab (UST) treatment, but the underlying cause remains unknown. Our objective was to investigate the involvement of immune cells and identify potential biomarkers that could predict the response to interleukin (IL) 12/23 inhibitors in patients with CD.
METHODS: The GSE207022 dataset, which consisted of 54 non-responders and 9 responders to UST in a CD cohort, was analyzed. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified and subjected to Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression was used to screen the most powerful hub genes. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate the predictive performances of these genes. Single-sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (ssGSEA) was used to estimate the proportions of immune cell types. These significantly altered genes were subjected to cluster analysis into immune cell-related infiltration. To validate the reliability of the candidates, patients prescribed UST as a first-line biologic in a prospective cohort were included as an independent validation dataset.
RESULTS: A total of 99 DEGs were identified in the integrated dataset. GO and KEGG analyses revealed significant enrichment of immune response pathways in patients with CD. Thirteen genes (SOCS3, CD55, KDM5D, IGFBP5, LCN2, SLC15A1, XPNPEP2, HLA-DQA2, HMGCS2, DDX3Y, ITGB2, CDKN2B and HLA-DQA1), which were primarily associated with the response versus nonresponse patients, were identified and included in the LASSO analysis. These genes accurately predicted treatment response, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.938. T helper cell type 1 (Th1) cell polarization was comparatively strong in nonresponse individuals. Positive connections were observed between Th1 cells and the LCN2 and KDM5D genes. Furthermore, we employed an independent validation dataset and early experimental verification to validate the LCN2 and KDM5D genes as effective predictive markers.
CONCLUSIONS: Th1 cell polarization is an important cause of nonresponse to UST therapy in patients with CD. LCN2 and KDM5D can be used as predictive markers to effectively identify nonresponse patients.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trial registration number: NCT05542459; Date of registration: 2022-09-14; URL: https://www.
CLINICALTRIALS: gov .},
}
@article {pmid38924840,
year = {2024},
author = {Yang, Y and Olah, P and Radai, Z and Maia, G and Salava, A and Salo, V and Barker, J and Lauerma, A and Andersson, B and Homey, B and Fyhrquist, N and Alenius, H},
title = {Exploratory multi-omics analysis reveals host-microbe interactions associated with disease severity in psoriatic skin.},
journal = {EBioMedicine},
volume = {105},
number = {},
pages = {105222},
pmid = {38924840},
issn = {2352-3964},
mesh = {Humans ; *Psoriasis/microbiology/genetics/metabolism ; *Metagenomics/methods ; *Skin/microbiology/metabolism/pathology ; Female ; Male ; Adult ; *Severity of Illness Index ; *Host Microbial Interactions/genetics ; *Microbiota ; Middle Aged ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Metagenome ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Transcriptome ; Gene Regulatory Networks ; Host-Pathogen Interactions/genetics ; Computational Biology/methods ; Multiomics ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Psoriasis (Pso) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that poses both physical and psychological challenges. Dysbiosis of the skin microbiome has been implicated in Pso, yet a comprehensive multi-omics analysis of host-microbe interactions is still lacking. To bridge this gap, we conducted an exploratory study by adopting the integrated approach that combines whole metagenomic shotgun sequencing with skin transcriptomics.
METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study, adult patients with plaque-type Psoriasis (Pso) and healthy volunteers were included. Skin microbiota samples and biopsies were collected from both lesional and non-lesional skin areas on the lower back. Weighted Gene Correlation Network Analysis (WGCNA) was employed for co-expression network analysis, and cell deconvolution was conducted to estimate cell fractions. Taxonomic and functional features of the microbiome were identified using whole metagenomic shotgun sequencing. Association between host genes and microbes was analyzed using Spearman correlation.
FINDINGS: Host anti-viral responses and interferon-related networks were identified and correlated with the severity of psoriasis. The skin microbiome showed a greater prevalence of Corynebacterium simulans in the PASI severe-moderate groups, which correlated with interferon-induced host genes. Two distinct psoriatic clusters with varying disease severities were identified. Variations in the expression of cell apoptosis-associated antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and microbial aerobic respiration I pathway may partly account for these differences in disease severity.
INTERPRETATION: Our multi-omics analysis revealed for the first time anti-viral responses and the presence of C. simulans associated with psoriasis severity. It also identified two psoriatic subtypes with distinct AMP and metabolic pathway expression. Our study provides new insights into understanding the host-microbe interaction in psoriasis and lays the groundwork for developing subtype-specific strategies for managing this chronic skin disease.
FUNDING: The research has received funding from the FP7 (MAARS-Grant 261366) and the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 821511 (BIOMAP). The JU receives support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA. This publication reflects only the author's view and the JU is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. GAM was supported by a scholarship provided by CAPES-PRINT, financed by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES (Brazilian Government Agency). The authors thank all patients who participated in our study.},
}
@article {pmid38923832,
year = {2024},
author = {Del Giudice, G and Serra, A and Pavel, A and Torres Maia, M and Saarimäki, LA and Fratello, M and Federico, A and Alenius, H and Fadeel, B and Greco, D},
title = {A Network Toxicology Approach for Mechanistic Modelling of Nanomaterial Hazard and Adverse Outcomes.},
journal = {Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)},
volume = {11},
number = {32},
pages = {e2400389},
pmid = {38923832},
issn = {2198-3844},
support = {309329//EU FP7 project "NANOSOLUTIONS"/ ; 322761//Academy of Finland/ ; 101137742//EU project "INSIGHT"/ ; 101008099//CompSafeNano project/ ; 101043848/ERC_/European Research Council/International ; },
mesh = {*Nanostructures/toxicity ; *Adverse Outcome Pathways ; Humans ; Systems Biology/methods ; Animals ; Toxicology/methods ; },
abstract = {Hazard assessment is the first step in evaluating the potential adverse effects of chemicals. Traditionally, toxicological assessment has focused on the exposure, overlooking the impact of the exposed system on the observed toxicity. However, systems toxicology emphasizes how system properties significantly contribute to the observed response. Hence, systems theory states that interactions store more information than individual elements, leading to the adoption of network based models to represent complex systems in many fields of life sciences. Here, they develop a network-based approach to characterize toxicological responses in the context of a biological system, inferring biological system specific networks. They directly link molecular alterations to the adverse outcome pathway (AOP) framework, establishing direct connections between omics data and toxicologically relevant phenotypic events. They apply this framework to a dataset including 31 engineered nanomaterials with different physicochemical properties in two different in vitro and one in vivo models and demonstrate how the biological system is the driving force of the observed response. This work highlights the potential of network-based methods to significantly improve their understanding of toxicological mechanisms from a systems biology perspective and provides relevant considerations and future data-driven approaches for the hazard assessment of nanomaterials and other advanced materials.},
}
@article {pmid38912690,
year = {2024},
author = {Byndloss, M and Devkota, S and Duca, F and Niess, JH and Nieuwdorp, M and Orho-Melander, M and Sanz, Y and Tremaroli, V and Zhao, L},
title = {The Gut Microbiota and Diabetes: Research, Translation, and Clinical Applications-2023 Diabetes, Diabetes Care, and Diabetologia Expert Forum.},
journal = {Diabetes},
volume = {73},
number = {9},
pages = {1391-1410},
pmid = {38912690},
issn = {1939-327X},
support = {PID2020-119536RB-I00//Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities MICIU/AEI/ ; 2020 (09150182010020)//ZONMW-VICI/ ; //Novo Nordisk Foundation/ ; DP1 DK130687/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; CEX2021-001189-S/10.13039/501100011033//Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence/ ; 1DP1 DK130687/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; 310030_219210//Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)/ ; R01 DK123446/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; 875534//European Union’s Innovative Medicine Initiative/ ; R01 DK131104/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; 2020 (2020.10.002)//DFN-DON/ ; },
mesh = {*Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; Humans ; *Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/microbiology/metabolism/therapy ; Translational Research, Biomedical ; },
abstract = {This article summarizes the state of the science on the role of the gut microbiota (GM) in diabetes from a recent international expert forum organized by Diabetes, Diabetes Care, and Diabetologia, which was held at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes 2023 Annual Meeting in Hamburg, Germany. Forum participants included clinicians and basic scientists who are leading investigators in the field of the intestinal microbiome and metabolism. Their conclusions were as follows: 1) the GM may be involved in the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes, as microbially produced metabolites associate both positively and negatively with the disease, and mechanistic links of GM functions (e.g., genes for butyrate production) with glucose metabolism have recently emerged through the use of Mendelian randomization in humans; 2) the highly individualized nature of the GM poses a major research obstacle, and large cohorts and a deep-sequencing metagenomic approach are required for robust assessments of associations and causation; 3) because single-time point sampling misses intraindividual GM dynamics, future studies with repeated measures within individuals are needed; and 4) much future research will be required to determine the applicability of this expanding knowledge to diabetes diagnosis and treatment, and novel technologies and improved computational tools will be important to achieve this goal.},
}
@article {pmid38910152,
year = {2024},
author = {Byndloss, M and Devkota, S and Duca, F and Niess, JH and Nieuwdorp, M and Orho-Melander, M and Sanz, Y and Tremaroli, V and Zhao, L},
title = {The gut microbiota and diabetes: research, translation, and clinical applications - 2023 Diabetes, Diabetes Care, and Diabetologia Expert Forum.},
journal = {Diabetologia},
volume = {67},
number = {9},
pages = {1760-1782},
pmid = {38910152},
issn = {1432-0428},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; *Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/microbiology/metabolism ; Translational Research, Biomedical ; },
abstract = {This article summarises the state of the science on the role of the gut microbiota (GM) in diabetes from a recent international expert forum organised by Diabetes, Diabetes Care, and Diabetologia, which was held at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes 2023 Annual Meeting in Hamburg, Germany. Forum participants included clinicians and basic scientists who are leading investigators in the field of the intestinal microbiome and metabolism. Their conclusions were as follows: (1) the GM may be involved in the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes, as microbially produced metabolites associate both positively and negatively with the disease, and mechanistic links of GM functions (e.g. genes for butyrate production) with glucose metabolism have recently emerged through the use of Mendelian randomisation in humans; (2) the highly individualised nature of the GM poses a major research obstacle, and large cohorts and a deep-sequencing metagenomic approach are required for robust assessments of associations and causation; (3) because single time point sampling misses intraindividual GM dynamics, future studies with repeated measures within individuals are needed; and (4) much future research will be required to determine the applicability of this expanding knowledge to diabetes diagnosis and treatment, and novel technologies and improved computational tools will be important to achieve this goal.},
}
@article {pmid38909617,
year = {2024},
author = {Kullberg, RFJ and Wikki, I and Haak, BW and Kauko, A and Galenkamp, H and Peters-Sengers, H and Butler, JM and Havulinna, AS and Palmu, J and McDonald, D and Benchraka, C and Abdel-Aziz, MI and Prins, M and Maitland van der Zee, AH and van den Born, BJ and Jousilahti, P and de Vos, WM and Salomaa, V and Knight, R and Lahti, L and Nieuwdorp, M and Niiranen, T and Wiersinga, WJ},
title = {Association between butyrate-producing gut bacteria and the risk of infectious disease hospitalisation: results from two observational, population-based microbiome studies.},
journal = {The Lancet. Microbe},
volume = {5},
number = {9},
pages = {100864},
doi = {10.1016/S2666-5247(24)00079-X},
pmid = {38909617},
issn = {2666-5247},
mesh = {Humans ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; *Hospitalization/statistics & numerical data ; Male ; Female ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; Aged ; Finland/epidemiology ; *Butyrates/metabolism ; *RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics/analysis ; Netherlands/epidemiology ; Young Adult ; *Bacteria/genetics/classification/isolation & purification ; Feces/microbiology ; Adolescent ; Communicable Diseases/microbiology/epidemiology ; Cohort Studies ; Risk Factors ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Microbiota alterations are common in patients hospitalised for severe infections, and preclinical models have shown that anaerobic butyrate-producing gut bacteria protect against systemic infections. However, the relationship between microbiota disruptions and increased susceptibility to severe infections in humans remains unclear. We investigated the relationship between gut microbiota and the risk of future infection-related hospitalisation in two large population-based cohorts.
METHODS: In this observational microbiome study, gut microbiota were characterised using 16S rRNA gene sequencing in independent population-based cohorts from the Netherlands (HELIUS study; derivation cohort) and Finland (FINRISK 2002 study; validation cohort). HELIUS was conducted in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and included adults (aged 18-70 years at inclusion) who were randomly sampled from the municipality register of Amsterdam. FINRISK 2002 was conducted in six regions in Finland and is a population survey that included a random sample of adults (aged 25-74 years). In both cohorts, participants completed questionnaires, underwent a physical examination, and provided a faecal sample at inclusion (Jan 3, 2013, to Nov 27, 2015, for HELIUS participants and Jan 21 to April 19, 2002, for FINRISK participants. For inclusion in our study, a faecal sample needed to be provided and successfully sequenced, and national registry data needed to be available. Primary predictor variables were microbiota composition, diversity, and relative abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria. Our primary outcome was hospitalisation or mortality due to any infectious disease during 5-7-year follow-up after faecal sample collection, based on national registry data. We examined associations between microbiota and infection risk using microbial ecology and Cox proportional hazards.
FINDINGS: We profiled gut microbiota from 10 699 participants (4248 [39·7%] from the derivation cohort and 6451 [60·3%] from the validation cohort). 602 (5·6%) participants (152 [3·6%] from the derivation cohort; 450 [7·0%] from the validation cohort) were hospitalised or died due to infections during follow-up. Gut microbiota composition of these participants differed from those without hospitalisation for infections (derivation p=0·041; validation p=0·0002). Specifically, higher relative abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria was associated with a reduced risk of hospitalisation for infections (derivation cohort cause-specific hazard ratio 0·75 [95% CI 0·60-0·94] per 10% increase in butyrate producers, p=0·013; validation cohort 0·86 [0·77-0·96] per 10% increase, p=0·0077). These associations remained unchanged following adjustment for demographics, lifestyle, antibiotic exposure, and comorbidities.
INTERPRETATION: Gut microbiota composition, specifically colonisation with butyrate-producing bacteria, was associated with protection against hospitalisation for infectious diseases in the general population across two independent European cohorts. Further studies should investigate whether modulation of the microbiome can reduce the risk of severe infections.
FUNDING: Amsterdam UMC, Porticus, National Institutes of Health, Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), and Leducq Foundation.},
}
@article {pmid38904934,
year = {2024},
author = {Peer, A and Samuelson, DR},
title = {The Role of the Microbiome in Allergy, Asthma, and Occupational Lung Disease.},
journal = {Current allergy and asthma reports},
volume = {24},
number = {8},
pages = {415-423},
pmid = {38904934},
issn = {1534-6315},
support = {P50 AA030407/AA/NIAAA NIH HHS/United States ; R01 DK131990/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; R01-DK131990-01/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; P50-AA030407/AA/NIAAA NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota/immunology ; *Asthma/immunology/microbiology ; *Hypersensitivity/immunology/microbiology ; *Occupational Diseases/microbiology/immunology ; Occupational Exposure/adverse effects ; Lung Diseases/microbiology/immunology ; },
abstract = {PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The human commensal microbiota is now widely accepted as a key regulator of human health and disease. The composition of the mucosal associated microbiota has been shown to play a critical role in the lung health. The role of the mucosal microbiota in the development and severity of allergy, asthma, and occupational lung disease is only beginning to take shape. However, advances in our understanding of these links have tremendous potential to led to new clinical interventions to reduce allergy, asthma, and occupational lung disease morbidity.
RECENT FINDINGS: We review recent work describing the relationship and role of the commensal microbiota in the development of allergy, asthma, and occupational lung disease. Our review primarily focuses on occupational exposures and the effects of the microbiome, both in composition and function. Data generated from these studies may lead to the development of interventions targeted at establishing and maintaining a healthy microbiota. We also highlight the role of environmental exposures and the effects on the commensal microbial community and their potential association with occupational lung disease. This review explores the current research describing the role of the human microbiome in the regulation of pulmonary health and disease, with a specific focus on the role of the mucosal microbiota in the development of allergy, asthma, and occupational lung disease.},
}
@article {pmid38899893,
year = {2024},
author = {He, J and Ma, M and Xu, Z and Guo, J and Chen, H and Yang, X and Chen, P and Liu, G},
title = {Association between semen microbiome disorder and sperm DNA damage.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {12},
number = {8},
pages = {e0075924},
pmid = {38899893},
issn = {2165-0497},
support = {81971759//MOST | National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)/ ; 82171604//MOST | National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)/ ; },
mesh = {Male ; Humans ; *Microbiota/genetics ; *Spermatozoa/microbiology/metabolism ; *DNA Fragmentation ; *DNA Damage ; Adult ; *Semen/microbiology ; *RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; *Infertility, Male/microbiology/metabolism ; Lactobacillus/genetics/metabolism/isolation & purification ; Bacteria/genetics/classification/isolation & purification/metabolism ; Semen Analysis ; },
abstract = {DNA fragmentation index (DFI), a new biomarker to diagnose male infertility, is closely associated with poor reproductive outcomes. Previous research reported that seminal microbiome correlated with sperm DNA integrity, suggesting that the microbiome may be one of the causes of DNA damage in sperm. However, it has not been elucidated how the microbiota exerts their effects. Here, we used a combination of 16S rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomics techniques to investigate the role of microbiota in high sperm DNA fragmentation index (HDFI). We report that increased specific microbial profiles contribute to high sperm DNA fragmentation, thus implicating the seminal microbiome as a new therapeutic target for HDFI patients. Additionally, we found that the amount of Lactobacillus species was altered: Lactobacillus iners was enriched in HDFI patients, shedding light on the potential influence of L. iners on male reproductive health. Finally, we also identified enrichment of the acetyl-CoA fermentation to butanoate II and purine nucleobase degradation I in the high sperm DNA fragmentation samples, suggesting that butanoate may be the target metabolite of sperm DNA damage. These findings provide valuable insights into the complex interplay between microbiota and sperm quality in HDFI patients, laying the foundation for further research and potential clinical interventions.IMPORTANCEThe DNA fragmentation index (DFI) is a measure of sperm DNA fragmentation. Because high sperm DNA fragmentation index (HDFI) has been strongly associated with adverse reproductive outcomes, this has been linked to the seminal microbiome. Because the number of current treatments for HDFI is limited and most of them have no clear efficacy, it is critical to understand how semen microbiome exerts their effects on sperm DNA. Here, we evaluated the semen microbiome and its metabolites in patients with high and low sperm DNA fragmentation. We found that increased specific microbial profiles contribute to high sperm DNA fragmentation. In particular, Lactobacillus iners was uniquely correlated with high sperm DNA fragmentation. Additionally, butanoate may be the target metabolite produced by the microbiome to damage sperm DNA. Our findings support the interaction between semen microbiome and sperm DNA damage and suggest that seminal microbiome should be a new therapeutic target for HDFI patients.},
}
@article {pmid38898695,
year = {2024},
author = {Wisgrill, L and Martens, A and Kasbauer, R and Eigenschink, M and Pummer, L and Redlberger-Fritz, M and Végvári, Á and Warth, B and Berger, A and Fyhrquist, N and Alenius, H},
title = {Network analysis reveals age- and virus-specific circuits in nasal epithelial cells of extremely premature infants.},
journal = {Allergy},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1111/all.16196},
pmid = {38898695},
issn = {1398-9995},
support = {[10.47379/LS20025]//Vienna Science and Technology Fund/ ; 2020-02090//Vetenskapsrådet/ ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Viral respiratory infections significantly affect young children, particularly extremely premature infants, resulting in high hospitalization rates and increased health-care burdens. Nasal epithelial cells, the primary defense against respiratory infections, are vital for understanding nasal immune responses and serve as a promising target for uncovering underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms.
METHODS: Using a trans-well pseudostratified nasal epithelial cell system, we examined age-dependent developmental differences and antiviral responses to influenza A and respiratory syncytial virus through systems biology approaches.
RESULTS: Our studies revealed differences in innate-receptor repertoires, distinct developmental pathways, and differentially connected antiviral network circuits between neonatal and adult nasal epithelial cells. Consensus network analysis identified unique and shared cellular-viral networks, emphasizing highly relevant virus-specific pathways, independent of viral replication kinetics.
CONCLUSION: This research highlights the importance of nasal epithelial cells in innate antiviral immune responses and offers crucial insights that allow for a deeper understanding of age-related differences in nasal epithelial cell immunity following respiratory virus infections.},
}
@article {pmid38898021,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhu, B and Edwards, DJ and Spaine, KM and Edupuganti, L and Matveyev, A and Serrano, MG and Buck, GA},
title = {The association of maternal factors with the neonatal microbiota and health.},
journal = {Nature communications},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {5260},
pmid = {38898021},
issn = {2041-1723},
support = {R01HD092415//Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, Inc.)/ ; UH3AI083263//Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, Inc.)/ ; UH3 AI083263/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; R01 HD092415/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States ; U54 HD080784/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States ; U54HD080784//Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, Inc.)/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; Female ; Infant, Newborn ; Pregnancy ; *Feces/microbiology ; *Microbiota ; Adult ; Cesarean Section ; Premature Birth/microbiology ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; Mouth/microbiology ; Rectum/microbiology ; Male ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome plays a crucial role in human health. However, the influence of maternal factors on the neonatal microbiota remains obscure. Herein, our observations suggest that the neonatal microbiotas, particularly the buccal microbiota, change rapidly within 24-48 h of birth but begin to stabilize by 48-72 h after parturition. Network analysis clustered over 200 maternal factors into thirteen distinct groups, and most associated factors were in the same group. Multiple maternal factor groups were associated with the neonatal buccal, rectal, and stool microbiotas. Particularly, a higher maternal inflammatory state and a lower maternal socioeconomic position were associated with a higher alpha diversity of the neonatal buccal microbiota and beta diversity of the neonatal stool microbiota was influenced by maternal diet and cesarean section by 24-72 h postpartum. The risk of admission of a neonate to the newborn intensive care unit was associated with preterm birth as well as higher cytokine levels and probably higher alpha diversity of the maternal buccal microbiota.},
}
@article {pmid38892281,
year = {2024},
author = {Bose, D and Saha, P and Roy, S and Trivedi, A and More, M and Klimas, N and Tuteja, A and Chatterjee, S},
title = {A Double-Humanized Mouse Model for Studying Host Gut Microbiome-Immune Interactions in Gulf War Illness.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {25},
number = {11},
pages = {},
pmid = {38892281},
issn = {1422-0067},
support = {I01 CX001923/CX/CSRD VA/United States ; I01CX0001923//United States Department of Veterans Affairs/ ; },
mesh = {Animals ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Persian Gulf Syndrome/immunology/microbiology ; Humans ; Mice ; *Disease Models, Animal ; *Cytokines/metabolism ; Fecal Microbiota Transplantation ; },
abstract = {Unraveling the multisymptomatic Gulf War Illness (GWI) pathology and finding an effective cure have eluded researchers for decades. The chronic symptom persistence and limitations for studying the etiologies in mouse models that differ significantly from those in humans pose challenges for drug discovery and finding effective therapeutic regimens. The GWI exposome differs significantly in the study cohorts, and the above makes it difficult to recreate a model closely resembling the GWI symptom pathology. We have used a double engraftment strategy for reconstituting a human immune system coupled with human microbiome transfer to create a humanized-mouse model for GWI. Using whole-genome shotgun sequencing and blood immune cytokine enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), we show that our double humanized mice treated with Gulf War (GW) chemicals show significantly altered gut microbiomes, similar to those reported in a Veteran cohort of GWI. The results also showed similar cytokine profiles, such as increased levels of IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF R-1, in the double humanized model, as found previously in a human cohort. Further, a novel GWI Veteran fecal microbiota transfer was used to create a second alternative model that closely resembled the microbiome and immune-system-associated pathology of a GWI Veteran. A GWI Veteran microbiota transplant in humanized mice showed a human microbiome reconstitution and a systemic inflammatory pathology, as reflected by increases in interleukins 1β, 6, 8 (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8), tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNF R-1), and endotoxemia. In conclusion, though preliminary, we report a novel in vivo model with a human microbiome reconstitution and an engrafted human immune phenotype that may help to better understand gut-immune interactions in GWI.},
}
@article {pmid38890378,
year = {2024},
author = {Khawaja, T and Mäklin, T and Kallonen, T and Gladstone, RA and Pöntinen, AK and Mero, S and Thorpe, HA and Samuelsen, Ø and Parkhill, J and Izhar, M and Akhtar, MW and Corander, J and Kantele, A},
title = {Deep sequencing of Escherichia coli exposes colonisation diversity and impact of antibiotics in Punjab, Pakistan.},
journal = {Nature communications},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {5196},
pmid = {38890378},
issn = {2041-1723},
support = {/WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom ; AMRIWA//Academy of Finland (Suomen Akatemia)/ ; 206194/WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom ; EuroHPC//Academy of Finland (Suomen Akatemia)/ ; },
mesh = {Pakistan/epidemiology ; Humans ; *Escherichia coli/genetics/drug effects/isolation & purification ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; *Escherichia coli Infections/epidemiology/microbiology/drug therapy ; *Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial/genetics ; *High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ; Feces/microbiology ; Female ; Male ; Genome, Bacterial/genetics ; Adult ; Genetic Variation ; Middle Aged ; Young Adult ; Phylogeny ; Adolescent ; Child ; },
abstract = {Multi-drug resistant (MDR) E. coli constitute a major public health burden globally, reaching the highest prevalence in the global south yet frequently flowing with travellers to other regions. However, our comprehension of the entire genetic diversity of E. coli colonising local populations remains limited. We quantified this diversity, its associated antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and assessed the impact of antibiotic use by recruiting 494 outpatients and 423 community dwellers in the Punjab province, Pakistan. Rectal swab and stool samples were cultured on CLED agar and DNA extracted from plate sweeps was sequenced en masse to capture both the genetic and AMR diversity of E. coli. We assembled 5,247 E. coli genomes from 1,411 samples, displaying marked genetic diversity in gut colonisation. Compared with high income countries, the Punjabi population generally showed a markedly different distribution of genetic lineages and AMR determinants, while use of antibiotics elevated the prevalence of well-known globally circulating MDR clinical strains. These findings implicate that longitudinal multi-regional genomics-based surveillance of both colonisation and infections is a prerequisite for developing mechanistic understanding of the interplay between ecology and evolution in the maintenance and dissemination of (MDR) E. coli.},
}
@article {pmid38890150,
year = {2024},
author = {Fu, C and Zhang, Y and Liang, L and Lin, H and Shan, K and Liu, F and Feng, N},
title = {The microbiota in patients with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome: a systematic review.},
journal = {BJU international},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1111/bju.16439},
pmid = {38890150},
issn = {1464-410X},
support = {THRCJH20200104//Wuxi Taihu Lake Talent Plan, Leading Talents in Medical and Health Profession Project/ ; },
abstract = {OBJECTIVE: To comprehensively review and critically assess the literature on microbiota differences between patients with interstitial cystitis (IC)/bladder pain syndrome (BPS) and normal controls and to provide clinical practice guidelines.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this systematic review, we evaluated previous research on microbiota disparities between IC/BPS and normal controls, as well as distinctions among IC/BPS subgroups. A comprehensive literature search was conducted across PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Relevant studies were shortlisted based on predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria, followed by quality assessment. The primary focus was identifying specific taxonomic variations among these cohorts.
RESULTS: A total of 12 studies met the selection criteria. Discrepancies were adjudicated by a third reviewer. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess study quality. Predominantly, the studies focused on disparities in urine microbiota between IC/BPS patients and normal controls, with one study examining gut microbiota differences between the groups, and two studies exploring vaginal microbiota distinctions. Unfortunately, analyses of discrepancies in other microbiota were limited. Our findings revealed evidence of distinct bacterial abundance variations, particularly involving Lactobacillus, alongside variations in specific metabolites among IC/BPS patients compared to controls.
CONCLUSIONS: Currently, there is evidence suggesting significant variations in the diversity and species composition of the urinary microbiota between individuals diagnosed with IC/BPS and control groups. In the foreseeable future, urologists should consider urine microbiota dysbiosis as a potential aetiology for IC, with potential clinical implications for diagnosis and treatment.},
}
@article {pmid38884446,
year = {2024},
author = {Moussa, AY},
title = {Streptomyces Endophytes in Edible Plants: New Insights into their Chemistry and Health Benefits.},
journal = {Chemistry & biodiversity},
volume = {21},
number = {10},
pages = {e202400888},
doi = {10.1002/cbdv.202400888},
pmid = {38884446},
issn = {1612-1880},
mesh = {*Streptomyces/chemistry/metabolism/isolation & purification ; *Endophytes/chemistry/metabolism ; Humans ; *Plants, Edible/chemistry/microbiology ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology/chemistry/isolation & purification ; },
abstract = {Streptomyces is the largest source of microbial antibiotics with about 50 % of marketed antimicrobial drugs originating from this genus. Endophytic streptomyces are the link between medicinal plants and the microbial world. Endophytic Streptomyces in edible plants were not targeted before despite their uniqueness and importance. In this review, we analyzed the chemical diversity of more than 150 compounds belonging to endophytic Streptomyces chemical classes such as alkaloids, polyketides, peptides, macrolides and terpenes and their biological activities. This analysis showed a dominant antimicrobial effect for most of the isolated compounds and highlighted an underestimated diversity to be studied or repurposed for other biological activities. Return to edible plants use and conducting toxicity studies to rationalize their nutraceutical potential based on their beneficial endophytes is urged. Although there are many studies for non-vertebrates, the nutraceutical potential of these plants is expected to improve the gut microbiota since they are enriched with bioactive compounds from streptomyces species. This is the first review to discuss edible plants associated streptomyces, and we prospect that many studies will follow to unravel the mysterious health benefits of streptomyces in the human microbiome and encourage the revival of a correct lifestyle for the sake of a healthier microbiome.},
}
@article {pmid38882496,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhang, Z and Zhang, HL and Yang, DH and Hao, Q and Yang, HW and Meng, DL and Meindert de Vos, W and Guan, LL and Liu, SB and Teame, T and Gao, CC and Ran, C and Yang, YL and Yao, YY and Ding, QW and Zhou, ZG},
title = {Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG triggers intestinal epithelium injury in zebrafish revealing host dependent beneficial effects.},
journal = {iMeta},
volume = {3},
number = {2},
pages = {e181},
pmid = {38882496},
issn = {2770-596X},
abstract = {Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG), the well-characterized human-derived probiotic strain, possesses excellent properties in the maintenance of intestinal homeostasis, immunoregulation and defense against gastrointestinal pathogens in mammals. Here, we demonstrate that the SpaC pilin of LGG causes intestinal epithelium injury by inducing cell pyroptosis and gut microbial dysbiosis in zebrafish. Dietary SpaC activates Caspase-3-GSDMEa pathways in the intestinal epithelium, promotes intestinal pyroptosis and increases lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-producing gut microbes in zebrafish. The increased LPS subsequently activates Gaspy2-GSDMEb pyroptosis pathway. Further analysis reveals the Caspase-3-GSDMEa pyroptosis is initiated by the species-specific recognition of SpaC by TLR4ba, which accounts for the species-specificity of the SpaC-inducing intestinal pyroptosis in zebrafish. The observed pyroptosis-driven gut injury and microbial dysbiosis by LGG in zebrafish suggest that host-specific beneficial/harmful mechanisms are critical safety issues when applying probiotics derived from other host species and need more attention.},
}
@article {pmid38882486,
year = {2024},
author = {Wu, D and Guan, YX and Li, CH and Zheng, Q and Yin, ZJ and Wang, H and Liu, NN},
title = {"Nutrient-fungi-host" tripartite interaction in cancer progression.},
journal = {iMeta},
volume = {3},
number = {2},
pages = {e170},
pmid = {38882486},
issn = {2770-596X},
abstract = {The human microbiome exhibits a profound connection with the cancer development, progression, and therapeutic response, with particular emphasis on its components of the mycobiome, which are still in the early stages of research. In this review, we comprehensively summarize cancer-related symbiotic and pathogenic fungal genera. The intricate mechanisms through which fungi impact cancer as an integral member of both gut and tissue-resident microbiomes are further discussed. In addition, we shed light on the pivotal physiological roles of various nutrients, including cholesterol, carbohydrates, proteins and minerals, in facilitating the growth, reproduction, and invasive pathogenesis of the fungi. While our exploration of the interplay between nutrients and cancer, mediated by the mycobiome, is ongoing, the current findings have yet to yield conclusive results. Thus, delving into the relationship between nutrients and fungal pathogenesis in cancer development and progression would provide valuable insights into anticancer therapy and foster precision nutrition and individualized treatments that target fungi from bench to bedside.},
}
@article {pmid38878076,
year = {2024},
author = {Jawanda, IK and Soni, T and Kumari, S and Prabha, V},
title = {The evolving facets of vaginal microbiota transplantation: reinvigorating the unexplored frontier amid complex challenges.},
journal = {Archives of microbiology},
volume = {206},
number = {7},
pages = {306},
pmid = {38878076},
issn = {1432-072X},
mesh = {Animals ; Female ; Humans ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use ; *Dysbiosis/microbiology/therapy ; Lactobacillus ; *Microbiota ; *Probiotics/administration & dosage ; *Vagina/microbiology ; },
abstract = {In an age of cutting-edge sequencing methods and worldwide endeavors such as The Human Microbiome Project and MetaHIT, the human microbiome stands as a complex and diverse community of microorganisms. A central theme in current scientific inquiry revolves around reinstating a balanced microbial composition, referred to as "eubiosis," as a targeted approach for treating vast array of diseases. Vaginal Microbiota Transplantation (VMT), inspired by the success of fecal microbiota transplantation, emerges as an innovative therapy addressing vaginal dysbacteriosis by transferring the complete microbiota from a healthy donor. Antibiotics, while effective, pose challenges with adverse effects, high recurrence rates, and potential harm to beneficial Lactobacillus strains. Continued antibiotic usage also sparks worries regarding the development of resistant strains. Probiotics, though showing promise, exhibit inconsistency in treating multifactorial diseases, and concerns linger about their suitability for diverse genetic backgrounds. Given the recurrent challenges associated with antibiotic and probiotic treatments, VMT emerges as an imperative alternative, offering a unique and promising avenue for efficiently and reliably managing vaginal dysbiosis among a majority of women. This review critically evaluates findings from both animal and human studies, offering nuanced insights into the efficacy and challenges of VMT. An extensive analysis of clinical trials, provides a current overview of ongoing and completed trials, shedding light on the evolving clinical landscape and therapeutic potential of VMT. Delving into the origins, mechanisms, and optimized protocols of VMT, the review underscores the imperative for sustained research efforts to advance this groundbreaking gynecological therapy.},
}
@article {pmid38874821,
year = {2024},
author = {Wu, K and Chen, J and Lin, J and Zhu, E and Xu, X and Yan, X and Ju, L and Huang, M and Zhang, Y},
title = {The role of ferroptosis in DM-induced liver injury.},
journal = {Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine},
volume = {37},
number = {5},
pages = {1191-1200},
pmid = {38874821},
issn = {1572-8773},
mesh = {Animals ; *Ferroptosis ; Male ; Rats ; *Receptors, Transferrin/metabolism ; *Phospholipid Hydroperoxide Glutathione Peroxidase/metabolism ; Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental/metabolism/pathology/chemically induced ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Liver/pathology/metabolism ; Streptozocin ; Superoxide Dismutase/metabolism ; Glutathione/metabolism ; Cation Transport Proteins/metabolism/genetics ; Malondialdehyde/metabolism ; Iron/metabolism ; },
abstract = {The liver damage caused by Diabetes Mellitus (DM) has attracted increasing attention in recent years. Liver injury in DM can be caused by ferroptosis, a form of cell death caused by iron overload. However, the role of iron transporters in this context is still not clear. Herein, we attempted to shed light on the pathophysiological mechanism of ferroptosis. DM was induced in 8-week-old male rats by streptozotocin (STZ) before assessment of the degree of liver injury. Together with histopathological changes, variations in glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), transferrin receptor 1 (TFR1), ferritin heavy chain (FTH), ferritin light chain (FTL), ferroportin and Prussian blue staining, were monitored in rat livers before and after treatment with Fer-1. In the liver of STZ-treated rats, GSH and SOD levels decreased, whereas those of malondialdehyde (MDA) increased. Expression of TFR1, FTH and FTL increased whereas that of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) and ferroportin did not change significantly. Prussian blue staining showed that iron levels increased. Histopathology showed liver fibrosis and decreased glycogen content. Fer-1 treatment reduced iron and MDA levels but GSH and SOD levels were unchanged. Expression of FTH and FTL was reduced whereas that of ferroportin showed a mild decrease. Fer-1 treatment alleviated liver fibrosis, increased glycogen content and mildly improved liver function. Our study demonstrates that ferroptosis is involved in DM-induced liver injury. Regulating the levels of iron transporters may become a new therapeutic strategy in ferroptosis-induced liver injury.},
}
@article {pmid38873568,
year = {2024},
author = {Shang, Z and Pai, L and Patil, S},
title = {Unveiling the dynamics of gut microbial interactions: a review of dietary impact and precision nutrition in gastrointestinal health.},
journal = {Frontiers in nutrition},
volume = {11},
number = {},
pages = {1395664},
pmid = {38873568},
issn = {2296-861X},
abstract = {The human microbiome, a dynamic ecosystem within the gastrointestinal tract, plays a pivotal role in shaping overall health. This review delves into six interconnected sections, unraveling the intricate relationship between diet, gut microbiota, and their profound impact on human health. The dance of nutrients in the gut orchestrates a complex symphony, influencing digestive processes and susceptibility to gastrointestinal disorders. Emphasizing the bidirectional communication between the gut and the brain, the Brain-Gut Axis section highlights the crucial role of dietary choices in physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Autoimmune diseases, particularly those manifesting in the gastrointestinal tract, reveal the delicate balance disrupted by gut microbiome imbalances. Strategies for reconciling gut microbes through diets, precision nutrition, and clinical indications showcase promising avenues for managing gastrointestinal distress and revolutionizing healthcare. From the Low-FODMAP diet to neuro-gut interventions, these strategies provide a holistic understanding of the gut's dynamic world. Precision nutrition, as a groundbreaking discipline, holds transformative potential by tailoring dietary recommendations to individual gut microbiota compositions, reshaping the landscape of gastrointestinal health. Recent advancements in clinical indications, including exact probiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation, and neuro-gut interventions, signify a new era where the gut microbiome actively participates in therapeutic strategies. As the microbiome takes center stage in healthcare, a paradigm shift toward personalized and effective treatments for gastrointestinal disorders emerges, reflecting the symbiotic relationship between the human body and its microbial companions.},
}
@article {pmid38873138,
year = {2024},
author = {Chi, J and Ye, J and Zhou, Y},
title = {A GLM-based zero-inflated generalized Poisson factor model for analyzing microbiome data.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1394204},
pmid = {38873138},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {MOTIVATION: High-throughput sequencing technology facilitates the quantitative analysis of microbial communities, improving the capacity to investigate the associations between the human microbiome and diseases. Our primary motivating application is to explore the association between gut microbes and obesity. The complex characteristics of microbiome data, including high dimensionality, zero inflation, and over-dispersion, pose new statistical challenges for downstream analysis.
RESULTS: We propose a GLM-based zero-inflated generalized Poisson factor analysis (GZIGPFA) model to analyze microbiome data with complex characteristics. The GZIGPFA model is based on a zero-inflated generalized Poisson (ZIGP) distribution for modeling microbiome count data. A link function between the generalized Poisson rate and the probability of excess zeros is established within the generalized linear model (GLM) framework. The latent parameters of the GZIGPFA model constitute a low-rank matrix comprising a low-dimensional score matrix and a loading matrix. An alternating maximum likelihood algorithm is employed to estimate the unknown parameters, and cross-validation is utilized to determine the rank of the model in this study. The proposed GZIGPFA model demonstrates superior performance and advantages through comprehensive simulation studies and real data applications.},
}
@article {pmid38868076,
year = {2024},
author = {Takallu, S and Aiyelabegan, HT and Zomorodi, AR and Alexandrovna, KV and Aflakian, F and Asvar, Z and Moradi, F and Behbahani, MR and Mirzaei, E and Sarhadi, F and Vakili-Ghartavol, R},
title = {Nanotechnology improves the detection of bacteria: Recent advances and future perspectives.},
journal = {Heliyon},
volume = {10},
number = {11},
pages = {e32020},
pmid = {38868076},
issn = {2405-8440},
abstract = {Nanotechnology has advanced significantly, particularly in biomedicine, showing promise for nanomaterial applications. Bacterial infections pose persistent public health challenges due to the lack of rapid pathogen detection methods, resulting in antibiotic overuse and bacterial resistance, threatening the human microbiome. Nanotechnology offers a solution through nanoparticle-based materials facilitating early bacterial detection and combating resistance. This study explores recent research on nanoparticle development for controlling microbial infections using various nanotechnology-driven detection methods. These approaches include Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) Sensors, Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) Sensors, Optoelectronic-based sensors, Bacteriophage-Based Sensors, and nanotechnology-based aptasensors. These technologies provide precise bacteria detection, enabling targeted treatment and infection prevention. Integrating nanoparticles into detection approaches holds promise for enhancing patient outcomes and mitigating harmful bacteria spread in healthcare settings.},
}
@article {pmid38866914,
year = {2024},
author = {Heinzel, S and Jureczek, J and Kainulainen, V and Nieminen, AI and Suenkel, U and von Thaler, AK and Kaleta, C and Eschweiler, GW and Brockmann, K and Aho, VTE and Auvinen, P and Maetzler, W and Berg, D and Scheperjans, F},
title = {Elevated fecal calprotectin is associated with gut microbial dysbiosis, altered serum markers and clinical outcomes in older individuals.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {14},
number = {1},
pages = {13513},
pmid = {38866914},
issn = {2045-2322},
support = {675915//Germany Research Society/ ; 310835//Research Council of Finland/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Leukocyte L1 Antigen Complex/analysis/metabolism ; *Feces/microbiology/chemistry ; *Dysbiosis/diagnosis ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Aged ; Female ; Male ; *Biomarkers/blood/analysis ; Middle Aged ; Cohort Studies ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/blood/metabolism/microbiology ; },
abstract = {Fecal calprotectin is an established marker of gut inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Elevated levels of fecal calprotectin as well as gut microbial dysbiosis have also been observed in other clinical conditions. However, systemic and multi-omics alterations linked to elevated fecal calprotectin in older individuals remain unclear. This study comprehensively investigated the relationship between fecal calprotectin levels, gut microbiome composition, serum inflammation and targeted metabolomics markers, and relevant lifestyle and medical data in a large sample of older individuals (n = 735; mean age ± SD: 68.7 ± 6.3) from the TREND cohort study. Low (0-50 μg/g; n = 602), moderate (> 50-100 μg/g; n = 64) and high (> 100 μg/g; n = 62) fecal calprotectin groups were stratified. Several pro-inflammatory gut microbial genera were significantly increased and short-chain fatty acid producing genera were decreased in high vs. low calprotectin groups. In serum, IL-17C, CCL19 and the toxic metabolite indoxyl sulfate were increased in high vs. low fecal calprotectin groups. These changes were partially mediated by the gut microbiota. Moreover, the high fecal calprotectin group showed increased BMI and a higher disease prevalence of heart attack and obesity. Our findings contribute to the understanding of fecal calprotectin as a marker of gut dysbiosis and its broader systemic and clinical implications in older individuals.},
}
@article {pmid38862605,
year = {2024},
author = {},
title = {The human microbiome and immune response shift during spaceflight.},
journal = {Nature microbiology},
volume = {9},
number = {7},
pages = {1640-1641},
pmid = {38862605},
issn = {2058-5276},
mesh = {*Space Flight ; Humans ; *Microbiota/immunology ; Immunity ; Weightlessness ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/immunology ; },
}
@article {pmid38862604,
year = {2024},
author = {Tierney, BT and Kim, J and Overbey, EG and Ryon, KA and Foox, J and Sierra, MA and Bhattacharya, C and Damle, N and Najjar, D and Park, J and Garcia Medina, JS and Houerbi, N and Meydan, C and Wain Hirschberg, J and Qiu, J and Kleinman, AS and Al-Ghalith, GA and MacKay, M and Afshin, EE and Dhir, R and Borg, J and Gatt, C and Brereton, N and Readhead, BP and Beyaz, S and Venkateswaran, KJ and Wiseman, K and Moreno, J and Boddicker, AM and Zhao, J and Lajoie, BR and Scott, RT and Altomare, A and Kruglyak, S and Levy, S and Church, GM and Mason, CE},
title = {Longitudinal multi-omics analysis of host microbiome architecture and immune responses during short-term spaceflight.},
journal = {Nature microbiology},
volume = {9},
number = {7},
pages = {1661-1675},
pmid = {38862604},
issn = {2058-5276},
support = {R01 CA249054/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; R01 MH117406/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States ; NNX14AH50G//NASA | Johnson Space Center (JSC)/ ; NNX16AO69A//NASA | Johnson Space Center (JSC)/ ; R01MH117406//U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)/ ; R01 ES032638/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; R01 AI151059/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {*Space Flight ; Humans ; Longitudinal Studies ; *Microbiota/immunology ; *Metagenomics ; *Astronauts ; *Bacteria/classification/genetics/immunology ; Male ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Adult ; Middle Aged ; Female ; Transcriptome ; Multiomics ; },
abstract = {Maintenance of astronaut health during spaceflight will require monitoring and potentially modulating their microbiomes. However, documenting microbial shifts during spaceflight has been difficult due to mission constraints that lead to limited sampling and profiling. Here we executed a six-month longitudinal study to quantify the high-resolution human microbiome response to three days in orbit for four individuals. Using paired metagenomics and metatranscriptomics alongside single-nuclei immune cell profiling, we characterized time-dependent, multikingdom microbiome changes across 750 samples and 10 body sites before, during and after spaceflight at eight timepoints. We found that most alterations were transient across body sites; for example, viruses increased in skin sites mostly during flight. However, longer-term shifts were observed in the oral microbiome, including increased plaque-associated bacteria (for example, Fusobacteriota), which correlated with immune cell gene expression. Further, microbial genes associated with phage activity, toxin-antitoxin systems and stress response were enriched across multiple body sites. In total, this study reveals in-depth characterization of microbiome and immune response shifts experienced by astronauts during short-term spaceflight and the associated changes to the living environment, which can help guide future missions, spacecraft design and space habitat planning.},
}
@article {pmid38862602,
year = {2024},
author = {Osbelt, L and Almási, ÉDH and Wende, M and Kienesberger, S and Voltz, A and Lesker, TR and Muthukumarasamy, U and Knischewski, N and Nordmann, E and Bielecka, AA and Giralt-Zúñiga, M and Kaganovitch, E and Kühne, C and Baier, C and Pietsch, M and Müsken, M and Greweling-Pils, MC and Breinbauer, R and Flieger, A and Schlüter, D and Müller, R and Erhardt, M and Zechner, EL and Strowig, T},
title = {Klebsiella oxytoca inhibits Salmonella infection through multiple microbiota-context-dependent mechanisms.},
journal = {Nature microbiology},
volume = {9},
number = {7},
pages = {1792-1811},
pmid = {38862602},
issn = {2058-5276},
support = {01KI1824//Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (Joint Programming Initiative for Antimicrobial Resistance)/ ; },
mesh = {*Klebsiella oxytoca/genetics/metabolism ; Animals ; Mice ; *Salmonella Infections/microbiology ; *Salmonella typhimurium/genetics/metabolism/growth & development/drug effects ; Humans ; Disease Models, Animal ; Enterotoxins/metabolism/genetics ; Female ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Klebsiella Infections/microbiology ; Microbiota ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Antibiosis ; Benzodiazepinones ; },
abstract = {The Klebsiella oxytoca species complex is part of the human microbiome, especially during infancy and childhood. K. oxytoca species complex strains can produce enterotoxins, namely, tilimycin and tilivalline, while also contributing to colonization resistance (CR). The relationship between these seemingly contradictory roles is not well understood. Here, by coupling ex vivo assays with CRISPR-mutagenesis and various mouse models, we show that K. oxytoca provides CR against Salmonella Typhimurium. In vitro, the antimicrobial activity against various Salmonella strains depended on tilimycin production and was induced by various simple carbohydrates. In vivo, CR against Salmonella depended on toxin production in germ-free mice, while it was largely toxin-independent in mice with residual microbiota. This was linked to the relative levels of toxin-inducing carbohydrates in vivo. Finally, dulcitol utilization was essential for toxin-independent CR in gnotobiotic mice. Together, this demonstrates that nutrient availability is key to both toxin-dependent and substrate-driven competition between K. oxytoca and Salmonella.},
}
@article {pmid38855423,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhang, L and Wu, R and Ma, T and Fu, W and Chen, J and Li, L and He, Q},
title = {Investigation on the Therapeutic Mechanism of Danbie Capsules for Endometriosis: A Network Pharmacology Approach.},
journal = {International journal of general medicine},
volume = {17},
number = {},
pages = {2557-2574},
pmid = {38855423},
issn = {1178-7074},
abstract = {OBJECTIVE: To explore the active substances and targets of Danbie Capsules in Endometriosis therapy.
METHODS: This study was conducted through TCMSP and published literature screened and obtained 183 active substances of Danbie Capsules, combined and intersected with Endometriosis target genes collected and screened in the GEO database, obtained 24 target genes for Endometriosis treatment, and mapped the target network map of Danbie Capsules active substances against Endometriosis. The network was analyzed with the aid of Cytoscape version 3.9.1. With the aid of the platform of the STRING data analysis, PPI network analysis was conducted on 24 anti-Endometriosis targets of the Danbie Capsules.
RESULTS: The research results obtained three critical active substances, namely, Quercetin, β-sitosterol, and Luteolin. Seven critical targets were identified, and two representative genes (TP53 and AKT1) have been verified in Macromolecular docking and immunohistochemical verification.
CONCLUSION: The active substances of Danbie Capsules in the treatment of Endometriosis are Quercetin, β-sitosterol and Luteolin, and the main targets are TP53 and AKT1.},
}
@article {pmid38854053,
year = {2024},
author = {Byrne, SR and DeMott, MS and Yuan, Y and Ghanegolmohammadi, F and Kaiser, S and Fox, JG and Alm, EJ and Dedon, PC},
title = {Temporal dynamics and metagenomics of phosphorothioate epigenomes in the human gut microbiome.},
journal = {bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {38854053},
issn = {2692-8205},
support = {P30 DK043351/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; P30 ES002109/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; T32 ES007020/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Epigenetic regulation of gene expression and host defense is well established in microbial communities, with dozens of DNA modifications comprising the epigenomes of prokaryotes and bacteriophage. Phosphorothioation (PT) of DNA, in which a chemically-reactive sulfur atom replaces a non-bridging oxygen in the sugar-phosphate backbone, is catalyzed by dnd and ssp gene families widespread in bacteria and archaea. However, little is known about the role of PTs or other microbial epigenetic modifications in the human microbiome. Here we optimized and applied fecal DNA extraction, mass spectrometric, and metagenomics technologies to characterize the landscape and temporal dynamics of gut microbes possessing PT modifications.
RESULTS: Exploiting the nuclease-resistance of PTs, mass spectrometric analysis of limit digests of PT-containing DNA reveals PT dinucleotides as part of genomic consensus sequences, with 16 possible dinucleotide combinations. Analysis of mouse fecal DNA revealed a highly uniform spectrum of 11 PT dinucleotides in all littermates, with PTs estimated to occur in 5-10% of gut microbes. Though at similar levels, PT dinucleotides in fecal DNA from 11 healthy humans possessed signature combinations and levels of individual PTs. Comparison with a widely distributed microbial epigenetic mark, m[6]dA, suggested temporal dynamics consistent with expectations for gut microbial communities based on Taylor's Power Law. Application of PT-seq for site-specific metagenomic analysis of PT-containing bacteria in one fecal donor revealed the larger consensus sequences for the PT dinucleotides in Bacteroidota, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria, which differed from unbiased metagenomics and suggested that the abundance of PT-containing bacteria did not simply mirror the spectrum of gut bacteria. PT-seq further revealed low abundance PT sites not detected as dinucleotides by mass spectrometry, attesting to the complementarity of the technologies.
CONCLUSIONS: The results of our studies provide a benchmark for understanding the behavior of an abundant and chemically-reactive epigenetic mark in the human gut microbiome, with implications for inflammatory conditions of the gut.},
}
@article {pmid38850297,
year = {2024},
author = {Hoisington, AJ and Stamper, CE and Ellis, JC and Lowry, CA and Brenner, LA},
title = {Quantifying variation across 16S rRNA gene sequencing runs in human microbiome studies.},
journal = {Applied microbiology and biotechnology},
volume = {108},
number = {1},
pages = {367},
pmid = {38850297},
issn = {1432-0614},
support = {U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs//U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs/ ; 140755//Mindsource Brain Injury Network/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; *Feces/microbiology ; *Microbiota/genetics ; *Sequence Analysis, DNA/methods ; *DNA, Bacterial/genetics ; Bacteria/genetics/classification/isolation & purification ; Reproducibility of Results ; Mouth/microbiology ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing/methods ; },
abstract = {Recent microbiome research has incorporated a higher number of samples through more participants in a study, longitudinal studies, and metanalysis between studies. Physical limitations in a sequencing machine can result in samples spread across sequencing runs. Here we present the results of sequencing nearly 1000 16S rRNA gene sequences in fecal (stabilized and swab) and oral (swab) samples from multiple human microbiome studies and positive controls that were conducted with identical standard operating procedures. Sequencing was performed in the same center across 18 different runs. The simplified mock community showed limitations in accuracy, while precision (e.g., technical variation) was robust for the mock community and actual human positive control samples. Technical variation was the lowest for stabilized fecal samples, followed by fecal swab samples, and then oral swab samples. The order of technical variation stability was inverse of DNA concentrations (e.g., highest in stabilized fecal samples), highlighting the importance of DNA concentration in reproducibility and urging caution when analyzing low biomass samples. Coefficients of variation at the genus level also followed the same trend for lower variation with higher DNA concentrations. Technical variation across both sample types and the two human sampling locations was significantly less than the observed biological variation. Overall, this research providing comparisons between technical and biological variation, highlights the importance of using positive controls, and provides semi-quantified data to better understand variation introduced by sequencing runs. KEY POINTS: • Mock community and positive control accuracy were lower than precision. • Samples with lower DNA concentration had increased technical variation across sequencing runs. • Biological variation was significantly higher than technical variation due to sequencing runs.},
}
@article {pmid38849871,
year = {2024},
author = {Lu, W and Aihaiti, A and Abudukeranmu, P and Liu, Y and Gao, H},
title = {Unravelling the role of intratumoral bacteria in digestive system cancers: current insights and future perspectives.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
volume = {22},
number = {1},
pages = {545},
pmid = {38849871},
issn = {1479-5876},
mesh = {Humans ; *Digestive System Neoplasms/microbiology/therapy ; *Bacteria/metabolism ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Animals ; },
abstract = {Recently, research on the human microbiome, especially concerning the bacteria within the digestive system, has substantially advanced. This exploration has unveiled a complex interplay between microbiota and health, particularly in the context of disease. Evidence suggests that the gut microbiome plays vital roles in digestion, immunity and the synthesis of vitamins and neurotransmitters, highlighting its significance in maintaining overall health. Conversely, disruptions in these microbial communities, termed dysbiosis, have been linked to the pathogenesis of various diseases, including digestive system cancers. These bacteria can influence cancer progression through mechanisms such as DNA damage, modulation of the tumour microenvironment, and effects on the host's immune response. Changes in the composition and function within the tumours can also impact inflammation, immune response and cancer therapy effectiveness. These findings offer promising avenues for the clinical application of intratumoral bacteria for digestive system cancer treatment, including the potential use of microbial markers for early cancer detection, prognostication and the development of microbiome-targeted therapies to enhance treatment outcomes. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the pivotal roles played by gut microbiome bacteria in the development of digestive system cancers. Additionally, we delve into the specific contributions of intratumoral bacteria to digestive system cancer development, elucidating potential mechanisms and clinical implications. Ultimately, this review underscores the intricate interplay between intratumoral bacteria and digestive system cancers, underscoring the pivotal role of microbiome research in transforming diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic paradigms for digestive system cancers.},
}
@article {pmid38849503,
year = {2024},
author = {Kingsley, SF and Seo, Y and Wood, A and Wani, KA and Gonzalez, X and Irazoqui, J and Finkel, SE and Tissenbaum, HA},
title = {Glucose-fed microbiota alters C. elegans intestinal epithelium and increases susceptibility to multiple bacterial pathogens.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {14},
number = {1},
pages = {13177},
pmid = {38849503},
issn = {2045-2322},
support = {R01 GM101056/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; R35 GM149284/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; W911NF1210321//U.S. Army Research Office/ ; 5R21AG067317//National Institutes of Aging,United States/ ; },
mesh = {*Caenorhabditis elegans/microbiology ; Animals ; *Glucose/metabolism ; *Intestinal Mucosa/microbiology/metabolism ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Escherichia coli ; Reactive Oxygen Species/metabolism ; Longevity ; Disease Susceptibility ; },
abstract = {Overconsumption of dietary sugar can lead to many negative health effects including the development of Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative disorders. Recently, the human intestinal microbiota, strongly associated with our overall health, has also been known to be affected by diet. However, mechanistic insight into the importance of the human intestinal microbiota and the effects of chronic sugar ingestion has not been possible largely due to the complexity of the human microbiome which contains hundreds of types of organisms. Here, we use an interspecies C. elegans/E. coli system, where E. coli are subjected to high sugar, then consumed by the bacterivore host C. elegans to become the microbiota. This glucose-fed microbiota results in a significant lifespan reduction accompanied by reduced healthspan (locomotion), reduced stress resistance, and changes in behavior and feeding. Lifespan reduction is also accompanied by two potential major contributors: increased intestinal bacterial density and increased concentration of reactive oxygen species. The glucose-fed microbiota accelerated the age-related development of intestinal cell permeability, intestinal distention, and dysregulation of immune effectors. Ultimately, the changes in the intestinal epithelium due to aging with the glucose-fed microbiota results in increased susceptibility to multiple bacterial pathogens. Taken together, our data reveal that chronic ingestion of sugar, such as a Western diet, has profound health effects on the host due to changes in the microbiota and may contribute to the current increased incidence of ailments including inflammatory bowel diseases as well as multiple age-related diseases.},
}
@article {pmid38846023,
year = {2024},
author = {Jones, J and Murphy, CP and Sleator, RD and Culligan, EP},
title = {An exploratory in silico analysis of bacteriocin gene clusters in the urobiome.},
journal = {Microbiome research reports},
volume = {3},
number = {2},
pages = {24},
pmid = {38846023},
issn = {2771-5965},
abstract = {Background: The role of the urobiome in health and disease remains an understudied area compared to the rest of the human microbiome. Enhanced culturing techniques and next-generation sequencing technologies have identified the urobiome as an untapped source of potentially novel antimicrobials. The aim of this study was to screen the urobiome for genes encoding bacteriocin production. Methods: The genomes of 181 bacterial urobiome isolates were screened in silico for the presence of bacteriocin gene clusters using the bacteriocin mining tool BAGEL4 and secondary metabolite screening tool antiSMASH7. Results: From these isolates, an initial 263 areas of interest were identified, manually annotated, and evaluated for potential bacteriocin gene clusters. This resulted in 32 isolates containing 80 potential bacteriocin gene clusters, of which 72% were identified as class II, 13.75% as class III, 8.75% as class I, and 5% as unclassified bacteriocins. Conclusion: Overall, 53 novel variants were discovered, including nisin, gassericin, ubericin, and colicins.},
}
@article {pmid38843312,
year = {2024},
author = {Davison, C and Tallman, S and de Ste-Croix, M and Antonio, M and Oggioni, MR and Kwambana-Adams, B and Freund, F and Beleza, S},
title = {Long-term evolution of Streptococcus mitis and Streptococcus pneumoniae leads to higher genetic diversity within rather than between human populations.},
journal = {PLoS genetics},
volume = {20},
number = {6},
pages = {e1011317},
pmid = {38843312},
issn = {1553-7404},
mesh = {*Streptococcus mitis/genetics ; Humans ; *Streptococcus pneumoniae/genetics ; *Genetic Variation ; *Evolution, Molecular ; *Genome, Bacterial ; Phylogeny ; Genetics, Population ; },
abstract = {Evaluation of the apportionment of genetic diversity of human bacterial commensals within and between human populations is an important step in the characterization of their evolutionary potential. Recent studies showed a correlation between the genomic diversity of human commensal strains and that of their host, but the strength of this correlation and of the geographic structure among human populations is a matter of debate. Here, we studied the genomic diversity and evolution of the phylogenetically related oro-nasopharyngeal healthy-carriage Streptococcus mitis and Streptococcus pneumoniae, whose lifestyles range from stricter commensalism to high pathogenic potential. A total of 119 S. mitis genomes showed higher within- and among-host variation than 810 S. pneumoniae genomes in European, East Asian and African populations. Summary statistics of the site-frequency spectrum for synonymous and non-synonymous variation and ABC modelling showed this difference to be due to higher ancestral bacterial population effective size (Ne) in S. mitis, whose genomic variation has been maintained close to mutation-drift equilibrium across (at least many) generations, whereas S. pneumoniae has been expanding from a smaller ancestral bacterial population. Strikingly, both species show limited differentiation among human populations. As genetic differentiation is inversely proportional to the product of effective population size and migration rate (Nem), we argue that large Ne have led to similar differentiation patterns, even if m is very low for S. mitis. We conclude that more diversity within than among human populations and limited population differentiation must be common features of the human microbiome due to large Ne.},
}
@article {pmid38841413,
year = {2024},
author = {Manrique, P and Montero, I and Fernandez-Gosende, M and Martinez, N and Cantabrana, CH and Rios-Covian, D},
title = {Past, present, and future of microbiome-based therapies.},
journal = {Microbiome research reports},
volume = {3},
number = {2},
pages = {23},
pmid = {38841413},
issn = {2771-5965},
abstract = {Technological advances in studying the human microbiome in depth have enabled the identification of microbial signatures associated with health and disease. This confirms the crucial role of microbiota in maintaining homeostasis and the host health status. Nowadays, there are several ways to modulate the microbiota composition to effectively improve host health; therefore, the development of therapeutic treatments based on the gut microbiota is experiencing rapid growth. In this review, we summarize the influence of the gut microbiota on the development of infectious disease and cancer, which are two of the main targets of microbiome-based therapies currently being developed. We analyze the two-way interaction between the gut microbiota and traditional drugs in order to emphasize the influence of gut microbial composition on drug effectivity and treatment response. We explore the different strategies currently available for modulating this ecosystem to our benefit, ranging from 1st generation intervention strategies to more complex 2nd generation microbiome-based therapies and their regulatory framework. Lastly, we finish with a quick overview of what we believe is the future of these strategies, that is 3rd generation microbiome-based therapies developed with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms.},
}
@article {pmid38838470,
year = {2024},
author = {Matharu, D and Ponsero, AJ and Lengyel, M and Meszaros-Matwiejuk, A and Kolho, KL and de Vos, WM and Molnar-Gabor, D and Salonen, A},
title = {Human milk oligosaccharide composition is affected by season and parity and associates with infant gut microbiota in a birth mode dependent manner in a Finnish birth cohort.},
journal = {EBioMedicine},
volume = {104},
number = {},
pages = {105182},
pmid = {38838470},
issn = {2352-3964},
mesh = {Humans ; *Milk, Human/chemistry/metabolism ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Oligosaccharides/metabolism/analysis ; Female ; Finland ; Infant ; *Parity ; *Seasons ; Birth Cohort ; Metagenomics/methods ; Pregnancy ; Infant, Newborn ; Adult ; Metagenome ; Male ; Feces/microbiology ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), their determinants, infant gut microbiota and health are under extensive research; however, seldom jointly addressed. Leveraging data from the HELMi birth cohort, we investigated them collectively, considering maternal and infant secretor status.
METHODS: HMO composition in breastmilk collected 3 months postpartum (n = 350 mothers) was profiled using high-performance liquid chromatography. Infant gut microbiota taxonomic and functional development was studied at 3, 6, and 12 months (n = 823 stool samples) via shotgun metagenomic sequencing, focusing on HMO metabolism via glycoside hydrolase (GH) analysis. Maternal and infant secretor statuses were identified through phenotyping and genotyping, respectively. Child health, emphasizing allergies and antibiotics as proxies for infectious diseases, was recorded until 2 years.
FINDINGS: Mother's parity, irritable bowel syndrome, gestational diabetes, and season of milk collection associated with HMO composition. Neither maternal nor infant secretor status associated with infant gut microbiota, except for a few taxa linked to individual HMOs. Analysis stratified for birth mode revealed distinct patterns between the infant gut microbiota and HMOs. Child health parameters were not associated to infant or maternal secretor status.
INTERPRETATION: This comprehensive exploration unveils intricate links between secretor genotype, maternal factors, HMO composition, infant microbiota, and child health. Understanding these nuanced relationships is paramount for refining strategies to optimize early life nutrition and its enduring impact on long-term health.
FUNDING: Sweet Crosstalk EU H2020 MSCA ITN, Academy of Finland, Mary and Georg C. Ehrnrooth Foundation, Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation, and Tekes.},
}
@article {pmid38830891,
year = {2024},
author = {Lopes, W and Amor, DR and Gore, J},
title = {Cooperative growth in microbial communities is a driver of multistability.},
journal = {Nature communications},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {4709},
pmid = {38830891},
issn = {2041-1723},
mesh = {*Microbiota/physiology ; Humans ; *Microbial Interactions ; Bacteria/genetics/classification/metabolism/growth & development ; Glutamic Acid/metabolism ; Models, Biological ; Coculture Techniques ; },
abstract = {Microbial communities often exhibit more than one possible stable composition for the same set of external conditions. In the human microbiome, these persistent changes in species composition and abundance are associated with health and disease states, but the drivers of these alternative stable states remain unclear. Here we experimentally demonstrate that a cross-kingdom community, composed of six species relevant to the respiratory tract, displays four alternative stable states each dominated by a different species. In pairwise coculture, we observe widespread bistability among species pairs, providing a natural origin for the multistability of the full community. In contrast with the common association between bistability and antagonism, experiments reveal many positive interactions within and between community members. We find that multiple species display cooperative growth, and modeling predicts that this could drive the observed multistability within the community as well as non-canonical pairwise outcomes. A biochemical screening reveals that glutamate either reduces or eliminates cooperativity in the growth of several species, and we confirm that such supplementation reduces the extent of bistability across pairs and reduces multistability in the full community. Our findings provide a mechanistic explanation of how cooperative growth rather than competitive interactions can underlie multistability in microbial communities.},
}
@article {pmid38830853,
year = {2024},
author = {Kitsios, GD and Sayed, K and Fitch, A and Yang, H and Britton, N and Shah, F and Bain, W and Evankovich, JW and Qin, S and Wang, X and Li, K and Patel, A and Zhang, Y and Radder, J and Dela Cruz, C and Okin, DA and Huang, CY and Van Tyne, D and Benos, PV and Methé, B and Lai, P and Morris, A and McVerry, BJ},
title = {Longitudinal multicompartment characterization of host-microbiota interactions in patients with acute respiratory failure.},
journal = {Nature communications},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {4708},
pmid = {38830853},
issn = {2041-1723},
support = {COVID-19 Respiratory Virus Research//American Lung Association (Lung Association)/ ; IK2 BX004886/BX/BLRD VA/United States ; IK2BX004886//U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (Department of Veterans Affairs)/ ; P01 HL114453/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; T32 HL116275/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; R03 HL162655/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; Female ; Male ; *Dysbiosis/microbiology ; Middle Aged ; *Lung/microbiology ; *COVID-19/microbiology/virology ; Aged ; *Microbiota/genetics ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; Host Microbial Interactions/genetics ; Longitudinal Studies ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; Respiratory Insufficiency/microbiology ; SARS-CoV-2/genetics/isolation & purification ; Adult ; Respiration, Artificial ; Bacteria/genetics/classification/isolation & purification ; Critical Illness ; Metagenomics/methods ; },
abstract = {Critical illness can significantly alter the composition and function of the human microbiome, but few studies have examined these changes over time. Here, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of the oral, lung, and gut microbiota in 479 mechanically ventilated patients (223 females, 256 males) with acute respiratory failure. We use advanced DNA sequencing technologies, including Illumina amplicon sequencing (utilizing 16S and ITS rRNA genes for bacteria and fungi, respectively, in all sample types) and Nanopore metagenomics for lung microbiota. Our results reveal a progressive dysbiosis in all three body compartments, characterized by a reduction in microbial diversity, a decrease in beneficial anaerobes, and an increase in pathogens. We find that clinical factors, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunosuppression, and antibiotic exposure, are associated with specific patterns of dysbiosis. Interestingly, unsupervised clustering of lung microbiota diversity and composition by 16S independently predicted survival and performed better than traditional clinical and host-response predictors. These observations are validated in two separate cohorts of COVID-19 patients, highlighting the potential of lung microbiota as valuable prognostic biomarkers in critical care. Understanding these microbiome changes during critical illness points to new opportunities for microbiota-targeted precision medicine interventions.},
}
@article {pmid38828147,
year = {2024},
author = {Tan, J and Zhang, J and Hu, C and Wang, G and Ren, Q and Wang, C and Dan, J and Zeng, Z and Hu, J and Zhu, W and Liang, J and Cai, J and Liu, Y and Yan, G and Lin, Y},
title = {Pharmacokinetic enhancement of oncolytic virus M1 by inhibiting JAK‒STAT pathway.},
journal = {Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B},
volume = {14},
number = {6},
pages = {2554-2566},
pmid = {38828147},
issn = {2211-3835},
abstract = {Oncolytic viruses (OVs), a group of replication-competent viruses that can selectively infect and kill cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact, are emerging as promising living anticancer agents. Unlike traditional drugs composed of non-replicating compounds or biomolecules, the replicative nature of viruses confer unique pharmacokinetic properties that require further studies. Despite some pharmacokinetics studies of OVs, mechanistic insights into the connection between OV pharmacokinetics and antitumor efficacy remain vague. Here, we characterized the pharmacokinetic profile of oncolytic virus M1 (OVM) in immunocompetent mouse tumor models and identified the JAK‒STAT pathway as a key modulator of OVM pharmacokinetics. By suppressing the JAK‒STAT pathway, early OVM pharmacokinetics are ameliorated, leading to enhanced tumor-specific viral accumulation, increased AUC and Cmax, and improved antitumor efficacy. Rather than compromising antitumor immunity after JAK‒STAT inhibition, the improved pharmacokinetics of OVM promotes T cell recruitment and activation in the tumor microenvironment, providing an optimal opportunity for the therapeutic outcome of immune checkpoint blockade, such as anti-PD-L1. Taken together, this study advances our understanding of the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship in OV therapy.},
}
@article {pmid38826830,
year = {2024},
author = {Sahle, Z and Engidaye, G and Shenkute Gebreyes, D and Adenew, B and Abebe, TA},
title = {Fecal microbiota transplantation and next-generation therapies: A review on targeting dysbiosis in metabolic disorders and beyond.},
journal = {SAGE open medicine},
volume = {12},
number = {},
pages = {20503121241257486},
pmid = {38826830},
issn = {2050-3121},
abstract = {The human microbiome, particularly the gut microbiome, has emerged as a central determinant of health and disease. Dysbiosis, an imbalance in the microbial composition of the gut, is associated with a variety of metabolic and other diseases, highlighting the potential for microbiota-targeted treatments. Fecal microbiota transplantation has received considerable attention as a promising therapy to modulate the gut microbiome and restore microbial homeostasis. However, challenges remain, including standardization, safety, and long-term efficacy. This review summarizes current knowledge on fecal microbiota transplantation and describes the next generation therapies targeting microbiome. This review looked at the mechanistic understanding of fecal microbiota transplantation and alternative strategies, elucidating their potential role in improving dysbiosis-associated metabolic disorders, such as obesity, and type 2 diabetes and others. Additionally, this review discussed the growing application of therapies targeting the gut microbiome. Insights from clinical trials, preclinical studies, and emerging technologies provide a comprehensive overview of the evolving landscape of microbiome-based interventions. Through a critical assessment of current advances and prospects, this review aims to highlight the therapeutic potential of targeting gut microbiome and pave the way for innovative approaches in precision medicine and personalized treatments.},
}
@article {pmid38823201,
year = {2024},
author = {Kasperek, MC and Velasquez Galeas, A and Caetano-Silva, ME and Xie, Z and Ulanov, A and La Frano, M and Devkota, S and Miller, MJ and Allen, JM},
title = {Microbial aromatic amino acid metabolism is modifiable in fermented food matrices to promote bioactivity.},
journal = {Food chemistry},
volume = {454},
number = {},
pages = {139798},
doi = {10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.139798},
pmid = {38823201},
issn = {1873-7072},
mesh = {Humans ; *Fermented Foods/analysis/microbiology ; *Fermentation ; *Amino Acids, Aromatic/metabolism ; *Receptors, Aryl Hydrocarbon/metabolism ; Lactobacillales/metabolism ; Lactates/metabolism ; },
abstract = {Ingestion of fermented foods impacts human immune function, yet the bioactive food components underlying these effects are not understood. Here, we interrogated whether fermented food bioactivity relates to microbial metabolites derived from aromatic amino acids, termed aryl-lactates. Using targeted metabolomics, we established the presence of aryl-lactates in commercially available fermented foods. After pinpointing fermented food-associated lactic acid bacteria that produce high levels of aryl-lactates, we identified fermentation conditions to increase aryl-lactate production in food matrices up to 5 × 10[3] fold vs. standard fermentation conditions. Using ex vivo reporter assays, we found that food matrix conditions optimized for aryl-lactate production exhibited enhanced agonist activity for the human aryl-hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) as compared to standard fermentation conditions and commercial products. Reduced microbial-induced AhR activity has emerged as a hallmark of many chronic inflammatory diseases, thus we envision strategies to enhance AhR bioactivity of fermented foods to be leveraged to improve human health.},
}
@article {pmid38820745,
year = {2024},
author = {Haange, SB and Riesbeck, S and Aldehoff, AS and Engelmann, B and Jensen Pedersen, K and Castaneda-Monsalve, V and Rolle-Kampczyk, U and von Bergen, M and Jehmlich, N},
title = {Chemical mixture effects on the simplified human intestinal microbiota: Assessing xenobiotics at environmentally realistic concentrations.},
journal = {Journal of hazardous materials},
volume = {474},
number = {},
pages = {134683},
doi = {10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.134683},
pmid = {38820745},
issn = {1873-3336},
mesh = {Humans ; *Xenobiotics/toxicity/metabolism ; *Fluorocarbons/toxicity ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects ; *Fatty Acids, Volatile/metabolism ; *Benzhydryl Compounds/toxicity ; Phenols/toxicity ; Bioreactors ; Sulfones/toxicity ; Environmental Pollutants/toxicity ; },
abstract = {The microbial community present in our intestines is pivotal for converting indigestible substances into vital nutrients and signaling molecules such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). These compounds have considerable influence over our immune system and the development of diverse human diseases. However, ingested environmental contaminants, known as xenobiotics, can upset the delicate balance of the microbial gut community and enzymatic processes, consequently affecting the host organism. In our study, we employed an in vitro bioreactor model system based on the simplified human microbiome model (SIHUMIx) to investigate the direct effects of specific xenobiotics, such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA) and perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) or bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF), either individually or in combination, on the microbiota. We observed increased SCFA production, particularly acetate and butyrate, with PFAS exposure. Metaproteomics revealed pathway alterations across treatments, including changes in vitamin synthesis and fatty acid metabolism with BPX. This study underscores the necessity of assessing the combined effects of xenobiotics to better safeguard public health. It emphasizes the significance of considering adverse effects on the microbiome in the risk assessment of environmental chemicals.},
}
@article {pmid38819500,
year = {2024},
author = {Solasaari, T and Korpela, K and Lommi, S and Hyvönen, S and Gardemeister, S and Merras-Salmio, L and Salonen, A and de Vos, WM and Kolho, KL},
title = {Bowel function in a prospective cohort of 1052 healthy term infants up to 4 months of age.},
journal = {European journal of pediatrics},
volume = {183},
number = {8},
pages = {3557-3565},
pmid = {38819500},
issn = {1432-1076},
support = {32510//the Academy of Finland/ ; 5851//the Finnish Medical Foundation/ ; 5044//Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation/ ; 329/31/2015//Tekes/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Defecation/physiology ; Prospective Studies ; Infant ; Male ; Female ; *Breast Feeding/statistics & numerical data ; Infant, Newborn ; Feces/chemistry ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Infant Formula ; Crying/physiology ; },
abstract = {The purpose of this study is to describe the defecation pattern of healthy infants up to 17 weeks of age. We included 1052 healthy term infants from the prospective HELMi cohort (NCT03996304). Parents filled in recurring online questionnaires on feeding, gastrointestinal function, and crying weekly for the first 17 weeks of life. Defecation frequency was highest at the age of 3 weeks (a median of 4 times/day, interquartile range (IQR) 2.9-5). At each time point, the median defecation frequency of breastfed infants was higher than that of infants receiving formula (e.g., at week 17 a median of 2 times/day, IQR 0.9-3.6, and a median of 1.1, IQR 0.6-1.4, respectively). The dominant color of the stool was most often yellow or light brown. Nearly black stools were reported in the first week of life in 3.4%. Nearly half (47.4%) of the infants had green stool color dominating for at least 1 week, with comparable frequency among breastfed (47.7%) and formula-fed (45.2%) infants. Green stools were associated with a higher defecation frequency (linear mixed-effect model p < 0.0001). Occasional blood in stool was reported in 9.3% and recurrent blood in 5.2% of the infants with no difference in stool consistency. Hard stools were rare (≤ 1%). Conclusion: This study enlightens the spectrum of defecation patterns in healthy term infants during the first 17 weeks of life. A better understanding of bowel function helps healthcare professionals distinguish normal from abnormal when addressing defecation, the color of stools, and the type of feeding. What is Known: • Breastfed infants have more frequent and more yellow-colored stools than formula-fed infants. • Stools with green color are often suggested by the parents or even by medical professionals to indicate disease or discomfort in early life. What is New: • Nearly half of the healthy term infants had green stool dominating for at least one week during the first 17 weeks and occasional blood was reported in almost 10% of the infants during this period. • Data on normal variation in bowel function and stool may serve primary health care professionals when educating the families and caretakers of infants.},
}
@article {pmid38818295,
year = {2024},
author = {Efremova, I and Maslennikov, R and Poluektova, E and Medvedev, O and Kudryavtseva, A and Krasnov, G and Fedorova, M and Romanikhin, F and Zharkova, M and Zolnikova, O and Bagieva, G and Ivashkin, V},
title = {Presepsin as a biomarker of bacterial translocation and an indicator for the prescription of probiotics in cirrhosis.},
journal = {World journal of hepatology},
volume = {16},
number = {5},
pages = {822-831},
pmid = {38818295},
issn = {1948-5182},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The gut-liver axis and bacterial translocation are important in cirrhosis, but there is no available universal biomarker of cellular bacterial translocation, for which presepsin may be a candidate.
AIM: To evaluate the relationship of the blood presepsin levels with the state of the gut microbiota in cirrhosis in the absence of obvious infection.
METHODS: This study included 48 patients with Child-Pugh cirrhosis classes B and C and 15 healthy controls. The fecal microbiome was assessed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Plasma levels of presepsin were measured. A total of 22 patients received a probiotic (Saccharomyces boulardii) for 3 months.
RESULTS: Presepsin levels were higher in patients with cirrhosis than in healthy individuals [342 (91-2875) vs 120 (102-141) pg/mL; P = 0.048]. Patients with elevated presepsin levels accounted for 56.3% of all included patients. They had lower levels of serum albumin and higher levels of serum total bilirubin and overall severity of cirrhosis as assessed using the Child-Pugh scale. Patients with elevated presepsin levels had an increased abundance of the main taxa responsible for bacterial translocation, namely Bacilli and Proteobacteria (including the main class Gammaproteobacteria and the minor taxa Xanthobacteraceae and Stenotrophomonas), and a low abundance of bacteria from the family Lachnospiraceae (including the minor genus Fusicatenibacter), which produce short-chain fatty acids that have a positive effect on intestinal barrier function. The presepsin level directly correlated with the relative abundance of Bacilli, Proteobacteria, and inversely correlated with the abundance of Lachnospiraceae and Propionibacteriaceae. After 3 months of taking the probiotic, the severity of cirrhosis on the Child-Pugh scale decreased significantly only in the group with elevated presepsin levels [from 9 (8-11) to 7 (6-9); P = 0.004], while there were no significant changes in the group with normal presepsin levels [from 8 (7-8) to 7 (6-8); P = 0.123]. A high level of presepsin before the prescription of the probiotic was an independent predictor of a greater decrease in Child-Pugh scores (P = 0.046), as well as a higher level of the Child-Pugh scale (P = 0.042), but not the C-reactive protein level (P = 0.679) according to multivariate linear regression analysis.
CONCLUSION: The level of presepsin directly correlates with the abundance in the gut microbiota of the main taxa that are substrates of bacterial translocation in cirrhosis. This biomarker, in the absence of obvious infection, seems important for assessing the state of the gut-liver axis in cirrhosis and deciding on therapy targeted at the gut microbiota in this disease.},
}
@article {pmid38817603,
year = {2024},
author = {Warren, A and Nyavor, Y and Zarabian, N and Mahoney, A and Frame, LA},
title = {The microbiota-gut-brain-immune interface in the pathogenesis of neuroinflammatory diseases: a narrative review of the emerging literature.},
journal = {Frontiers in immunology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1365673},
pmid = {38817603},
issn = {1664-3224},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/immunology ; Animals ; *Brain-Gut Axis/immunology ; *Neuroinflammatory Diseases/immunology/microbiology/etiology ; *Brain/immunology/microbiology ; },
abstract = {IMPORTANCE: Research is beginning to elucidate the sophisticated mechanisms underlying the microbiota-gut-brain-immune interface, moving from primarily animal models to human studies. Findings support the dynamic relationships between the gut microbiota as an ecosystem (microbiome) within an ecosystem (host) and its intersection with the host immune and nervous systems. Adding this to the effects on epigenetic regulation of gene expression further complicates and strengthens the response. At the heart is inflammation, which manifests in a variety of pathologies including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
OBSERVATIONS: Generally, the research to date is limited and has focused on bacteria, likely due to the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of 16s rRNA sequencing, despite its lower resolution and inability to determine functional ability/alterations. However, this omits all other microbiota including fungi, viruses, and phages, which are emerging as key members of the human microbiome. Much of the research has been done in pre-clinical models and/or in small human studies in more developed parts of the world. The relationships observed are promising but cannot be considered reliable or generalizable at this time. Specifically, causal relationships cannot be determined currently. More research has been done in Alzheimer's disease, followed by Parkinson's disease, and then little in MS. The data for MS is encouraging despite this.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: While the research is still nascent, the microbiota-gut-brain-immune interface may be a missing link, which has hampered our progress on understanding, let alone preventing, managing, or putting into remission neurodegenerative diseases. Relationships must first be established in humans, as animal models have been shown to poorly translate to complex human physiology and environments, especially when investigating the human gut microbiome and its relationships where animal models are often overly simplistic. Only then can robust research be conducted in humans and using mechanistic model systems.},
}
@article {pmid38814902,
year = {2024},
author = {Ezra, S and Bashan, A},
title = {Network impact of a single-time-point microbial sample.},
journal = {PloS one},
volume = {19},
number = {5},
pages = {e0301683},
pmid = {38814902},
issn = {1932-6203},
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota ; Female ; Pregnancy ; Diabetes, Gestational/microbiology ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome plays a crucial role in determining our well-being and can significantly influence human health. The individualized nature of the microbiome may reveal host-specific information about the health state of the subject. In particular, the microbiome is an ecosystem shaped by a tangled network of species-species and host-species interactions. Thus, analysis of the ecological balance of microbial communities can provide insights into these underlying interrelations. However, traditional methods for network analysis require many samples, while in practice only a single-time-point microbial sample is available in clinical screening. Recently, a method for the analysis of a single-time-point sample, which evaluates its 'network impact' with respect to a reference cohort, has been applied to analyze microbial samples from women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus. Here, we introduce different variations of the network impact approach and systematically study their performance using simulated 'samples' fabricated via the Generalized Lotka-Volttera model of ecological dynamics. We show that the network impact of a single sample captures the effect of the interactions between the species, and thus can be applied to anomaly detection of shuffled samples, which are 'normal' in terms of species abundance but 'abnormal' in terms of species-species interrelations. In addition, we demonstrate the use of the network impact in binary and multiclass classifications, where the reference cohorts have similar abundance profiles but different species-species interactions. Individualized analysis of the human microbiome has the potential to improve diagnosis and personalized treatments.},
}
@article {pmid38811534,
year = {2024},
author = {Elzinga, J and Narimatsu, Y and de Haan, N and Clausen, H and de Vos, WM and Tytgat, HLP},
title = {Binding of Akkermansia muciniphila to mucin is O-glycan specific.},
journal = {Nature communications},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {4582},
pmid = {38811534},
issn = {2041-1723},
support = {737.016.003//Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research)/ ; 024.002.002//Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research)/ ; Spinoza Grant Willem M de Vos//Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research)/ ; FEMS-GO-2021-069//Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS)/ ; 0071658//Novo Nordisk Fonden (Novo Nordisk Foundation)/ ; NA//Lundbeckfonden (Lundbeck Foundation)/ ; GlycoSkin H2020-ERC; 772735//EC | EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation H2020 | H2020 Priority Excellent Science | H2020 European Research Council (H2020 Excellent Science - European Research Council)/ ; },
mesh = {*Akkermansia/metabolism ; Humans ; *Mucins/metabolism ; *Polysaccharides/metabolism ; Neuraminidase/metabolism ; Protein Binding ; Glycosylation ; Disaccharides/metabolism ; Verrucomicrobia/metabolism ; Epitopes/metabolism ; Bacterial Adhesion ; },
abstract = {The intestinal anaerobic bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila is specialized in the degradation of mucins, which are heavily O-glycosylated proteins that constitute the major components of the mucus lining the intestine. Despite that adhesion to mucins is considered critical for the persistence of A. muciniphila in the human intestinal tract, our knowledge of how this intestinal symbiont recognizes and binds to mucins is still limited. Here, we first show that the mucin-binding properties of A. muciniphila are independent of environmental oxygen concentrations and not abolished by pasteurization. We then dissected the mucin-binding properties of pasteurized A. muciniphila by use of a recently developed cell-based mucin array that enables display of the tandem repeats of human mucins with distinct O-glycan patterns and structures. We found that A. muciniphila recognizes the unsialylated LacNAc (Galβ1-4GlcNAcβ1-R) disaccharide selectively on core2 and core3 O-glycans. This disaccharide epitope is abundantly found on human colonic mucins capped by sialic acids, and we demonstrated that endogenous A. muciniphila neuraminidase activity can uncover the epitope and promote binding. In summary, our study provides insights into the mucin-binding properties important for colonization of a key mucin-foraging bacterium.},
}
@article {pmid38809163,
year = {2024},
author = {Chang, CJ and Liu, B and Liebmann, JM and Cioffi, GA and Winn, BJ},
title = {Glaucoma and the Human Microbiome.},
journal = {Journal of glaucoma},
volume = {33},
number = {8},
pages = {529-538},
doi = {10.1097/IJG.0000000000002448},
pmid = {38809163},
issn = {1536-481X},
mesh = {Humans ; *Glaucoma/microbiology/physiopathology ; *Microbiota/physiology ; Intraocular Pressure/physiology ; Dysbiosis ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; },
abstract = {PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To explore a view of the human microbiome as an interconnected, functional, dynamic system that may be linked to the pathogenesis and progression of glaucoma.
METHODS: A literature review was undertaken that included publications from 1966 to 2023.
RESULTS: Bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPS) activate toll-like receptors (TLR) and mediate the human immune response. The LPS-TLR4 pathway is a potential avenue for the ocular, gut, and oral microbiomes to interface and/or influence ocular disease. Studies of gut dysbiosis have shown that alterations in the healthy microbiota can predispose the host to immune-mediated inflammatory and neurodegenerative conditions, while oral and ocular surface dysbiosis has been correlated with glaucoma. While developmental exposure to commensal microflora has shown to be necessary for the autoimmune and neurodegenerative responses to elevated intraocular pressure to take place, commensal bacterial products like short-chain fatty acids have regulatory effects protective against glaucoma.
SUMMARY: Alterations to human microbiotas have been associated with changes in intestinal permeability, gene regulation, immune cell differentiation, and neural functioning, which may predispose the host to glaucoma. Select microbes have been highlighted for their potential contributions to glaucoma disease progression or protection, raising the potential for microbiota-based treatment modalities. Current topical glaucoma treatments may disrupt the ocular surface microbiota, potentially having ramifications on host health. Further study of the relationships between human microbiome and glaucoma is needed.},
}
@article {pmid38809053,
year = {2024},
author = {Selma-Royo, M and Ricci, L and Golzato, D and Servais, C and Nabinejad, A and Armanini, F and Asnicar, F and Pinto, F and Tamburini, S and Segata, N},
title = {Draft genome sequences of multiple bacterial strains isolated from human feces.},
journal = {Microbiology resource announcements},
volume = {13},
number = {7},
pages = {e0030724},
pmid = {38809053},
issn = {2576-098X},
abstract = {Bacterial isolation is necessary for functional and mechanistic analyses, and the increased human microbiome diversity revealed by metagenomic sequencing is expanding the relevant cultivation targets. Here, we report 46 draft genome sequences of bacterial isolates obtained from fecal samples of healthy adults in Trento and Milan (Italy), including strains from seven taxonomically uncharacterized species.},
}
@article {pmid38808120,
year = {2024},
author = {Wang, T and Li, L and Figeys, D and Liu, YY},
title = {Pairing metagenomics and metaproteomics to characterize ecological niches and metabolic essentiality of gut microbiomes.},
journal = {ISME communications},
volume = {4},
number = {1},
pages = {ycae063},
pmid = {38808120},
issn = {2730-6151},
abstract = {The genome of a microorganism encodes its potential functions that can be implemented through expressed proteins. It remains elusive how a protein's selective expression depends on its metabolic essentiality to microbial growth or its ability to claim resources as ecological niches. To reveal a protein's metabolic or ecological role, we developed a computational pipeline, which pairs metagenomics and metaproteomics data to quantify each protein's gene-level and protein-level functional redundancy simultaneously. We first illustrated the idea behind the pipeline using simulated data of a consumer-resource model. We then validated it using real data from human and mouse gut microbiome samples. In particular, we analyzed ABC-type transporters and ribosomal proteins, confirming that the metabolic and ecological roles predicted by our pipeline agree well with prior knowledge. Finally, we performed in vitro cultures of a human gut microbiome sample and investigated how oversupplying various sugars involved in ecological niches influences the community structure and protein abundance. The presented results demonstrate the performance of our pipeline in identifying proteins' metabolic and ecological roles, as well as its potential to help us design nutrient interventions to modulate the human microbiome.},
}
@article {pmid38806600,
year = {2024},
author = {Kwon, KM and Kim, EH and Sim, KH and Lee, YJ and Kang, EJ and Han, KH and Jin, JS and Kim, DK and Ahn, JH and Hwang, IH},
title = {Phenylacetic acid, an anti-vaginitis metabolite produced by the vaginal symbiotic bacterium Chryseobacterium gleum.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {14},
number = {1},
pages = {12226},
pmid = {38806600},
issn = {2045-2322},
support = {2017R1D1A3B06035312//National Research Foundation of Korea/ ; 2020R1I1A3073660//National Research Foundation of Korea/ ; 2017R1C1B5073761//National Research Foundation of Korea/ ; },
mesh = {Female ; Animals ; *Phenylacetates/metabolism/pharmacology ; *Vagina/microbiology ; Mice ; Humans ; *Chryseobacterium/metabolism ; Candida albicans/metabolism/drug effects ; Symbiosis ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Gardnerella vaginalis/metabolism/drug effects ; Disease Models, Animal ; Vaginitis/microbiology/metabolism/drug therapy ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome contains genetic information that regulates metabolic processes in response to host health and disease. While acidic vaginal pH is maintained in normal conditions, the pH level increases in infectious vaginitis. We propose that this change in the vaginal environment triggers the biosynthesis of anti-vaginitis metabolites. Gene expression levels of Chryseobacterium gleum, a vaginal symbiotic bacterium, were found to be affected by pH changes. The distinctive difference in the metabolic profiles between two C. gleum cultures incubated under acidic and neutral pH conditions was suggested to be an anti-vaginitis molecule, which was identified as phenylacetic acid (PAA) by spectroscopic data analysis. The antimicrobial activity of PAA was evaluated in vitro, showing greater toxicity toward Gardnerella vaginalis and Candida albicans, two major vaginal pathogens, relative to commensal Lactobacillus spp. The activation of myeloperoxidase, prostaglandin E2, and nuclear factor-κB, and the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 were reduced by an intravaginal administration of PAA in the vaginitis mouse model. In addition, PAA displayed the downregulation of mast cell activation. Therefore, PAA was suggested to be a messenger molecule that mediates interactions between the human microbiome and vaginal health.},
}
@article {pmid38805126,
year = {2024},
author = {Mahoney, D},
title = {The Role of the Human Microbiome in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer.},
journal = {Advances in experimental medicine and biology},
volume = {1452},
number = {},
pages = {97-105},
pmid = {38805126},
issn = {0065-2598},
mesh = {Humans ; Female ; *Ovarian Neoplasms/microbiology ; *Carcinoma, Ovarian Epithelial/microbiology/pathology ; *Microbiota/physiology ; },
abstract = {Ovarian cancer is the fifth-leading cause of cancer deaths among women due to the absence of available screening methods to identify early disease. Thus, prevention and early disease detection investigations are of high priority, surrounding a critical window of opportunity to better understand important pathogenic mechanisms of disease progression. Microorganisms modulate molecular interactions in humans that can influence states of health and disease, including ovarian cancer. While the mechanisms of infectious microbial invasion that trigger the immune-inflammatory axis are well studied in cancer research, the complex interactions that promote the transition of noninfectious healthy microbes to pathobiont expansion are less understood. As traditional research has focused on the influences of infectious pathogens on ovarian cancer development and progression, the impact of noninfectious microbes has gained scientific attention. The objective of this chapter is to summarize current evidence on the role of microbiota in epithelial ovarian cancer throughout disease.},
}
@article {pmid38795687,
year = {2024},
author = {Quesada, S and Rosso, AD and Mascardi, F and Soler-Rivero, V and Aguilera, P and Mascuka, SN and Boiro, A and Arenielo, E and Vijoditz, G and Ferreyra-Mufarregue, LR and Caputo, MF and Cimolai, MC and Coluccio Leskow, F and Penas-Steinhardt, A and Belforte, FS},
title = {Integrative analysis of systemic lupus erythematosus biomarkers: Role of fecal hsa-mir-223-3p and gut microbiota in transkingdom dynamics.},
journal = {Molecular immunology},
volume = {171},
number = {},
pages = {77-92},
doi = {10.1016/j.molimm.2024.05.004},
pmid = {38795687},
issn = {1872-9142},
mesh = {Humans ; *MicroRNAs/genetics ; *Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/microbiology/immunology ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Feces/microbiology ; Female ; Adult ; *Biomarkers/metabolism ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Immunosuppressive Agents/therapeutic use ; },
abstract = {Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) involves a florid set of clinical manifestations whose autoreactive origin is characterized by an overactivation of the immune system and the production of a large number of autoantibodies. Because it is a complex pathology with an inflammatory component, its pathogenesis is not yet fully understood, assuming both genetic and environmental predisposing factors. Currently, it is known that the role of the human microbiome is crucial in maintaining the transkingdom balance between commensal microorganisms and the immune system. In the present work we study the intestinal microbiota of Argentine patients with different stages of SLE receiving or not different treatments. Microbiota composition and fecal miRNAs were assessed by 16 S sequencing and qPCR. hsa-miR-223-3p, a miRNA involved in several inflammation regulation pathways, was found underexpressed in SLE patients without immunosuppressive treatment. In terms of microbiota there were clear differences in population structure (Weighted and Unweighted Unifrac distances, p-value <0.05) and core microbiome between cases and controls. In addition, Collinsella, Bifidobacterium, Streptococcus genera and aromatics degradation metabolisms were overrepresented in the SLE group. Medical treatment was also determinant as several microbial metabolic pathways were influenced by immunosuppressive therapy. Particularly, allantoin degradation metabolism was differentially expressed in the group of patients receiving immunosuppressants. Finally, we performed a logistic regression model (LASSO: least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) considering the expression levels of the fecal hsa-miR223-3p; the core microbiota; the differentially abundant bacterial taxa and the differentially abundant metabolic pathways (p<0.05). The model predicted that SLE patients could be associated with greater relative abundance of the formaldehyde oxidation pathway (RUMP_PWY). On the contrary, the preponderance of the ketodeoxyoctonate (Kdo) biosynthesis and activation route (PWY_1269) and the genera Lachnospiraceae_UCG_004, Lachnospira, Victivallis and UCG_003 (genus belonging to the family Oscillospiraceae of the class Clostridia) were associated with a control phenotype. Overall, the present work could contribute to the development of integral diagnostic tools for the comprehensive phenotyping of patients with SLE. In this sense, studying the commensal microbial profile and possible pathobionts associated with SLE in our population proposes more effective and precise strategies to explore possible treatments based on the microbiota of SLE patients.},
}
@article {pmid38792733,
year = {2024},
author = {Putrino, A and Marinelli, E and Galeotti, A and Ferrazzano, GF and Ciribè, M and Zaami, S},
title = {A Journey into the Evolution of Human Host-Oral Microbiome Relationship through Ancient Dental Calculus: A Scoping Review.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {12},
number = {5},
pages = {},
pmid = {38792733},
issn = {2076-2607},
abstract = {One of the most promising areas of research in palaeomicrobiology is the study of the human microbiome. In particular, ancient dental calculus helps to reconstruct a substantial share of oral microbiome composition by mapping together human evolution with its state of health/oral disease. This review aims to trace microbial characteristics in ancient dental calculus to describe the evolution of the human host-oral microbiome relationship in oral health or disease in children and adults. Following the PRISMA-Extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines, the main scientific databases (PubMed, Scopus, Lilacs, Cochrane Library) have been drawn upon. Eligibility criteria were established, and all the data collected on a purpose-oriented collection form were analysed descriptively. From the initial 340 records, only 19 studies were deemed comprehensive enough for the purpose of this review. The knowledge of the composition of ancient oral microbiomes has broadened over the past few years thanks to increasingly well-performing decontamination protocols and additional analytical avenues. Above all, metagenomic sequencing, also implemented by state-of-the-art bioinformatics tools, allows for the determination of the qualitative-quantitative composition of microbial species associated with health status and caries/periodontal disease. Some microbial species, especially periodontal pathogens, do not appear to have changed in history, while others that support caries disease or oral health could be connected to human evolution through lifestyle and environmental contributing factors.},
}
@article {pmid38792577,
year = {2024},
author = {Koo, H and Morrow, CD},
title = {Bacteroidales-Specific Antimicrobial Genes Can Influence the Selection of the Dominant Fecal Strain of Bacteroides vulgatus and Bacteroides uniformis from the Gastrointestinal Tract Microbial Community.},
journal = {Life (Basel, Switzerland)},
volume = {14},
number = {5},
pages = {},
pmid = {38792577},
issn = {2075-1729},
abstract = {Bacteroides vulgatus and Bacteroides uniformis are known to be abundant in the human fecal microbial community. Although these strains typically remain stable over time in humans, disruption of this microbial community following antibiotics resulted in the transient change to new strains suggesting that a complex, dynamic strain community exists in humans. To further study the selection of dominant fecal microbial strains from the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) community, we analyzed three longitudinal metagenomic sequencing data sets using BLAST+ to identify genes encoding Bacteroidales-specific antimicrobial proteins (BSAP) that have known functions to restrict species-specific replication of B. uniformis (BSAP-2) or B. vulgatus (BSAP-3) and have been postulated to provide a competitive advantage in microbial communities. In the HMP (Human Microbiome Project) data set, we found fecal samples from individuals had B. vulgatus or B. uniformis with either complete or deleted BSAP genes that did not change over time. We also examined fecal samples from two separate longitudinal data sets of individuals who had been given either single or multiple antibiotics. The BSAP gene pattern from most individuals given either single or multiple antibiotics recovered to be the same as the pre-antibiotic strain. However, in a few individuals, we found incomplete BSAP-3 genes at early times during the recovery that were replaced by B. vulgatus with the complete BSAP-3 gene, consistent with the function of the BSAP to specifically restrict Bacteroides spp. The results of these studies provide insights into the fluxes that occur in the Bacteroides spp. GIT community following perturbation and the dynamics of the selection of a dominant fecal strain of Bacteroides spp.},
}
@article {pmid38791599,
year = {2024},
author = {Olteanu, G and Ciucă-Pană, MA and Busnatu, ȘS and Lupuliasa, D and Neacșu, SM and Mititelu, M and Musuc, AM and Ioniță-Mîndrican, CB and Boroghină, SC},
title = {Unraveling the Microbiome-Human Body Axis: A Comprehensive Examination of Therapeutic Strategies, Interactions and Implications.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {25},
number = {10},
pages = {},
pmid = {38791599},
issn = {1422-0067},
mesh = {Humans ; *Dysbiosis/microbiology/therapy ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Fecal Microbiota Transplantation ; Microbiota ; Animals ; Human Body ; Host Microbial Interactions/physiology ; },
abstract = {This review scrutinizes the intricate interplay between the microbiome and the human body, exploring its multifaceted dimensions and far-reaching implications. The human microbiome, comprising diverse microbial communities inhabiting various anatomical niches, is increasingly recognized as a critical determinant of human health and disease. Through an extensive examination of current research, this review elucidates the dynamic interactions between the microbiome and host physiology across multiple organ systems. Key topics include the establishment and maintenance of microbiota diversity, the influence of host factors on microbial composition, and the bidirectional communication pathways between microbiota and host cells. Furthermore, we delve into the functional implications of microbiome dysbiosis in disease states, emphasizing its role in shaping immune responses, metabolic processes, and neurological functions. Additionally, this review discusses emerging therapeutic strategies aimed at modulating the microbiome to restore host-microbe homeostasis and promote health. Microbiota fecal transplantation represents a groundbreaking therapeutic approach in the management of dysbiosis-related diseases, offering a promising avenue for restoring microbial balance within the gut ecosystem. This innovative therapy involves the transfer of fecal microbiota from a healthy donor to an individual suffering from dysbiosis, aiming to replenish beneficial microbial populations and mitigate pathological imbalances. By synthesizing findings from diverse fields, this review offers valuable insights into the complex relationship between the microbiome and the human body, highlighting avenues for future research and clinical interventions.},
}
@article {pmid38791230,
year = {2024},
author = {Pérez-Pérez, ME and Nieto-Torres, E and Bollain-Y-Goytia, JJ and Delgadillo-Ruíz, L},
title = {Protein Citrullination by Peptidyl Arginine Deiminase/Arginine Deiminase Homologs in Members of the Human Microbiota and Its Recognition by Anti-Citrullinated Protein Antibodies.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {25},
number = {10},
pages = {},
pmid = {38791230},
issn = {1422-0067},
support = {the F002 Support for scientific, technological and innovation activities//This work was supported by the F002 Support for scientific, technological and innovation activities. Zacatecas Council of Science./ ; },
mesh = {Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; *Anti-Citrullinated Protein Antibodies/immunology/metabolism ; *Arthritis, Rheumatoid/immunology/microbiology ; Case-Control Studies ; *Citrullination ; Citrulline/metabolism ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Hydrolases/metabolism ; *Microbiota ; Protein-Arginine Deiminase Type 2/metabolism ; Protein-Arginine Deiminase Type 4/metabolism ; *Protein-Arginine Deiminases/metabolism/genetics ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome exists throughout the body, and it is essential for maintaining various physiological processes, including immunity, and dysbiotic events, which are associated with autoimmunity. Peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD) enzymes can citrullinate self-proteins related to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that induce the production of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) and lead to inflammation and joint damage. The present investigation was carried out to demonstrate the expression of homologs of PADs or arginine deiminases (ADs) and citrullinated proteins in members of the human microbiota. To achieve the objective, we used 17 microbial strains and specific polyclonal antibodies (pAbs) of the synthetic peptide derived from residues 100-200 of human PAD2 (anti-PAD2 pAb), and the recombinant fragment of amino acids 326 and 611 of human PAD4 (anti-PAD4 pAb), a human anti-citrulline pAb, and affinity ACPAs of an RA patient. Western blot (WB), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), elution, and a test with Griess reagent were used. This is a cross-sectional case-control study on patients diagnosed with RA and control subjects. Inferential statistics were applied using the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test generated in the SPSS program. Some members of phyla Firmicutes and Proteobacteria harbor homologs of PADs/ADs and citrullinated antigens that are reactive to the ACPAs of RA patients. Microbial citrullinome and homolog enzymes of PADs/ADs are extensive in the human microbiome and are involved in the production of ACPAs. Our findings suggest a molecular link between microorganisms of a dysbiotic microbiota and RA pathogenesis.},
}
@article {pmid38788999,
year = {2024},
author = {Filippo, D and Guardone, L and Listorti, V and Elisabetta, R},
title = {Microbiome in cancer: A comparative analysis between humans and dogs.},
journal = {Veterinary journal (London, England : 1997)},
volume = {305},
number = {},
pages = {106145},
doi = {10.1016/j.tvjl.2024.106145},
pmid = {38788999},
issn = {1532-2971},
mesh = {Dogs ; Animals ; Humans ; *Dog Diseases/microbiology ; *Neoplasms/veterinary/microbiology ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Microbiota ; Dysbiosis/veterinary ; Female ; },
abstract = {Cancer is a major cause of death in humans and animals worldwide. While cancer survival rates have increased over recent decades, further research to identify risk factors for the onset and progression of disease, and safe and highly efficacious treatments, is needed. Spontaneous tumours in pets represent an excellent model for neoplastic disease in humans. In this regard, dogs are an interesting species, as the divergence between the dog and human genome is low, humans and dogs have important similarities in the development and functioning of the immune system, and both species often share the same physical environment. There is also a higher homology between the canine and human microbiome than murine model. This review aims to describe and organize recently published information on canine microbiome assemblages and their relationship with the onset and progression of colorectal cancer, breast cancer and lymphoma, and to compare this with human disease. In both species, dysbiosis can induce variations in the gut microbiota that strongly influence shifts in status between health and disease. This can produce an inflammatory state, potentially leading to neoplasia, especially in the intestine, thus supporting canine studies in comparative oncology. Intestinal dysbiosis can also alter the efficacy and side effects of cancer treatments. Fewer published studies are available on changes in the relevant microbiomes in canine lymphoma and mammary cancer, and further research in this area could improve our understanding of the role of microbiota in the development of these cancers.},
}
@article {pmid38788190,
year = {2024},
author = {Mishra, AK and Mahmud, I and Lorenzi, PL and Jenq, RR and Wargo, JA and Ajami, NJ and Peterson, CB},
title = {TARO: tree-aggregated factor regression for microbiome data integration.},
journal = {Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)},
volume = {40},
number = {6},
pages = {},
pmid = {38788190},
issn = {1367-4811},
support = {R01 CA244845/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; R01 HL158796/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; R01 HL158796/NH/NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota ; Software ; Metabolomics/methods ; Colorectal Neoplasms/microbiology/metabolism ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Algorithms ; },
abstract = {MOTIVATION: Although the human microbiome plays a key role in health and disease, the biological mechanisms underlying the interaction between the microbiome and its host are incompletely understood. Integration with other molecular profiling data offers an opportunity to characterize the role of the microbiome and elucidate therapeutic targets. However, this remains challenging to the high dimensionality, compositionality, and rare features found in microbiome profiling data. These challenges necessitate the use of methods that can achieve structured sparsity in learning cross-platform association patterns.
RESULTS: We propose Tree-Aggregated factor RegressiOn (TARO) for the integration of microbiome and metabolomic data. We leverage information on the taxonomic tree structure to flexibly aggregate rare features. We demonstrate through simulation studies that TARO accurately recovers a low-rank coefficient matrix and identifies relevant features. We applied TARO to microbiome and metabolomic profiles gathered from subjects being screened for colorectal cancer to understand how gut microrganisms shape intestinal metabolite abundances.
The R package TARO implementing the proposed methods is available online at https://github.com/amishra-stats/taro-package.},
}
@article {pmid38782975,
year = {2024},
author = {McKee, K and Bassis, CM and Golob, J and Palazzolo, B and Sen, A and Comstock, SS and Rosas-Salazar, C and Stanford, JB and O'Connor, T and Gern, JE and Paneth, N and Dunlop, AL and , },
title = {Host factors are associated with vaginal microbiome structure in pregnancy in the ECHO Cohort Consortium.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {14},
number = {1},
pages = {11798},
pmid = {38782975},
issn = {2045-2322},
support = {U24OD023382//Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health/ ; U2C OD023375/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023271/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023282/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3OD023282//Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health/ ; UH3 OD023287/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; U24 OD023319/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023305/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; K01 AI153558/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023288/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3OD023249//Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health/ ; U24OD023319//Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health/ ; UH3 OD023349/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023337/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023328/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; U24 OD023382/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023313/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023289/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023249/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023389/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023290/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3OD023251//Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health/ ; UH3 OD023285/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023275/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023318/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023248/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; U2COD023375//Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health/ ; UH3 OD023253/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023272/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023347/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3OD023318//Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health/ ; UH3 OD023251/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023279/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3OD023285//Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health/ ; UH3 OD023244/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; UH3 OD023320/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; Female ; Pregnancy ; *Vagina/microbiology ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Adult ; *RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; Cohort Studies ; Young Adult ; },
abstract = {Using pooled vaginal microbiota data from pregnancy cohorts (N = 683 participants) in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, we analyzed 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequences to identify clinical and demographic host factors that associate with vaginal microbiota structure in pregnancy both within and across diverse cohorts. Using PERMANOVA models, we assessed factors associated with vaginal community structure in pregnancy, examined whether host factors were conserved across populations, and tested the independent and combined effects of host factors on vaginal community state types (CSTs) using multinomial logistic regression models. Demographic and social factors explained a larger amount of variation in the vaginal microbiome in pregnancy than clinical factors. After adjustment, lower education, rather than self-identified race, remained a robust predictor of L. iners dominant (CST III) and diverse (CST IV) (OR = 8.44, 95% CI = 4.06-17.6 and OR = 4.18, 95% CI = 1.88-9.26, respectively). In random forest models, we identified specific taxonomic features of host factors, particularly urogenital pathogens associated with pregnancy complications (Aerococcus christensenii and Gardnerella spp.) among other facultative anaerobes and key markers of community instability (L. iners). Sociodemographic factors were robustly associated with vaginal microbiota structure in pregnancy and should be considered as sources of variation in human microbiome studies.},
}
@article {pmid38781679,
year = {2024},
author = {Mangalea, MR and Halpin, AL and Haile, M and Elkins, CA and McDonald, LC},
title = {Decolonization and Pathogen Reduction Approaches to Prevent Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare-Associated Infections.},
journal = {Emerging infectious diseases},
volume = {30},
number = {6},
pages = {1069-1076},
pmid = {38781679},
issn = {1080-6059},
mesh = {Humans ; *Cross Infection/prevention & control/microbiology ; *Drug Resistance, Bacterial ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology/therapeutic use ; Microbiota/drug effects ; Bacterial Infections/prevention & control/microbiology ; Infection Control/methods ; Bacteria/drug effects ; },
abstract = {Antimicrobial resistance in healthcare-associated bacterial pathogens and the infections they cause are major public health threats affecting nearly all healthcare facilities. Antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections can occur when colonizing pathogenic bacteria that normally make up a small fraction of the human microbiota increase in number in response to clinical perturbations. Such infections are especially likely when pathogens are resistant to the collateral effects of antimicrobial agents that disrupt the human microbiome, resulting in loss of colonization resistance, a key host defense. Pathogen reduction is an emerging strategy to prevent transmission of, and infection with, antimicrobial-resistant healthcare-associated pathogens. We describe the basis for pathogen reduction as an overall prevention strategy, the evidence for its effectiveness, and the role of the human microbiome in colonization resistance that also reduces the risk for infection once colonized. In addition, we explore ideal attributes of current and future pathogen-reducing approaches.},
}
@article {pmid38779566,
year = {2024},
author = {Scanu, M and Toto, F and Petito, V and Masi, L and Fidaleo, M and Puca, P and Baldelli, V and Reddel, S and Vernocchi, P and Pani, G and Putignani, L and Scaldaferri, F and Del Chierico, F},
title = {An integrative multi-omic analysis defines gut microbiota, mycobiota, and metabolic fingerprints in ulcerative colitis patients.},
journal = {Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology},
volume = {14},
number = {},
pages = {1366192},
pmid = {38779566},
issn = {2235-2988},
mesh = {Humans ; *Colitis, Ulcerative/microbiology/metabolism ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Male ; Adult ; Female ; *Bacteria/classification/isolation & purification/metabolism/genetics ; Middle Aged ; *Metabolomics/methods ; *RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; *Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry ; *Feces/microbiology ; *Fungi/classification/isolation & purification/metabolism ; Dysbiosis/microbiology ; Metabolome ; Aged ; Young Adult ; Solid Phase Microextraction ; Mycobiome ; Multiomics ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a multifactorial chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that affects the large intestine with superficial mucosal inflammation. A dysbiotic gut microbial profile has been associated with UC. Our study aimed to characterize the UC gut bacterial, fungal, and metabolic fingerprints by omic approaches.
METHODS: The 16S rRNA- and ITS2-based metataxonomics and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry/solid phase microextraction (GC-MS/SPME) metabolomic analysis were performed on stool samples of 53 UC patients and 37 healthy subjects (CTRL). Univariate and multivariate approaches were applied to separated and integrated omic data, to define microbiota, mycobiota, and metabolic signatures in UC. The interaction between gut bacteria and fungi was investigated by network analysis.
RESULTS: In the UC cohort, we reported the increase of Streptococcus, Bifidobacterium, Enterobacteriaceae, TM7-3, Granulicatella, Peptostreptococcus, Lactobacillus, Veillonella, Enterococcus, Peptoniphilus, Gemellaceae, and phenylethyl alcohol; and we also reported the decrease of Akkermansia; Ruminococcaceae; Ruminococcus; Gemmiger; Methanobrevibacter; Oscillospira; Coprococus; Christensenellaceae; Clavispora; Vishniacozyma; Quambalaria; hexadecane; cyclopentadecane; 5-hepten-2-ol, 6 methyl; 3-carene; caryophyllene; p-Cresol; 2-butenal; indole, 3-methyl-; 6-methyl-3,5-heptadiene-2-one; 5-octadecene; and 5-hepten-2-one, 6 methyl. The integration of the multi-omic data confirmed the presence of a distinctive bacterial, fungal, and metabolic fingerprint in UC gut microbiota. Moreover, the network analysis highlighted bacterial and fungal synergistic and/or divergent interkingdom interactions.
CONCLUSION: In this study, we identified intestinal bacterial, fungal, and metabolic UC-associated biomarkers. Furthermore, evidence on the relationships between bacterial and fungal ecosystems provides a comprehensive perspective on intestinal dysbiosis and ecological interactions between microorganisms in the framework of UC.},
}
@article {pmid38778221,
year = {2024},
author = {Chen, Z and Lin, K and Yu, H},
title = {Reply to Qiao et al.},
journal = {British journal of cancer},
volume = {130},
number = {12},
pages = {1889},
pmid = {38778221},
issn = {1532-1827},
}
@article {pmid38774631,
year = {2024},
author = {Dorst, M and Zeevenhooven, N and Wilding, R and Mende, D and Brandt, BW and Zaura, E and Hoekstra, A and Sheraton, VM},
title = {FAIR compliant database development for human microbiome data samples.},
journal = {Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology},
volume = {14},
number = {},
pages = {1384809},
pmid = {38774631},
issn = {2235-2988},
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Databases, Factual ; Metadata ; Metagenome ; Information Dissemination ; Computational Biology/methods ; Metagenomics/methods ; Databases, Genetic ; },
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Sharing microbiome data among researchers fosters new innovations and reduces cost for research. Practically, this means that the (meta)data will have to be standardized, transparent and readily available for researchers. The microbiome data and associated metadata will then be described with regards to composition and origin, in order to maximize the possibilities for application in various contexts of research. Here, we propose a set of tools and protocols to develop a real-time FAIR (Findable. Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) compliant database for the handling and storage of human microbiome and host-associated data.
METHODS: The conflicts arising from privacy laws with respect to metadata, possible human genome sequences in the metagenome shotgun data and FAIR implementations are discussed. Alternate pathways for achieving compliance in such conflicts are analyzed. Sample traceable and sensitive microbiome data, such as DNA sequences or geolocalized metadata are identified, and the role of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) data regulations are considered. For the construction of the database, procedures have been realized to make data FAIR compliant, while preserving privacy of the participants providing the data.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: An open-source development platform, Supabase, was used to implement the microbiome database. Researchers can deploy this real-time database to access, upload, download and interact with human microbiome data in a FAIR complaint manner. In addition, a large language model (LLM) powered by ChatGPT is developed and deployed to enable knowledge dissemination and non-expert usage of the database.},
}
@article {pmid38771520,
year = {2024},
author = {Chaudhary, PP and Kaur, M and Myles, IA},
title = {Does "all disease begin in the gut"? The gut-organ cross talk in the microbiome.},
journal = {Applied microbiology and biotechnology},
volume = {108},
number = {1},
pages = {339},
pmid = {38771520},
issn = {1432-0614},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Microbiota ; Skin/microbiology ; Vagina/microbiology ; Lung/microbiology ; Mouth/microbiology ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Tract/microbiology ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome, a diverse ecosystem of microorganisms within the body, plays pivotal roles in health and disease. This review explores site-specific microbiomes, their role in maintaining health, and strategies for their upkeep, focusing on oral, lung, vaginal, skin, and gut microbiota, and their systemic connections. Understanding the intricate relationships between these microbial communities is crucial for unraveling mechanisms underlying human health. Recent research highlights bidirectional communication between the gut and distant microbiome sites, influencing immune function, metabolism, and disease susceptibility. Alterations in one microbiome can impact others, emphasizing their interconnectedness and collective influence on human physiology. The therapeutic potential of gut microbiota in modulating distant microbiomes offers promising avenues for interventions targeting various disorders. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and technological advancements, we can harness the power of the microbiome to revolutionize healthcare, emphasizing microbiome-centric approaches to promote holistic well-being while identifying areas for future research.},
}
@article {pmid38771144,
year = {2024},
author = {Wang, P and Duan, F and Lv, Y and Man, S and Liu, S and Liu, Y},
title = {Long- and Intermediate-Term Ambient Particulate Pollution Is Associated with Increased Osteoarthritis Risk: A Population-Based Prospective Analysis.},
journal = {Environmental science & technology},
volume = {58},
number = {22},
pages = {9536-9547},
doi = {10.1021/acs.est.3c10893},
pmid = {38771144},
issn = {1520-5851},
mesh = {Humans ; *Osteoarthritis/epidemiology ; *Particulate Matter ; Prospective Studies ; Air Pollution ; Male ; Air Pollutants ; Female ; Environmental Exposure ; Middle Aged ; Risk Factors ; Beijing/epidemiology ; Aged ; },
abstract = {Recent studies found the intrusion and retention of exogenous fine particles into joints, but epidemiological data for long- and intermediate-term exposure associations are scare. Here, all urban working, retired employee, and rural residents (16.78 million) in Beijing from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2019 were included to investigate the effects of long- and intermediate-term ambient particulate exposure on development of osteoarthritis. We identified 1,742,067 participants as first-visit patients with osteoarthritis. For each interquartile range increase in annual PM2.5 (23.32 μg/m[3]) and PM10 (23.92 μg/m[3]) exposure concentration, the pooled hazard ratios were respectively 1.238 (95% CI: 1.228, 1.249) and 1.178 (95% CI: 1.168, 1.189) for first osteoarthritis outpatient visits. Moreover, age at first osteoarthritis outpatient visits significantly decreased by 4.52 (95% CI: 3.45 to 5.40) days per μg/m[3] for annual PM2.5 exposure at below 67.85 μg/m[3]. Finally, among the six constituents analyzed, black carbon appears to be the most important component associated with the association between PM2.5 exposure and the three osteoarthritis-related outcomes.},
}
@article {pmid38767067,
year = {2024},
author = {Kalluçi, E and Preni, B and Dhamo, X and Noka, E and Bardhi, S and Macchia, A and Bonetti, G and Dhuli, K and Donato, K and Bertelli, M and Zambrano, LJM and Janaqi, S},
title = {A comparative study of supervised and unsupervised machine learning algorithms applied to human microbiome.},
journal = {La Clinica terapeutica},
volume = {175},
number = {3},
pages = {98-116},
doi = {10.7417/CT.2024.5051},
pmid = {38767067},
issn = {1972-6007},
mesh = {Humans ; *Supervised Machine Learning ; *Unsupervised Machine Learning ; *Microbiota/genetics ; *RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics/analysis ; Colorectal Neoplasms/microbiology ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; Algorithms ; Feces/microbiology ; Adenoma/microbiology ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The human microbiome, consisting of diverse bacte-rial, fungal, protozoan and viral species, exerts a profound influence on various physiological processes and disease susceptibility. However, the complexity of microbiome data has presented significant challenges in the analysis and interpretation of these intricate datasets, leading to the development of specialized software that employs machine learning algorithms for these aims.
METHODS: In this paper, we analyze raw data taken from 16S rRNA gene sequencing from three studies, including stool samples from healthy control, patients with adenoma, and patients with colorectal cancer. Firstly, we use network-based methods to reduce dimensions of the dataset and consider only the most important features. In addition, we employ supervised machine learning algorithms to make prediction.
RESULTS: Results show that graph-based techniques reduces dimen-sion from 255 up to 78 features with modularity score 0.73 based on different centrality measures. On the other hand, projection methods (non-negative matrix factorization and principal component analysis) reduce dimensions to 7 features. Furthermore, we apply supervised machine learning algorithms on the most important features obtained from centrality measures and on the ones obtained from projection methods, founding that the evaluation metrics have approximately the same scores when applying the algorithms on the entire dataset, on 78 feature and on 7 features.
CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the efficacy of graph-based and projection methods in the interpretation for 16S rRNA gene sequencing data. Supervised machine learning on refined features from both approaches yields comparable predictive performance, emphasizing specific microbial features-bacteroides, prevotella, fusobacterium, lysinibacillus, blautia, sphingomonas, and faecalibacterium-as key in predicting patient conditions from raw data.},
}
@article {pmid38743245,
year = {2024},
author = {de Moraes, DC and Rollin-Pinheiro, R and Pinto, MDCFR and Domingos, LTS and Barreto-Bergter, E and Ferreira-Pereira, A},
title = {Antifungal activity of β-lapachone against a fluconazole-resistant Candida auris strain.},
journal = {Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology]},
volume = {55},
number = {3},
pages = {2593-2601},
pmid = {38743245},
issn = {1678-4405},
support = {Bolsa de Pesquisa Produtividade//Universidade Estácio de Sá/ ; Financial Code 001//CAPES/ ; },
mesh = {*Naphthoquinones/pharmacology ; *Antifungal Agents/pharmacology ; *Drug Resistance, Fungal/drug effects ; *Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; *Fluconazole/pharmacology ; *Biofilms/drug effects ; Humans ; *Candida auris/drug effects/genetics ; Amphotericin B/pharmacology ; Candidiasis/microbiology/drug therapy ; },
abstract = {Candida spp. can be found in the human microbiome. However, immunocompromised patients are likely to develop invasive Candida infections, with mortality rates higher than 50%. The discovery of C. auris, a species that rapidly acquire antifungal resistance, increased the concern about Candida infections. The limited number of antifungal agents and the high incidence of resistance to them make imperative the development of new antifungal drugs. β-lapachone is a biological active naphthoquinone that displays antifungal activity against C. albicans and C. glabrata. The aim of this study was to evaluate if this substance affects C. auris growth and elucidate its mechanism of action. A fluconazole-resistant C. auris isolate was used in this study. The antifungal activity of β-lapachone was determined through microbroth dilution assays, and its mechanism of action was evaluated using fluorescent probes. Interaction with fluconazole and amphotericin B was assessed by disk diffusion assay and checkerboard. β-lapachone inhibited planktonic C. auris cell growth by 92.7%, biofilm formation by 84.9%, and decrease the metabolism of preformed biofilms by 87.1% at 100 µg/ml. At 100 µg/ml, reductions of 30% and 59% of Calcofluor White and Nile red fluorescences were observed, indicating that β-lapachone affects cell wall chitin and neutral lipids content, respectively. Also, the ratio 590 nm/529 nm of JC-1 decreased 52%, showing that the compound affects mitochondria. No synergism was observed between β-lapachone and fluconazole or amphotericin B. Data show that β-lapachone may be a promising candidate to be used as monotherapy to treat C. auris resistant infections.},
}
@article {pmid38740909,
year = {2024},
author = {Han, S and Guiberson, ER and Li, Y and Sonnenburg, JL},
title = {High-throughput identification of gut microbiome-dependent metabolites.},
journal = {Nature protocols},
volume = {19},
number = {7},
pages = {2180-2205},
pmid = {38740909},
issn = {1750-2799},
support = {F32AG062119//U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute on Aging (U.S. National Institute on Aging)/ ; R01-DK085025//U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases)/ ; 5T32AI007328-35//U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)/ ; R01-DK101674//U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases)/ ; },
mesh = {*Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; Humans ; *Metabolomics/methods ; Chromatography, Liquid/methods ; *Mass Spectrometry/methods ; Metabolome ; Computational Biology/methods ; Bacteria/metabolism ; },
abstract = {A significant hurdle that has limited progress in microbiome science has been identifying and studying the diverse set of metabolites produced by gut microbes. Gut microbial metabolism produces thousands of difficult-to-identify metabolites, which present a challenge to study their roles in host biology. In recent years, mass spectrometry-based metabolomics has become one of the core technologies for identifying small metabolites. However, metabolomics expertise, ranging from sample preparation to instrument use and data analysis, is often lacking in academic labs. Most targeted metabolomics methods provide high levels of sensitivity and quantification, while they are limited to a panel of predefined molecules that may not be informative to microbiome-focused studies. Here we have developed a gut microbe-focused and wide-spectrum metabolomic protocol using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and bioinformatic analysis. This protocol enables users to carry out experiments from sample collection to data analysis, only requiring access to a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry instrument, which is often available at local core facilities. By applying this protocol to samples containing human gut microbial metabolites, spanning from culture supernatant to human biospecimens, our approach enables high-confidence identification of >800 metabolites that can serve as candidate mediators of microbe-host interactions. We expect this protocol will lower the barrier to tracking gut bacterial metabolism in vitro and in mammalian hosts, propelling hypothesis-driven mechanistic studies and accelerating our understanding of the gut microbiome at the chemical level.},
}
@article {pmid38740509,
year = {2024},
author = {Paone, P and Latousakis, D and Terrasi, R and Vertommen, D and Jian, C and Borlandelli, V and Suriano, F and Johansson, MEV and Puel, A and Bouzin, C and Delzenne, NM and Salonen, A and Juge, N and Florea, BI and Muccioli, GG and Overkleeft, H and Van Hul, M and Cani, PD},
title = {Human milk oligosaccharide 2'-fucosyllactose protects against high-fat diet-induced obesity by changing intestinal mucus production, composition and degradation linked to changes in gut microbiota and faecal proteome profiles in mice.},
journal = {Gut},
volume = {73},
number = {10},
pages = {1632-1649},
pmid = {38740509},
issn = {1468-3288},
mesh = {Animals ; *Diet, High-Fat/adverse effects ; *Obesity/metabolism/microbiology/prevention & control ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects ; *Trisaccharides/metabolism ; Mice ; *Feces/microbiology/chemistry ; Humans ; Milk, Human/metabolism/chemistry ; Intestinal Mucosa/metabolism ; Proteome/metabolism/analysis ; Mucus/metabolism ; Male ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Mucins/metabolism ; },
abstract = {OBJECTIVE: To decipher the mechanisms by which the major human milk oligosaccharide (HMO), 2'-fucosyllactose (2'FL), can affect body weight and fat mass gain on high-fat diet (HFD) feeding in mice. We wanted to elucidate whether 2'FL metabolic effects are linked with changes in intestinal mucus production and secretion, mucin glycosylation and degradation, as well as with the modulation of the gut microbiota, faecal proteome and endocannabinoid (eCB) system.
RESULTS: 2'FL supplementation reduced HFD-induced obesity and glucose intolerance. These effects were accompanied by several changes in the intestinal mucus layer, including mucus production and composition, and gene expression of secreted and transmembrane mucins, glycosyltransferases and genes involved in mucus secretion. In addition, 2'FL increased bacterial glycosyl hydrolases involved in mucin glycan degradation. These changes were linked to a significant increase and predominance of bacterial genera Akkermansia and Bacteroides, different faecal proteome profile (with an upregulation of proteins involved in carbon, amino acids and fat metabolism and a downregulation of proteins involved in protein digestion and absorption) and, finally, to changes in the eCB system. We also investigated faecal proteomes from lean and obese humans and found similar changes observed comparing lean and obese mice.
CONCLUSION: Our results show that the HMO 2'FL influences host metabolism by modulating the mucus layer, gut microbiota and eCB system and propose the mucus layer as a new potential target for the prevention of obesity and related disorders.},
}
@article {pmid38740275,
year = {2024},
author = {Long, AR and Mortara, EL and Mendoza, BN and Fink, EC and Sacco, FX and Ciesla, MJ and Stack, TMM},
title = {Sequence similarity network analysis of drug- and dye-modifying azoreductase enzymes found in the human gut microbiome.},
journal = {Archives of biochemistry and biophysics},
volume = {757},
number = {},
pages = {110025},
pmid = {38740275},
issn = {1096-0384},
support = {P20 GM103430/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Nitroreductases/metabolism/genetics ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *NADH, NADPH Oxidoreductases/metabolism/genetics/chemistry ; Coloring Agents/metabolism ; Molecular Docking Simulation ; Substrate Specificity ; Sulfasalazine ; Bacterial Proteins/metabolism/genetics/chemistry ; Kinetics ; Clostridiales/enzymology/genetics ; Azo Compounds/metabolism/chemistry ; },
abstract = {Drug metabolism by human gut microbes is often exemplified by azo bond reduction in the anticolitic prodrug sulfasalazine. Azoreductase activity is often found in incubations with cell cultures or ex vivo gut microbiome samples and contributes to the xenobiotic metabolism of drugs and food additives. Applying metagenomic studies to personalized medicine requires knowledge of the genes responsible for sulfasalazine and other drug metabolism, and candidate genes and proteins for drug modifications are understudied. A representative gut-abundant azoreductase from Anaerotignum lactatifermentan DSM 14214 efficiently reduces sulfasalazine and another drug, phenazopyridine, but could not reduce all azo-bonded drugs in this class. We used enzyme kinetics to characterize this enzyme for its NADH-dependent reduction of these drugs and food additives and performed computational docking to provide the groundwork for understanding substrate specificity in this family. We performed an analysis of the Flavodoxin-like fold InterPro family (IPR003680) by computing a sequence similarity network to classify distinct subgroups of the family and then performed chemically-guided functional profiling to identify proteins that are abundant in the NIH Human Microbiome Project dataset. This strategy aims to reduce the number of unique azoreductases needed to characterize one protein family in the diverse set of potential drug- and dye-modifying activities found in the human gut microbiome.},
}
@article {pmid38736265,
year = {2024},
author = {Pang, Z and Korpela, R and Vapaatalo, H},
title = {Local aldosterone release and CYP11B2 expression in response to angiotensin peptides, glucose, and potassium - an ex vivo study on murine colon.},
journal = {Journal of physiology and pharmacology : an official journal of the Polish Physiological Society},
volume = {75},
number = {2},
pages = {185-194},
doi = {10.26402/jpp.2024.2.07},
pmid = {38736265},
issn = {1899-1505},
mesh = {Animals ; Male ; Mice ; *Aldosterone/metabolism ; Angiotensin I/physiology ; Angiotensin II/physiology ; Angiotensin III/physiology ; *Colon/metabolism/drug effects ; *Cytochrome P-450 CYP11B2/metabolism ; *Glucose/metabolism ; Peptide Fragments/physiology ; *Potassium/metabolism ; },
abstract = {We have previously described local aldosterone synthesis in mouse colon. In the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), angiotensin II (Ang II) peptide is the physiological factor which stimulates aldosterone synthesis in the adrenal glands. We have recently demonstrated that Ang II stimulates aldosterone synthesis also in mouse colon. Here, we conducted a 75-min ex vivo incubation of murine colonic tissue and evaluated the effects of three other Ang peptides, Ang I (1 μM), Ang III (0.1 μM) and Ang (1-7) (0.1 μM) on aldosterone synthesis. As a possible mechanism, their effects on tissue levels of the rate-limiting enzyme, aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) were measured by ELISA and Western blot. Ang III significantly elevated the amount of tissue CYP11B2 protein in colon. The values of released aldosterone in colon tissue incubation were increased over the control in the presence of Ang I, II or III, however, being statistically non-significant. In Western blot analysis, the values of tissue CYP11B2 protein content were elevated by Ang I and II. Ang (1-7) alone in colon did not influence CYP11B2 protein levels in the incubation experiment but showed higher aldosterone release without statistical significance. Ang (1-7) showed an antagonistic effect towards Ang II in release of aldosterone in adrenal gland. An overall estimation of a single peptide (three measured variables), the results were always in an increasing direction. The responses of aldosterone synthesis to high levels of glucose (44 mM) and potassium (18.8 mM) as physiological stimulators in vivo were investigated in the colon incubation. Glucose, equal to four times the concentration of the control buffer in the incubation, showed higher values of aldosterone release in colon than control without statistical significance similarly to the effect seen in adrenal glands. Increasing the concentration of potassium in the incubation buffer exerted no effect on colonic aldosterone production. Intriguingly, no correlation was found between aldosterone release and the tissue CYP11B2 protein content in colon. In summary, the response of colonic aldosterone synthesis to different Ang peptides resembles, but is not identical to, the situation in the adrenal glands.},
}
@article {pmid38734968,
year = {2024},
author = {Ma, Y and Zhao, Y and Zhang, X},
title = {Factors affecting neutrophil functions during sepsis: human microbiome and epigenetics.},
journal = {Journal of leukocyte biology},
volume = {116},
number = {4},
pages = {672-688},
doi = {10.1093/jleuko/qiae107},
pmid = {38734968},
issn = {1938-3673},
mesh = {Humans ; *Neutrophils/immunology ; *Sepsis/immunology/microbiology/genetics ; *Epigenesis, Genetic ; *Microbiota/immunology ; *DNA Methylation ; Extracellular Traps/immunology ; },
abstract = {Sepsis is a severe disease that occurs when the body's immune system reacts excessively to infection. The body's response, which includes an intense antibacterial reaction, can damage its tissues and organs. Neutrophils are the major components of white blood cells in circulation, play a vital role in innate immunity while fighting against infections, and are considered a feature determining sepsis classification. There is a plethora of basic research detailing neutrophil functioning, among which, the study of neutrophil extracellular traps is providing novel insights into mechanisms and treatments of sepsis. This review explores their functions, dysfunctions, and influences in the context of sepsis. The interplay between neutrophils and the human microbiome and the impact of DNA methylation on neutrophil function in sepsis are crucial areas of study. The interaction between neutrophils and the human microbiome is complex, particularly in the context of sepsis, where dysbiosis may occur. We highlight the importance of deciphering neutrophils' functional alterations and their epigenetic features in sepsis because it is critical for defining sepsis endotypes and opening up the possibility for novel diagnostic methods and therapy. Specifically, epigenetic signatures are pivotal since they will provide a novel implication for a sepsis diagnostic method when used in combination with the cell-free DNA. Research is exploring how specific patterns of DNA methylation in neutrophils, detectable in cell-free DNA, could serve as biomarkers for the early detection of sepsis.},
}
@article {pmid38732595,
year = {2024},
author = {Luiskari, L and Lindén, J and Lehto, M and Salmenkari, H and Korpela, R},
title = {Ketogenic Diet Protects from Experimental Colitis in a Mouse Model Regardless of Dietary Fat Source.},
journal = {Nutrients},
volume = {16},
number = {9},
pages = {},
pmid = {38732595},
issn = {2072-6643},
support = {N/A//Mary och Georg C. Ehrnrooths Stiftelse/ ; N/A//Finnish Cultural Foundation/ ; N/A//Finnish Concordia Fund/ ; N/A//Finska Läkaresällskapet/ ; #NNFOC0013659//Novo Nordisk Foundation/ ; N/A//Wilhelm and Else Stockmann Foundation/ ; },
mesh = {Animals ; *Diet, Ketogenic ; *Colitis/chemically induced/diet therapy ; Male ; *Mice, Inbred C57BL ; *Disease Models, Animal ; *Dextran Sulfate ; Mice ; *Dietary Fats/adverse effects ; *Colon/pathology/metabolism ; Permeability ; Tight Junction Proteins/metabolism ; Interleukin-1beta/metabolism ; Intestinal Mucosa/pathology/metabolism ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/metabolism ; Fatty Acids ; Dextrans ; Fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate/*analogs & derivatives ; },
abstract = {While ketogenic diets (KDs) may have potential as adjunct treatments for gastrointestinal diseases, there is little knowledge on how the fat source of these diets impacts intestinal health. The objective of this study was to investigate how the source of dietary fat of KD influences experimental colitis. We fed nine-week-old male C57BL/6J mice (n = 36) with a low-fat control diet or KD high either in saturated fatty acids (SFA-KD) or polyunsaturated linoleic acid (LA-KD) for four weeks and then induced colitis with dextran sodium sulfate (DSS). To compare the diets, we analyzed macroscopic and histological changes in the colon, intestinal permeability to fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran (FITC-dextran), and the colonic expression of tight junction proteins and inflammatory markers. While the effects were more pronounced with LA-KD, both KDs markedly alleviated DSS-induced histological lesions. LA-KD prevented inflammation-related weight loss and the shortening of the colon, as well as preserved Il1b and Tnf expression at a healthy level. Despite no significant between-group differences in permeability to FITC-dextran, LA-KD mitigated changes in tight junction protein expression. Thus, KDs may have preventive potential against intestinal inflammation, with the level of the effect being dependent on the dietary fat source.},
}
@article {pmid38729090,
year = {2024},
author = {Richter, D and Piel, J},
title = {Novel types of RiPP-modifying enzymes.},
journal = {Current opinion in chemical biology},
volume = {80},
number = {},
pages = {102463},
doi = {10.1016/j.cbpa.2024.102463},
pmid = {38729090},
issn = {1879-0402},
mesh = {*Protein Processing, Post-Translational ; Humans ; *Peptides/metabolism/chemistry ; Ribosomes/metabolism ; Biological Products/metabolism/chemistry ; Animals ; Enzymes/metabolism/chemistry ; },
abstract = {Novel discoveries in natural product biosynthesis reveal hidden bioactive compounds and expand our knowledge in enzymology. Ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) are a rapidly growing class of natural products featuring diverse non-canonical amino acids introduced by maturation enzymes as a class-defining characteristic. Underexplored RiPP sources, such as the human microbiome, the oceans, uncultured microorganisms, and plants are rich hunting grounds for novel enzymology. Unusual α- and β-amino acids, peptide cleavages, lipidations, diverse macrocyclizations, and other features expand the range of chemical groups that are installed in RiPPs by often promiscuous enzymes. This review highlights the search for novelty in RiPP enzymology in the past two years, with respect to the discovery of new biochemical modifications but also towards novel applications.},
}
@article {pmid38718217,
year = {2024},
author = {Nicholson, LK and Kofonow, JM and Robertson, CE and Wright, T and Li, Q and Gardner, EM and Frank, DN and Janoff, EN},
title = {Clinical and Microbial Determinants of Upper Respiratory Colonization with Streptococcus pneumoniae and Native Microbiota in People with HIV-1 and Control Adults.},
journal = {The Journal of infectious diseases},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/infdis/jiae247},
pmid = {38718217},
issn = {1537-6613},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The substantial risk for respiratory and invasive infections with Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn) among people with HIV-1 (PWH) begins with asymptomatic colonization. The frequency of Spn colonization among U.S. adults with and without HIV-1 infection is not well-characterized in the conjugate vaccine era.
METHODS: We determined Spn colonization frequency by culture and specific lytA gene QPCR and microbiota profile by 16S rRNA gene sequencing in nasopharyngeal (NP) and oropharyngeal (OP) DNA from 138 PWH and 93 control adults and associated clinical characteristics.
RESULTS: The frequencies of Spn colonization among PWH and controls did not differ (11.6% vs 8.6%, respectively; p=0.46) using combined results of culture and PCR, independent of vaccination or behavioral risks. PWH showed altered microbiota composition (i.e., beta-diversity. NP: p=0.0028, OP: p=0.0098), decreased alpha-diversity (NP: p=0.024, OP: p=0.0045), and differences in the relative abundance of multiple bacterial taxa. Spn colonization was associated with altered beta-diversity in the NP (p=0.011), but not OP (p=0.21).
CONCLUSIONS: Despite widespread conjugate vaccine and antiretroviral use, frequencies of Spn colonization among PWH and controls are currently consistent with those reported in the pre-conjugate era. The persistently increased risk of pneumococcal disease despite ART may relate to behavioral and immunologic variables other than colonization.},
}
@article {pmid38717446,
year = {2024},
author = {Akouris, PP and Stuivenberg, GA and Chmiel, JA and Kiattiburut, W and Poon, A and Reid, G and Burton, JP},
title = {Ethanolamine enhances adhesion, promotes microcompartment formation, and modulates gene expression in Levilactobacillus brevis ATCC 14869.},
journal = {Gut microbes},
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {2350778},
pmid = {38717446},
issn = {1949-0984},
mesh = {*Ethanolamine/metabolism ; *Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial ; *Bacterial Adhesion/drug effects ; *Levilactobacillus brevis/genetics/metabolism ; Humans ; Bacterial Proteins/genetics/metabolism ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Animals ; Virulence/genetics ; },
abstract = {Ethanolamine is an abundant compound in the gastrointestinal tract and a valuable source of carbon and nitrogen for pathogenic bacteria harboring ethanolamine utilization (eut) genes. Eut-positive pathogens can consume free ethanolamine to outcompete commensal microbes, which often lack eut genes, and establish infection. Ethanolamine can also act as a host recognition signal for eut-positive pathogens to upregulate virulence genes during colonization. Therefore, reducing free ethanolamine titers may represent a novel approach to preventing infection by eut-positive pathogens. Interestingly, the commensal microorganism Levilactobacillus brevis ATCC 14869 was found to encode over 18 eut genes within its genome. This led us to hypothesize that L. brevis can compete with eut-positive pathogens by clearing free ethanolamine from the environment. Our results demonstrate that despite being unable to metabolize ethanolamine under most conditions, L. brevis ATCC 14869 responds to the compound by increasing the expression of genes encoding proteins involved in microcompartment formation and adhesion to the intestinal epithelial barrier. The improved intestinal adhesion of L. brevis in the presence of ethanolamine also enhanced the exclusion of eut-positive pathogens from adhering to intestinal epithelial cells. These findings support further studies to test whether L. brevis ATCC 14869 can counter enteric pathogens and prevent or reduce the severity of infections. Overall, the metabolic capabilities of L. brevis ATCC 14869 offer a unique opportunity to add to the armamentarium of antimicrobial therapies as well as our understanding of the mechanisms used by beneficial microbes to sense and adapt to host microenvironments.},
}
@article {pmid38717124,
year = {2024},
author = {Yadegar, A and Bar-Yoseph, H and Monaghan, TM and Pakpour, S and Severino, A and Kuijper, EJ and Smits, WK and Terveer, EM and Neupane, S and Nabavi-Rad, A and Sadeghi, J and Cammarota, G and Ianiro, G and Nap-Hill, E and Leung, D and Wong, K and Kao, D},
title = {Fecal microbiota transplantation: current challenges and future landscapes.},
journal = {Clinical microbiology reviews},
volume = {37},
number = {2},
pages = {e0006022},
pmid = {38717124},
issn = {1098-6618},
support = {PJT168954//Canadian Government | Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)/ ; //NIHR | NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC)/ ; },
mesh = {*Fecal Microbiota Transplantation/methods ; Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Clostridium Infections/therapy/microbiology ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/therapy/microbiology ; Animals ; },
abstract = {SUMMARYGiven the importance of gut microbial homeostasis in maintaining health, there has been considerable interest in developing innovative therapeutic strategies for restoring gut microbiota. One such approach, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), is the main "whole gut microbiome replacement" strategy and has been integrated into clinical practice guidelines for treating recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI). Furthermore, the potential application of FMT in other indications such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), metabolic syndrome, and solid tumor malignancies is an area of intense interest and active research. However, the complex and variable nature of FMT makes it challenging to address its precise functionality and to assess clinical efficacy and safety in different disease contexts. In this review, we outline clinical applications, efficacy, durability, and safety of FMT and provide a comprehensive assessment of its procedural and administration aspects. The clinical applications of FMT in children and cancer immunotherapy are also described. We focus on data from human studies in IBD in contrast with rCDI to delineate the putative mechanisms of this treatment in IBD as a model, including colonization resistance and functional restoration through bacterial engraftment, modulating effects of virome/phageome, gut metabolome and host interactions, and immunoregulatory actions of FMT. Furthermore, we comprehensively review omics technologies, metagenomic approaches, and bioinformatics pipelines to characterize complex microbial communities and discuss their limitations. FMT regulatory challenges, ethical considerations, and pharmacomicrobiomics are also highlighted to shed light on future development of tailored microbiome-based therapeutics.},
}
@article {pmid38711478,
year = {2024},
author = {Ramkumar, D and Marty, A and Ramkumar, J and Rosencranz, H and Vedantham, R and Goldman, M and Meyer, E and Steinmetz, J and Weckle, A and Bloedorn, K and Rosier, C},
title = {Food for thought: Making the case for food produced via regenerative agriculture in the battle against non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs).},
journal = {One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands)},
volume = {18},
number = {},
pages = {100734},
pmid = {38711478},
issn = {2352-7714},
abstract = {Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) pose a global health challenge, leading to substantial morbidity, mortality, and economic strain. Our review underscores the escalating incidence of NCDs worldwide and highlights the potential of regenerative agriculture (RA) products in mitigating these diseases. We also explore the efficacy of dietary interventions in NCD management and prevention, emphasizing the superiority of plant-based diets over those high in processed foods and red meat. Examining the role of the gut microbiome in various diseases, including liver disorders, allergies, metabolic syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, and colon cancer, we find compelling evidence implicating its influence on disease development. Notably, dietary modifications can positively affect the gut microbiome, fostering a symbiotic relationship with the host and making this a critical strategy in disease prevention and treatment. Investigating agricultural practices, we identify parallels between soil/plant and human microbiome studies, suggesting a crucial link between soil health, plant- and animal-derived food quality, and human well-being. Conventional/Industrial agriculture (IA) practices, characterized in part by use of chemical inputs, have adverse effects on soil microbiome diversity, food quality, and ecosystems. In contrast, RA prioritizes soil health through natural processes, and includes avoiding synthetic inputs, crop rotation, and integrating livestock. Emerging evidence suggests that food from RA systems surpasses IA-produced food in quality and nutritional value. Recognizing the interconnection between human, plant, and soil microbiomes, promoting RA-produced foods emerges as a strategy to improve human health and environmental sustainability. By mitigating climate change impacts through carbon sequestration and water cycling, RA offers dual benefits for human and planetary health and well-being. Emphasizing the pivotal role of diet and agricultural practices in combating NCDs and addressing environmental concerns, the adoption of regional RA systems becomes imperative. Increasing RA integration into local food systems can enhance food quality, availability, and affordability while safeguarding human health and the planet's future.},
}
@article {pmid38710286,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhao, F and Wang, J},
title = {Another piece of puzzle for the human microbiome: the gut virome under dietary modulation.},
journal = {Journal of genetics and genomics = Yi chuan xue bao},
volume = {51},
number = {10},
pages = {983-996},
doi = {10.1016/j.jgg.2024.04.013},
pmid = {38710286},
issn = {1673-8527},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Virome/genetics ; *Diet ; Bacteriophages/genetics/physiology ; Bacteria/genetics/classification/virology ; Gene Transfer, Horizontal ; Viruses/genetics ; },
abstract = {The virome is the most abundant and highly variable microbial consortium in the gut. Because of difficulties in isolating and culturing gut viruses and the lack of reference genomes, the virome has remained a relatively elusive aspect of the human microbiome. In recent years, studies on the virome have accumulated growing evidence showing that the virome is diet-modulated and widely involved in regulating health. Here, we review the responses of the gut virome to dietary intake and the potential health implications, presenting changes in the gut viral community and preferences of viral members to particular diets. We further discuss how viral-bacterial interactions and phage lifestyle shifts shape the gut microbiota. We also discuss the specific functions conferred by diet on the gut virome and bacterial community in the context of horizontal gene transfer, as well as the import of new viral members along with the diet. Collating these studies will expand our understanding of the dietary regulation of the gut virome and inspire dietary interventions and health maintenance strategies targeting the gut microbiota.},
}
@article {pmid38709058,
year = {2024},
author = {Geaman, W and Choi, BI and Kaindl, J and Gonzalez, C and Wolfe, AJ},
title = {Microbroth dilution method for antibiotic susceptibility testing of fastidious and anaerobic bacteria of the urinary microbiome.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {12},
number = {6},
pages = {e0031424},
pmid = {38709058},
issn = {2165-0497},
support = {//Pathnostics/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbial Sensitivity Tests/methods ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; *Microbiota/drug effects ; *Bacteria, Anaerobic/drug effects/isolation & purification ; Urine/microbiology ; Urinary Tract Infections/microbiology ; Bacteria/drug effects/isolation & purification/growth & development ; Culture Media/chemistry ; },
abstract = {UNLABELLED: Bacterial isolates from the human urinary microbiome have been extensively studied for their antibiotic resistance; however, little work has been done on those isolates that are difficult to grow in vitro. This study was designed to qualify a serum-based medium, New York City Broth III (NYCIII), and a broth microdilution method to determine the antibiotic susceptibility of previously underreported or undescribed microbes that have a difficult time growing in standard Mueller-Hinton broth. Here, we demonstrate that NYCIII microbroth dilution can be an effective method for the determination of antibiotic susceptibility of species found in the human urinary microbiome. We show that this method serves well to characterize fastidious and anaerobic urinary microbes that have no Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines, including several in the families Aerococcaceae, Lactobacillaceae, or Actinomycetaceae. Previous studies using expanded quantitative urine culture reveal that urine samples from clinical patients are commonly polymicrobial in composition. Thus, we test whether NYCIII can serve as a viable harmonized medium, capable of supporting antibiotic susceptibility testing in a range of fastidious, non-fastidious, and anaerobic urinary microbes. We propose this methodology to be standardized comparable to CLSI standards to allow for resistance testing in uncharacterized urinary bacteria.
IMPORTANCE: Antibiotic susceptibilities of fastidious and anaerobic bacteria of the human urinary microbiome are largely underreported due to difficulty in growing them in the lab environment. The current standard medium, Muller-Hinton broth, has difficulty supporting the growth of many of these species, leaving microbiologists without a standardized method. To address this need, this study offers a methodology to survey susceptibilities in a high-throughput manner of these understudied microbes with a proposed harmonized medium, NYCIII, which is capable of supporting the growth of both fastidious and non-fastidious urinary microbes. Broader standardization of this method can allow for the development of antibiotic-resistant breakpoints of the many uncharacterized urinary microbes.},
}
@article {pmid38707185,
year = {2024},
author = {Koudokpon, H and Legba, BB and Dougnon, V and Mero, S and Bankole, H and Haukka, K},
title = {Strengthening clinical bacteriology laboratory diagnostics to combat sepsis and antimicrobial resistance in Benin: a train-the-trainer approach.},
journal = {Frontiers in medicine},
volume = {11},
number = {},
pages = {1281418},
pmid = {38707185},
issn = {2296-858X},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Improved laboratory diagnostics is needed to support sepsis diagnosis and combat increasing antibiotic resistance in Benin. We trained clinical laboratory experts and technicians to improve their skills in accurate and up-to-date diagnostics.
METHODS: A Train-the-Trainer (TtT) approach was used to design the course that combines theoretical and practical laboratory skills, specifically addressing the knowledge gaps we had previously identified in our national survey. Pedagogical methods were student-centered, including peer learning, use of online materials, practical laboratory work and pre-and post-course tests.
RESULTS: We first trained 10 trainers who in turn trained 40 laboratory technicians from across the country, from both public and private clinical and veterinary laboratories. The trainers also prepared standard operation procedures for blood culture and antibiotic susceptibility testing based on international standards. Three months after the training, follow-up visits were made to the laboratories where the implementation of the new skills was evaluated. The progress of the participants observed during the course and the implementation of the new skills afterwards proved the training to be effective.
DISCUSSION: The professional networks created during the training, the empowerment that utilizes local knowledge resources, and the government support for our initiative can be expected to bring sustainability to the initiative and support the participation of Beninese laboratories in international surveillance programs in the future.},
}
@article {pmid38706561,
year = {2024},
author = {Alagiakrishnan, K and Morgadinho, J and Halverson, T},
title = {Approach to the diagnosis and management of dysbiosis.},
journal = {Frontiers in nutrition},
volume = {11},
number = {},
pages = {1330903},
pmid = {38706561},
issn = {2296-861X},
abstract = {All microorganisms like bacteria, viruses and fungi that reside within a host environment are considered a microbiome. The number of bacteria almost equal that of human cells, however, the genome of these bacteria may be almost 100 times larger than the human genome. Every aspect of the physiology and health can be influenced by the microbiome living in various parts of our body. Any imbalance in the microbiome composition or function is seen as dysbiosis. Different types of dysbiosis are seen and the corresponding symptoms depend on the site of microbial imbalance. The contribution of the intestinal and extra-intestinal microbiota to influence systemic activities is through interplay between different axes. Whole body dysbiosis is a complex process involving gut microbiome and non-gut related microbiome. It is still at the stage of infancy and has not yet been fully understood. Dysbiosis can be influenced by genetic factors, lifestyle habits, diet including ultra-processed foods and food additives, as well as medications. Dysbiosis has been associated with many systemic diseases and cannot be diagnosed through standard blood tests or investigations. Microbiota derived metabolites can be analyzed and can be useful in the management of dysbiosis. Whole body dysbiosis can be addressed by altering lifestyle factors, proper diet and microbial modulation. The effect of these interventions in humans depends on the beneficial microbiome alteration mostly based on animal studies with evolving evidence from human studies. There is tremendous potential for the human microbiome in the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of diseases, as well as, for the monitoring of health and disease in humans. Whole body system-based approach to the diagnosis of dysbiosis is better than a pure taxonomic approach. Whole body dysbiosis could be a new therapeutic target in the management of various health conditions.},
}
@article {pmid38702623,
year = {2024},
author = {Shen, S and Liu, X and Huang, J and Sun, Y and Liu, B and Song, W and Meng, L and Du, M and Feng, Q},
title = {Efficacy of a mouthwash containing ε-poly-L-lysine, funme peptides and domiphen in reducing halitosis and supragingival plaque: a randomized clinical trial.},
journal = {BMC oral health},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
pages = {525},
pmid = {38702623},
issn = {1472-6831},
support = {2021SFGC0502//the "Tang Scholar" Program, Major Innovation Projects in Shandong Province/ ; ZR2022QH278//Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province/ ; tsqn202306369//Construction Engineering Special Fund of "Taishan Scholars" of Shandong Province/ ; ZR2021JQ29//Excellent Young Scientist Foundation of Shandong Province/ ; 2019//Taishan Young Scientist Project of Shandong Province/ ; 2021GXRC021//Periodontitis innovation team of Jinan City/ ; 2021SFGC0502//Major Innovation Projects in Shandong Province/ ; 2020KJK001//Oral Microbiome Innovation Team of Shandong Province/ ; 2021ZDSYS18//Key Technology Research and Development Program of Shandong Province/ ; 2021SFGC0502//Shandong Province Major Scientifc and Technical Innovation Project/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Halitosis/prevention & control/drug therapy/microbiology ; *Mouthwashes/therapeutic use ; *Dental Plaque/microbiology/prevention & control ; Double-Blind Method ; Male ; Female ; *Polylysine/therapeutic use ; Adult ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Young Adult ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use/pharmacology ; Porphyromonas gingivalis/drug effects ; Fusobacterium nucleatum/drug effects ; Fibroblasts/drug effects ; Peptides/therapeutic use/pharmacology ; Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans/drug effects ; Streptococcus mutans/drug effects ; },
abstract = {OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the antibacterial effectiveness of a combination of ε-poly-L-lysine (ε-PL), funme peptide (FP) as well as domiphen against oral pathogens, and assess the efficacy of a BOP® mouthwash supplemented with this combination in reducing halitosis and supragingival plaque in a clinical trial.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the compound against Fusobacterium nucleatum, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Streptococcus mutans, and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans were determined by the gradient dilution method. Subsequently, the CCK-8 assay was used to detect the toxicity of mouthwash on human gingival fibroblastst, and the effectiveness in reducing halitosis and supragingival plaque of the mouthwash supplemented with the combination was analyzed by a randomized, double-blind, parallel-controlled clinical trial.
RESULTS: The combination exhibited significant inhibitory effects on tested oral pathogens with the MIC < 1.56% (v/v) and the MBC < 3.13% (v/v), and the mouthwash containing this combination did not inhibit the viability of human gingival fibroblasts at the test concentrations. The clinical trial showed that the test group displayed notably lower volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) at 0, 10, 24 h, and 7 d post-mouthwash (P < 0.05), compared with the baseline. After 7 days, the VSC levels of the and control groups were reduced by 50.27% and 32.12%, respectively, and notably cutting severe halitosis by 57.03% in the test group. Additionally, the Plaque Index (PLI) of the test and control group decreased by 54.55% and 8.38%, respectively, and there was a significant difference in PLI between the two groups after 7 days (P < 0.01).
CONCLUSIONS: The combination of ε-PL, FP and domiphen demonstrated potent inhibitory and bactericidal effects against the tested oral pathogens, and the newly formulated mouthwash added with the combination exhibited anti-dental plaque and anti-halitosis properties in a clinical trial and was safe.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: The randomized controlled clinical trial was registered on Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (No. ChiCTR2300073816, Date: 21/07/2023).},
}
@article {pmid38700829,
year = {2024},
author = {Jang, CS and Kim, H and Kim, D and Han, B},
title = {MicroPredict: predicting species-level taxonomic abundance of whole-shotgun metagenomic data using only 16S amplicon sequencing data.},
journal = {Genes & genomics},
volume = {46},
number = {6},
pages = {701-712},
pmid = {38700829},
issn = {2092-9293},
mesh = {*RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; *Metagenomics/methods ; Humans ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Machine Learning ; Whole Genome Sequencing/methods ; Metagenome/genetics ; Bacteria/genetics/classification ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The importance of the human microbiome in the analysis of various diseases is emerging. The two main methods used to profile the human microbiome are 16S rRNA gene sequencing (16S sequencing) and whole-genome shotgun sequencing (WGS). Owing to the full coverage of the genome in sequencing, WGS has multiple advantages over 16S sequencing, including higher taxonomic profiling resolution at the species-level and functional profiling analysis. However, 16S sequencing remains widely used because of its relatively low cost. Although WGS is the standard method for obtaining accurate species-level data, we found that 16S sequencing data contained rich information to predict high-resolution species-level abundances with reasonable accuracy.
OBJECTIVE: In this study, we proposed MicroPredict, a method for accurately predicting WGS-comparable species-level abundance data using 16S taxonomic profile data.
METHODS: We employed a mixed model using two key strategies: (1) modeling both sample- and species-specific information for predicting WGS abundances, and (2) accounting for the possible correlations among different species.
RESULTS: We found that MicroPredict outperformed the other machine learning methods.
CONCLUSION: We expect that our approach will help researchers accurately approximate the species-level abundances of microbiome profiles in datasets for which only cost-effective 16S sequencing has been applied.},
}
@article {pmid38697697,
year = {2024},
author = {Araujo, R and Merino-Ribas, A and Pereira, L and Campos, J and Silva, N and Alencastre, IS and Pestana, M and Sampaio-Maia, B},
title = {The urogenital microbiome in chronic kidney disease patients on peritoneal dialysis.},
journal = {Nefrologia},
volume = {44},
number = {2},
pages = {194-203},
doi = {10.1016/j.nefroe.2024.04.004},
pmid = {38697697},
issn = {2013-2514},
mesh = {Humans ; Female ; Male ; *Peritoneal Dialysis/adverse effects ; Middle Aged ; *Microbiota ; *Renal Insufficiency, Chronic/microbiology/therapy/complications ; Aged ; Urogenital System/microbiology ; Adult ; Feces/microbiology ; },
abstract = {INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Diabetes, dyslipidemia, older age, gender, urinary tract infections, and recent antibiotic intake have been associated with a decrease in the urobiome richness and other fluctuations in this microbiome. Gut and blood microbiome have been reported to be altered in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and specifically in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. Still, there are currently no studies describing the urogenital microbiome in CKD-PD patients. In this study we characterized the urobiome profile in 46 PD patients and analyzed its clinical and inflammatory parameters.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mid-stream urine, fecal and blood samples were collected from 46 patients undergoing PD at Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João (CHUSJ) in Porto, Portugal. Exclusion criteria were age under 18 years old, inability to give informed consent, history of infection in the last three months, and antibiotic intake in the last three months. The microbiome communities were analyzed by amplification and sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Correlations with the patients' clinical data and inflammatory profile were performed.
RESULTS: CKD-PD patients presented a unique urobiome profile dominated by Bacillota, Actinomycetota and Pseudomonadota and characterized by a lower Shannon diversity than fecal and blood microbiome. The taxonomic profiles of urogenital samples were organized in multiple subtypes dominated by populations of Lactobacillus, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Gardnerella, Prevotella, Escherichia-Shigella, being similar to other non-PD-CKD patients. Gender, sCD14, residual diuresis and history of peritonitis were significantly associated to variations in the urobiome. Although not reaching statistical significance, diabetes and the time on PD also showed association with particular taxonomic groups. Depletion of Gardnerella, Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium, Lactobacillus or Dermabacter populations correlated with CKD-PD patients with history of diabetes, history of peritonitis and altered levels of sCD14.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight urogenital microbiome as a potential partner and/or marker in the overall health state of CKD-PD patients.},
}
@article {pmid38695302,
year = {2024},
author = {Roussel, C and Sola, M and Lessard-Lord, J and Nallabelli, N and Généreux, P and Cavestri, C and Azeggouar Wallen, O and Villano, R and Raymond, F and Flamand, N and Silvestri, C and Di Marzo, V},
title = {Human gut microbiota and their production of endocannabinoid-like mediators are directly affected by a dietary oil.},
journal = {Gut microbes},
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {2335879},
pmid = {38695302},
issn = {1949-0984},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects ; *Bacteria/classification/metabolism/isolation & purification/genetics ; *Endocannabinoids/metabolism ; Colon/microbiology/metabolism ; Ileum/microbiology/metabolism ; Fatty Acids, Omega-3/metabolism ; Plant Oils/metabolism/pharmacology ; Dietary Supplements ; Adult ; Male ; },
abstract = {Dietary omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) and the gut microbiome affect each other. We investigated the impact of supplementation with Buglossoides arvensis oil (BO), rich in stearidonic acid (SDA), on the human gut microbiome. Employing the Mucosal Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem (M-SHIME), we simulated the ileal and ascending colon microbiomes of four donors. Our results reveal two distinct microbiota clusters influenced by BO, exhibiting shared and contrasting shifts. Notably, Bacteroides and Clostridia abundance underwent similar changes in both clusters, accompanied by increased propionate production in the colon. However, in the ileum, cluster 2 displayed a higher metabolic activity in terms of BO-induced propionate levels. Accordingly, a triad of bacterial members involved in propionate production through the succinate pathway, namely Bacteroides, Parabacteroides, and Phascolarctobacterium, was identified particularly in this cluster, which also showed a surge of second-generation probiotics, such as Akkermansia, in the colon. Finally, we describe for the first time the capability of gut bacteria to produce N-acyl-ethanolamines, and particularly the SDA-derived N-stearidonoyl-ethanolamine, following BO supplementation, which also stimulated the production of another bioactive endocannabinoid-like molecule, commendamide, in both cases with variations across individuals. Spearman correlations enabled the identification of bacterial genera potentially involved in endocannabinoid-like molecule production, such as, in agreement with previous reports, Bacteroides in the case of commendamide. This study suggests that the potential health benefits on the human microbiome of certain dietary oils may be amenable to stratified nutrition strategies and extend beyond n-3 PUFAs to include microbiota-derived endocannabinoid-like mediators.},
}
@article {pmid38694799,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhang, Y and Xue, G and Wang, F and Zhang, J and Xu, L and Yu, C},
title = {The impact of antibiotic exposure on antibiotic resistance gene dynamics in the gut microbiota of inflammatory bowel disease patients.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1382332},
pmid = {38694799},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: While antibiotics are commonly used to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), their widespread application can disturb the gut microbiota and foster the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance. However, the dynamic changes to the human gut microbiota and direction of resistance gene transmission under antibiotic effects have not been clearly elucidated.
METHODS: Based on the Human Microbiome Project, a total of 90 fecal samples were collected from 30 IBD patients before, during and after antibiotic treatment. Through the analysis workflow of metagenomics, we described the dynamic process of changes in bacterial communities and resistance genes pre-treatment, during and post-treatment. We explored potential consistent relationships between gut microbiota and resistance genes, and established gene transmission networks among species before and after antibiotic use.
RESULTS: Exposure to antibiotics can induce alterations in the composition of the gut microbiota in IBD patients, particularly a reduction in probiotics, which gradually recovers to a new steady state after cessation of antibiotics. Network analyses revealed intra-phylum transfers of resistance genes, predominantly between taxonomically close organisms. Specific resistance genes showed increased prevalence and inter-species mobility after antibiotic cessation.
CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that antibiotics shape the gut resistome through selective enrichment and promotion of horizontal gene transfer. The findings provide insights into ecological processes governing resistance gene dynamics and dissemination upon antibiotic perturbation of the microbiota. Optimizing antibiotic usage may help limit unintended consequences like increased resistance in gut bacteria during IBD management.},
}
@article {pmid38690563,
year = {2024},
author = {Karaman, I and Pathak, A and Bayik, D and Watson, DC},
title = {Harnessing Bacterial Extracellular Vesicle Immune Effects for Cancer Therapy.},
journal = {Pathogens & immunity},
volume = {9},
number = {1},
pages = {56-90},
pmid = {38690563},
issn = {2469-2964},
support = {K99 CA277242/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {There are a growing number of studies linking the composition of the human microbiome to disease states and treatment responses, especially in the context of cancer. This has raised significant interest in developing microbes and microbial products as cancer immunotherapeutics that mimic or recapitulate the beneficial effects of host-microbe interactions. Bacterial extracellular vesicles (bEVs) are nano-sized, membrane-bound particles secreted by essentially all bacteria species and contain a diverse bioactive cargo of the producing cell. They have a fundamental role in facilitating interactions among cells of the same species, different microbial species, and even with multicellular host organisms in the context of colonization (microbiome) and infection. The interaction of bEVs with the immune system has been studied extensively in the context of infection and suggests that bEV effects depend largely on the producing species. They thus provide functional diversity, while also being nonreplicative, having inherent cell-targeting qualities, and potentially overcoming natural barriers. These characteristics make them highly appealing for development as cancer immunotherapeutics. Both natively secreted and engineered bEVs are now being investigated for their application as immunotherapeutics, vaccines, drug delivery vehicles, and combinations of the above, with promising early results. This suggests that both the intrinsic immunomodulatory properties of bEVs and their ability to be modified could be harnessed for the development of next-generation microbe-inspired therapies. Nonetheless, there remain major outstanding questions regarding how the observed preclinical effectiveness will translate from murine models to primates, and humans in particular. Moreover, research into the pharmacology, toxicology, and mass manufacturing of this potential novel therapeutic platform is still at early stages. In this review, we highlight the breadth of bEV interactions with host cells, focusing on immunologic effects as the main mechanism of action of bEVs currently in preclinical development. We review the literature on ongoing efforts to develop natively secreted and engineered bEVs from a variety of bacterial species for cancer therapy and finally discuss efforts to overcome outstanding challenges that remain for clinical translation.},
}
@article {pmid38688858,
year = {2024},
author = {Sminia, TJ and Aalvink, S and de Jong, H and Tempelaars, MH and Zuilhof, H and Abee, T and de Vos, WM and Tytgat, HLP and Wennekes, T},
title = {Probing Peptidoglycan Synthesis in the Gut Commensal Akkermansia Muciniphila with Bioorthogonal Chemical Reporters.},
journal = {Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology},
volume = {25},
number = {19},
pages = {e202400037},
doi = {10.1002/cbic.202400037},
pmid = {38688858},
issn = {1439-7633},
support = {//Netherlands Foundation for Scientific Research (NWO)/ ; 722.011.006//VENI/ ; 723.014.005//VIDI/ ; //Laboratory of Microbiology/ ; //Soehngen Institute of Anaerobic Microbiology/ ; //SIAM/ ; 024.002.002//NWO/ ; //NWO/ ; //WMdV/ ; //Laboratory of Biochemistry, Wageningen University/ ; },
mesh = {*Peptidoglycan/metabolism/chemistry/biosynthesis ; *Akkermansia/metabolism ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Humans ; Molecular Probes/chemistry/metabolism ; Click Chemistry ; Cyclopropanes/chemistry/metabolism ; },
abstract = {Our gut microbiota directly influences human physiology in health and disease. The myriad of surface glycoconjugates in both the bacterial cell envelope and our gut cells dominate the microbiota-host interface and play a critical role in host response and microbiota homeostasis. Among these, peptidoglycan is the basic glycan polymer offering the cell rigidity and a basis on which many other glycoconjugates are anchored. To directly study peptidoglycan in gut commensals and obtain the molecular insight required to understand their functional activities we need effective techniques like chemical probes to label peptidoglycan in live bacteria. Here we report a chemically guided approach to study peptidoglycan in a key mucin-degrading gut microbiota member of the Verrucomicrobia phylum, Akkermansia muciniphila. Two novel non-toxic tetrazine click-compatible peptidoglycan probes with either a cyclopropene or isonitrile handle allowed for the detection and imaging of peptidoglycan synthesis in this intestinal species.},
}
@article {pmid38687072,
year = {2024},
author = {Nagpal, S and Mande, SS and Hooda, H and Dutta, U and Taneja, B},
title = {EnsembleSeq: a workflow towards real-time, rapid, and simultaneous multi-kingdom-amplicon sequencing for holistic and resource-effective microbiome research at scale.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {12},
number = {6},
pages = {e0415023},
pmid = {38687072},
issn = {2165-0497},
support = {OLP2306//CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; *Microbiota/genetics ; *Bacteria/genetics/classification/isolation & purification ; *Saliva/microbiology ; *Fungi/genetics/classification/isolation & purification ; Workflow ; DNA, Bacterial/genetics ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing/methods ; Sequence Analysis, DNA/methods ; DNA, Fungal/genetics ; },
abstract = {UNLABELLED: Bacterial communities are often concomitantly present with numerous microorganisms in the human body and other natural environments. Amplicon-based microbiome studies have generally paid skewed attention, that too at a rather shallow genus level resolution, to the highly abundant bacteriome, with interest now forking toward the other microorganisms, particularly fungi. Given the generally sparse abundance of other microbes in the total microbiome, simultaneous sequencing of amplicons targeting multiple microbial kingdoms could be possible even with full multiplexing. Guiding studies are currently needed for performing and monitoring multi-kingdom-amplicon sequencing and data capture at scale. Aiming to address these gaps, amplification of full-length bacterial 16S rRNA gene and entire fungal internal-transcribed spacer (ITS) region was performed for human saliva samples (n = 96, including negative and positive controls). Combined amplicon DNA libraries were prepared for nanopore sequencing using a major fraction of 16S molecules and a minor fraction of ITS amplicons. Sequencing was performed in a single run of an R10.4.1 flow cell employing the latest V14 chemistry. An approach for real-time monitoring of the species saturation using dynamic rarefaction was designed as a guiding determinant of optimal run time. Real-time saturation monitoring for both bacterial and fungal species enabled the completion of sequencing within 30 hours, utilizing less than 60% of the total nanopores. Approximately 5 million high quality (HQ) taxonomically assigned reads were generated (~4.2 million bacterial and 0.7 million fungal), providing a wider (beyond bacteriome) snapshot of human oral microbiota at species-level resolution. Among the more than 400 bacterial and 240 fungal species identified in the studied samples, the species of Streptococcus (e.g., Streptococcus mitis and Streptococcus oralis) and Candida (e.g., Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis) were observed to be the dominating microbes in the oral cavity, respectively. This conformed well with the previous reports of the human oral microbiota. EnsembleSeq provides a proof-of-concept toward the identification of both fungal and bacterial species simultaneously in a single fully multiplexed nanopore sequencing run in a time- and resource-effective manner. Details of this workflow, along with the associated codebase, are provided to enable large-scale application for a holistic species-level microbiome study.
IMPORTANCE: Human microbiome is a sum total of a variety of microbial genomes (including bacteria, fungi, protists, viruses, etc.) present in and on the human body. Yet, a majority of amplicon-based microbiome studies have largely remained skewed toward bacteriome as an assumed proxy of the total microbiome, primarily at a shallow genus level. Cost, time, effort, data quality/management, and importantly lack of guiding studies often limit progress in the direction of moving beyond bacteriome. Here, EnsembleSeq presents a proof-of-concept toward concomitantly capturing multiple-kingdoms of microorganisms (bacteriome and mycobiome) in a fully multiplexed (96-sample) single run of long-read amplicon sequencing. In addition, the workflow captures dynamic tracking of species-level saturation in a time- and resource-effective manner.},
}
@article {pmid38687061,
year = {2024},
author = {Kallio, S and Jian, C and Korpela, K and Kukkonen, AK and Salonen, A and Savilahti, E and Kuitunen, M and M de Vos, W},
title = {Early-life gut microbiota associates with allergic rhinitis during 13-year follow-up in a Finnish probiotic intervention cohort.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {12},
number = {6},
pages = {e0413523},
pmid = {38687061},
issn = {2165-0497},
support = {308253//Research Council of Finland (AKA)/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Probiotics/administration & dosage ; *Rhinitis, Allergic/microbiology ; Female ; Finland/epidemiology ; Adolescent ; Child, Preschool ; Male ; Infant ; Child ; Follow-Up Studies ; *Feces/microbiology ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; Pregnancy ; Infant, Newborn ; Cohort Studies ; Bacteria/classification/genetics/isolation & purification ; },
abstract = {Perinatal and early-life factors reported to affect risk of allergic diseases may be mediated by changes in the gut microbiota. Here, we explored the associations between the infant gut microbiota and allergic morbidity in childhood until 13 years of age in a subgroup of the FLORA probiotic intervention cohort. A mixture of four probiotic strains with galacto-oligosaccharides was administrated to the mothers from the 36th week of the pregnancy and later to their infants until 6 months of age. The infants were monitored for the manifestations of atopic eczema, food allergy, allergic rhinitis, and asthma by a pediatrician at 2 and 5 years of age; the allergic status was subsequently verified by a questionnaire at 10 and 13 years of age. The fecal microbiota at 3 months was profiled by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing targeting the V3-V4 region, with and without adjusting for potentially important early-life factors. Overall, the positive diagnosis for allergic rhinitis between 2 and 13 years was associated with microbiota composition both in non-adjusted and adjusted models. This association was more pronounced in children born to one parent with confirmed atopic diseases compared to those who had two atopic parents and was characterized by a lower relative abundance of Bifidobacterium and Escherichia/Shigella spp. and a higher proportion of Bacteroides. While the probiotic and galacto-oligosaccharides intervention in the entire cohort was previously shown to reduce the prevalence of eczema to a certain extent, no associations were found between the 3-month gut microbiota and childhood eczema in the studied sub-cohort.IMPORTANCEAllergic diseases have increased in prevalence during the past decades globally. Although probiotics have been considered a promising strategy for preventing certain allergy related symptoms, studies connecting the infant gut microbiota and later life allergic morbidity in various populations remain limited. The present study supports an association between the infant microbiota and allergic morbidity after first years of life, which has been rarely examined.CLINICAL TRIALSRegistered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT00298337).},
}
@article {pmid38686448,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhang, Y and Miao, D and Su, M and Tang, Y and Zhou, M and Yu, Y and Guo, X and Wu, D},
title = {Synergistic Drug-Loaded Shear-Thinning Star Polymer Hydrogel Facilitates Gastrointestinal Lesion Resection and Promotes Wound Healing.},
journal = {Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)},
volume = {11},
number = {26},
pages = {e2309586},
pmid = {38686448},
issn = {2198-3844},
support = {2023B0303000025//Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research/ ; 51925308//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 2022YFA1304000//National Key Research and Development Program of China/ ; SL2023B03J00112//Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou/ ; KY012021209//GDPH Supporting Fund for Talent Program/ ; KY0120240026//GDPH Supporting Fund for Talent Program/ ; 2024A1515011636//Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation/ ; 23yxqntd002//Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Sun Yat-sen University/ ; //Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Functional Molecular Engineering/ ; },
mesh = {Animals ; *Wound Healing/drug effects ; Swine ; *Hydrogels/chemistry ; *Polymers/chemistry ; Polyethylene Glycols/chemistry ; Disease Models, Animal ; Methacrylates/chemistry ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology/administration & dosage ; },
abstract = {Easy injection, long-lasting barrier, and drug loading are the critical properties of submucosal injection materials for endoscopic surgery. However, conventional injectable polymers face challenges in simultaneously attaining these properties due to the inherent conflict between injectability and in situ stability. Here, a multi-arm star polymer hydrogel (denoted as βCP hydrogel) with long-lasting submucosal barrier (exceeding 120 min), rapid hemostasis, and sustained antibacterial properties is successfully developed by grafting poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate) (PEGMA) side-chains from β-CD via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). During the onset of shearing, βCP hydrogel experiences the unwinding of polymer side-chains between neighboring star polymers, which facilitates the process of endoscopic injectability. After submucosal injection, βCP hydrogel undergoes the winding of polymer side-chains, thereby establishing a long-lasting barrier cushion. Meanwhile, owing to its distinctive structures with a hydrophobic inner cavity and an outer layer of hydrophilic polymer side-chains, βCP hydrogel enables simultaneous loading and on-demand release of diverse categories of drugs. This unique performance can adapt to the diverse demands during different stages of wound healing in a porcine endoscopic surgery model. These results indicate an appealing prospect for new application of star polymers as a good submucosal injection material in endoscopic treatments.},
}
@article {pmid38680911,
year = {2024},
author = {Chen See, JR and Leister, J and Wright, JR and Kruse, PI and Khedekar, MV and Besch, CE and Kumamoto, CA and Madden, GR and Stewart, DB and Lamendella, R},
title = {Clostridioides difficile infection is associated with differences in transcriptionally active microbial communities.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1398018},
pmid = {38680911},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is responsible for around 300,000 hospitalizations yearly in the United States, with the associated monetary cost being billions of dollars. Gut microbiome dysbiosis is known to be important to CDI. To the best of our knowledge, metatranscriptomics (MT) has only been used to characterize gut microbiome composition and function in one prior study involving CDI patients. Therefore, we utilized MT to investigate differences in active community diversity and composition between CDI+ (n = 20) and CDI- (n = 19) samples with respect to microbial taxa and expressed genes. No significant (Kruskal-Wallis, p > 0.05) differences were detected for richness or evenness based on CDI status. However, clustering based on CDI status was significant for both active microbial taxa and expressed genes datasets (PERMANOVA, p ≤ 0.05). Furthermore, differential feature analysis revealed greater expression of the opportunistic pathogens Enterocloster bolteae and Ruminococcus gnavus in CDI+ compared to CDI- samples. When only fungal sequences were considered, the family Saccharomycetaceae expressed more genes in CDI-, while 31 other fungal taxa were identified as significantly (Kruskal-Wallis p ≤ 0.05, log(LDA) ≥ 2) associated with CDI+. We also detected a variety of genes and pathways that differed significantly (Kruskal-Wallis p ≤ 0.05, log(LDA) ≥ 2) based on CDI status. Notably, differential genes associated with biofilm formation were expressed by C. difficile. This provides evidence of another possible contributor to C. difficile's resistance to antibiotics and frequent recurrence in vivo. Furthermore, the greater number of CDI+ associated fungal taxa constitute additional evidence that the mycobiome is important to CDI pathogenesis. Future work will focus on establishing if C. difficile is actively producing biofilms during infection and if any specific fungal taxa are particularly influential in CDI.},
}
@article {pmid38677439,
year = {2024},
author = {Luo, X and Hounmanou, YMG and Ndayisenga, F and Yu, Z},
title = {Spontaneous fermentation mitigates the frequency of genes encoding antimicrobial resistance spreading from the phyllosphere reservoir to the diet.},
journal = {The Science of the total environment},
volume = {931},
number = {},
pages = {172712},
doi = {10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172712},
pmid = {38677439},
issn = {1879-1026},
mesh = {*Fermentation ; *Microbiota/drug effects ; Bacteria/genetics ; Genes, Bacterial ; Metagenome ; Drug Resistance, Bacterial/genetics ; Drug Resistance, Microbial/genetics ; Vegetables/microbiology ; Humans ; Diet ; },
abstract = {The phyllosphere microbiome of vegetable products constitutes an important reservoir for multidrug resistant bacteria and Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARG). Vegetable products including fermented products such as Paocai therefore may serve as a shuttle for extrinsic microorganisms with ARGs into the gut of consumers. Here we study the effect of fermentation on Paocai ARG dissemination by metagenomic analysis. Microbial abundance and diversity of the Paocai microbiome were diminished during fermentation, which correlated with the reduction of abundance in ARGs. Specifically, as fermentation progressed, Enterobacterales overtook Pseudomonadales as the predominant ARG carriers, and Lactobacillales and Enterobacteriales became the determinants of Paocai resistome variation. Moreover, the dual effect of microbes and metal resistance genes (MRGs) was the major contributor driving Paocai resistome dynamics. We recovered several metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) carrying acquired ARGs in the phyllosphere microbiome. ARGs of potential clinical and epidemiological relevance such as tet M and emrB-qacA, were mainly hosted by non-dominant bacterial genera. Overall, our study provides evidence that changes in microbial community composition by fermentation aid in constraining ARG dispersal from raw ingredients to the human microbiome but does not eliminate them.},
}
@article {pmid38674588,
year = {2024},
author = {Brogna, C and Bisaccia, DR and Costanzo, V and Lettieri, G and Montano, L and Viduto, V and Fabrowski, M and Cristoni, S and Prisco, M and Piscopo, M},
title = {Who Is the Intermediate Host of RNA Viruses? A Study Focusing on SARS-CoV-2 and Poliovirus.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {12},
number = {4},
pages = {},
pmid = {38674588},
issn = {2076-2607},
abstract = {The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a surge in research on microbiology and virology, shedding light on overlooked aspects such as the infection of bacteria by RNA virions in the animal microbiome. Studies reveal a decrease in beneficial gut bacteria during COVID-19, indicating a significant interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and the human microbiome. However, determining the origins of the virus remains complex, with observed phenomena such as species jumps adding layers to the narrative. Prokaryotic cells play a crucial role in the disease's pathogenesis and transmission. Analyzing previous studies highlights intricate interactions from clinical manifestations to the use of the nitrogen isotope test. Drawing parallels with the history of the Poliovirus underscores the need to prioritize investigations into prokaryotic cells hosting RNA viruses.},
}
@article {pmid38674238,
year = {2024},
author = {Hernández-Zulueta, J and Bolaños-Chang, AJ and Santa Cruz-Pavlovich, FJ and Valero Rodríguez, AD and Lizárraga Madrigal, A and Del Rio-Murillo, XI and Navarro-Partida, J and Gonzalez-De la Rosa, A},
title = {Microbial Dynamics in Ophthalmic Health: Exploring the Interplay between Human Microbiota and Glaucoma Pathogenesis.},
journal = {Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania)},
volume = {60},
number = {4},
pages = {},
pmid = {38674238},
issn = {1648-9144},
mesh = {Humans ; *Glaucoma/microbiology ; *Microbiota/physiology ; *Dysbiosis/complications/immunology ; Mouth/microbiology ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; Eye/microbiology ; Neurodegenerative Diseases/microbiology ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome has a crucial role in the homeostasis and health of the host. These microorganisms along with their genes are involved in various processes, among these are neurological signaling, the maturation of the immune system, and the inhibition of opportunistic pathogens. In this sense, it has been shown that a healthy ocular microbiota acts as a barrier against the entry of pathogens, contributing to the prevention of infections. In recent years, a relationship has been suggested between microbiota dysbiosis and the development of neurodegenerative diseases. In patients with glaucoma, it has been observed that the microbiota of the ocular surface, intraocular cavity, oral cavity, stomach, and gut differ from those observed in healthy patients, which may suggest a role in pathology development, although the evidence remains limited. The mechanisms involved in the relationship of the human microbiome and this neurodegenerative disease remain largely unknown. For this reason, the present review aims to show a broad overview of the influence of the structure and composition of the human oral and gut microbiota and relate its dysbiosis to neurodegenerative diseases, especially glaucoma.},
}
@article {pmid38669195,
year = {2024},
author = {Sengupta, S and Pabbaraja, S and Mehta, G},
title = {Natural products from the human microbiome: an emergent frontier in organic synthesis and drug discovery.},
journal = {Organic & biomolecular chemistry},
volume = {22},
number = {20},
pages = {4006-4030},
doi = {10.1039/d4ob00236a},
pmid = {38669195},
issn = {1477-0539},
mesh = {Humans ; *Biological Products/pharmacology/chemistry/chemical synthesis/metabolism ; *Drug Discovery ; *Microbiota/drug effects ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology/chemical synthesis/chemistry ; },
abstract = {Often referred to as the "second genome", the human microbiome is at the epicenter of complex inter-habitat biochemical networks like the "gut-brain axis", which has emerged as a significant determinant of cognition, overall health and well-being, as well as resistance to antibiotics and susceptibility to diseases. As part of a broader understanding of the nexus between the human microbiome, diseases and microbial interactions, whether encoded secondary metabolites (natural products) play crucial signalling roles has been the subject of intense scrutiny in the recent past. A major focus of these activities involves harvesting the genomic potential of the human microbiome via bioinformatics guided genome mining and culturomics. Through these efforts, an impressive number of structurally intriguing antibiotics, with enhanced chemical diversity vis-à-vis conventional antibiotics have been isolated from human commensal bacteria, thereby generating considerable interest in their total synthesis and expanding their therapeutic space for drug discovery. These developments augur well for the discovery of new drugs and antibiotics, particularly in the context of challenges posed by mycobacterial resistance and emerging new diseases. The current landscape of various synthetic campaigns and drug discovery initiatives on antibacterial natural products from the human microbiome is captured in this review with an intent to stimulate further activities in this interdisciplinary arena among the new generation.},
}
@article {pmid38668878,
year = {2024},
author = {Farfour, E and Vasse, M and Vallée, A},
title = {Oligella spp.: A systematic review on an uncommon urinary pathogen.},
journal = {European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology},
volume = {43},
number = {6},
pages = {1037-1050},
pmid = {38668878},
issn = {1435-4373},
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; *Urinary Tract Infections/microbiology ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections/microbiology/diagnosis ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Oligella is an uncommon Gram-negative coccobacillus that was first thought to belong to the urogenital tract. The genus Oligella comprises two species that were recovered from various samples worldwide.
METHODS: We perform a systematic review focusing on Oligella microbiological characteristics, habitat, role in Human microbiome and infection, and antimicrobial susceptibility.
RESULTS: In humans, Oligella is mainly found as part of the microbiome of individuals with predisposing conditions. Oligella were also associated with invasive infections in patients with underlying diseases. Nevertheless, their prevalence remains to determine. Oligella culture requires up to 48 h on agar media in vitro, while urinary samples are usually incubated for 24 h. Consequently, microbiologists should be prompt to prolong the incubation of agar media when the direct examination showed Gram-negative coccobacilli. Oligella is accurately identified using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, but biochemical methods often provided inconsistent results. Specific guidelines for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Oligella lack but the incubation could require up to 48 h of incubation. In contrast to O. urethralis, which is susceptible to third-generation cephalosporin, O. ureolytica is likely resistant to numerous antimicrobials. Genectic determinants of resistance were identified for beta-lactams and aminoglycosides.
CONCLUSION: Oligella is an uncommon pathogen that can be underrecognized. Microbiologists should be prompt to prolong the incubation of agar media plated with urines when the direct examination showed Gram-negative coccobacilli. Carbapenems should probably be given for the empirical treatment.},
}
@article {pmid38666212,
year = {2024},
author = {Pujolassos, M and Susín, A and Calle, ML},
title = {Microbiome compositional data analysis for survival studies.},
journal = {NAR genomics and bioinformatics},
volume = {6},
number = {2},
pages = {lqae038},
pmid = {38666212},
issn = {2631-9268},
abstract = {The growing interest in studying the relationship between the human microbiome and our health has also extended to time-to-event studies where researchers explore the connection between the microbiome and the occurrence of a specific event of interest. The analysis of microbiome obtained through high throughput sequencing techniques requires the use of specialized Compositional Data Analysis (CoDA) methods designed to accommodate its compositional nature. There is a limited availability of statistical tools for microbiome analysis that incorporate CoDA, and this is even more pronounced in the context of survival analysis. To fill this methodological gap, we present coda4microbiome for survival studies, a new methodology for the identification of microbial signatures in time-to-event studies. The algorithm implements an elastic-net penalized Cox regression model adapted to compositional covariates. We illustrate coda4microbiome algorithm for survival studies with a case study about the time to develop type 1 diabetes for non-obese diabetic mice. Our algorithm identified a bacterial signature composed of 21 genera associated with diabetes development. coda4microbiome for survival studies is integrated in the R package coda4microbiome as an extension of the existing functions for cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.},
}
@article {pmid38663540,
year = {2024},
author = {Liang, L and Zhang, J and Chen, J and Tian, Y and Li, W and Shi, M and Cheng, S and Zheng, Y and Wang, C and Liu, H and Yang, X and Ye, W},
title = {Bazedoxifene attenuates dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitis in mice through gut microbiota modulation and inhibition of STAT3 and NF-κB pathways.},
journal = {European journal of pharmacology},
volume = {974},
number = {},
pages = {176611},
doi = {10.1016/j.ejphar.2024.176611},
pmid = {38663540},
issn = {1879-0712},
mesh = {Animals ; *Dextran Sulfate ; *NF-kappa B/metabolism ; *STAT3 Transcription Factor/metabolism ; *Colitis/chemically induced/drug therapy/metabolism/microbiology/pathology ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects ; Mice ; *Signal Transduction/drug effects ; Indoles/pharmacology/therapeutic use ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Disease Models, Animal ; Colon/drug effects/pathology/metabolism/microbiology ; Male ; Humans ; },
abstract = {Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic and relapsing inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract for which treatment options remain limited. In this study, we used a dual-luciferase-based screening of an FDA-approved drug library, identifying Bazedoxifene (BZA) as an inhibitor of the NF-κB pathway. We further investigated its therapeutic effects in a dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis model and explored its impact on gut microbiota regulation and the underlying molecular mechanisms. Our results showed that BZA significantly reduced DSS-induced colitis symptoms in mice, evidenced by decreased colon length shortening, lower histological scores, and increased expression of intestinal mucosal barrier-associated proteins, such as Claudin 1, Occludin, Zo-1, Mucin 2 (Muc2), and E-cadherin. Used independently, BZA showed therapeutic effects comparable to those of infliximab (IFX). In addition, BZA modulated the abundance of gut microbiota especially Bifidobacterium pseudolongum, and influenced microbial metabolite production. Crucially, BZA's alleviation of DSS-induced colitis in mice was linked to change in gut microbiota composition, as evidenced by in vivo gut microbiota depletion and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) mice model. Molecularly, BZA inhibited STAT3 and NF-κB activation in DSS-induced colitis in mice. In general, BZA significantly reduced DSS-induced colitis in mice through modulating the gut microbiota and inhibiting STAT3 and NF-κB activation, and its independent use demonstrated a therapeutic potential comparable to IFX. This study highlights gut microbiota's role in IBD drug development, offering insights for BZA's future development and its clinical applications.},
}
@article {pmid38658578,
year = {2024},
author = {Pedrazzoli, E and Demozzi, M and Visentin, E and Ciciani, M and Bonuzzi, I and Pezzè, L and Lucchetta, L and Maule, G and Amistadi, S and Esposito, F and Lupo, M and Miccio, A and Auricchio, A and Casini, A and Segata, N and Cereseto, A},
title = {CoCas9 is a compact nuclease from the human microbiome for efficient and precise genome editing.},
journal = {Nature communications},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {3478},
pmid = {38658578},
issn = {2041-1723},
support = {R01 CA230551/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; U01 CA230551/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {*Gene Editing/methods ; Humans ; *CRISPR-Cas Systems ; Animals ; Mice ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Dependovirus/genetics ; CRISPR-Associated Protein 9/metabolism/genetics ; RNA, Guide, CRISPR-Cas Systems/genetics/metabolism ; Retina/metabolism ; Clostridiales/genetics/enzymology ; HEK293 Cells ; Genetic Vectors/metabolism/genetics ; },
abstract = {The expansion of the CRISPR-Cas toolbox is highly needed to accelerate the development of therapies for genetic diseases. Here, through the interrogation of a massively expanded repository of metagenome-assembled genomes, mostly from human microbiomes, we uncover a large variety (n = 17,173) of type II CRISPR-Cas loci. Among these we identify CoCas9, a strongly active and high-fidelity nuclease with reduced molecular size (1004 amino acids) isolated from an uncultivated Collinsella species. CoCas9 is efficiently co-delivered with its sgRNA through adeno associated viral (AAV) vectors, obtaining efficient in vivo editing in the mouse retina. With this study we uncover a collection of previously uncharacterized Cas9 nucleases, including CoCas9, which enriches the genome editing toolbox.},
}
@article {pmid38651909,
year = {2024},
author = {Choi, BI and Fontes Noronha, M and Kaindl, J and Wolfe, AJ},
title = {Complete genome sequences of Aerococcus loyolae ATCC TSD-300[T], Aerococcus mictus ATCC TSD-301[T], and Aerococcus tenax ATCC TSD-302[T].},
journal = {Microbiology resource announcements},
volume = {13},
number = {6},
pages = {e0015624},
pmid = {38651909},
issn = {2576-098X},
support = {//Pathnostics/ ; },
abstract = {Previously identified under the single designation of Aerococcus urinae, three distinct taxonomic species have been distinguished as Aerococcus loyolae, Aerococcus mictus, and Aerococcus tenax. Here, we present the complete genome sequences of the type strains of these species assembled via a combination of short-read and long-read sequencing techniques.Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01166438).},
}
@article {pmid38638832,
year = {2024},
author = {Filardo, S and Di Pietro, M and Sessa, R},
title = {Current progresses and challenges for microbiome research in human health: a perspective.},
journal = {Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology},
volume = {14},
number = {},
pages = {1377012},
pmid = {38638832},
issn = {2235-2988},
mesh = {Humans ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Metagenome ; Metagenomics ; },
abstract = {It is becoming increasingly clear that the human microbiota, also known as "the hidden organ", possesses a pivotal role in numerous processes involved in maintaining the physiological functions of the host, such as nutrient extraction, biosynthesis of bioactive molecules, interplay with the immune, endocrine, and nervous systems, as well as resistance to the colonization of potential invading pathogens. In the last decade, the development of metagenomic approaches based on the sequencing of the bacterial 16s rRNA gene via Next Generation Sequencing, followed by whole genome sequencing via third generation sequencing technologies, has been one of the great advances in molecular biology, allowing a better profiling of the human microbiota composition and, hence, a deeper understanding of the importance of microbiota in the etiopathogenesis of different pathologies. In this scenario, it is of the utmost importance to comprehensively characterize the human microbiota in relation to disease pathogenesis, in order to develop novel potential treatment or preventive strategies by manipulating the microbiota. Therefore, this perspective will focus on the progress, challenges, and promises of the current and future technological approaches for microbiome profiling and analysis.},
}
@article {pmid38622344,
year = {2024},
author = {Sarrazin-Gendron, R and Ghasemloo Gheidari, P and Butyaev, A and Keding, T and Cai, E and Zheng, J and Mutalova, R and Mounthanyvong, J and Zhu, Y and Nazarova, E and Drogaris, C and Erhart, K and , and , and Brouillette, A and Richard, G and Pitchford, R and Caisse, S and Blanchette, M and McDonald, D and Knight, R and Szantner, A and Waldispühl, J},
title = {Improving microbial phylogeny with citizen science within a mass-market video game.},
journal = {Nature biotechnology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {38622344},
issn = {1546-1696},
abstract = {Citizen science video games are designed primarily for users already inclined to contribute to science, which severely limits their accessibility for an estimated community of 3 billion gamers worldwide. We created Borderlands Science (BLS), a citizen science activity that is seamlessly integrated within a popular commercial video game played by tens of millions of gamers. This integration is facilitated by a novel game-first design of citizen science games, in which the game design aspect has the highest priority, and a suitable task is then mapped to the game design. BLS crowdsources a multiple alignment task of 1 million 16S ribosomal RNA sequences obtained from human microbiome studies. Since its initial release on 7 April 2020, over 4 million players have solved more than 135 million science puzzles, a task unsolvable by a single individual. Leveraging these results, we show that our multiple sequence alignment simultaneously improves microbial phylogeny estimations and UniFrac effect sizes compared to state-of-the-art computational methods. This achievement demonstrates that hyper-gamified scientific tasks attract massive crowds of contributors and offers invaluable resources to the scientific community.},
}
@article {pmid38611633,
year = {2024},
author = {Lintala, A and Vapalahti, O and Nousiainen, A and Kantele, A and Hepojoki, J},
title = {Whole Blood as a Sample Matrix in Homogeneous Time-Resolved Assay-Förster Resonance Energy Transfer-Based Antibody Detection.},
journal = {Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland)},
volume = {14},
number = {7},
pages = {},
pmid = {38611633},
issn = {2075-4418},
support = {FUDIS//Business Finland/ ; TYH2021315, TYH2021343//The Finnish Government Subsidy for Health Science Research/ ; none//The Finnish Medical Association/ ; 1336490, 336439 and 335527//Academy of Finland/ ; },
abstract = {The protein-L-utilizing Förster resonance energy transfer (LFRET) assay enables mix-and-read antibody detection, as demonstrated for sera from patients with, e.g., severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), Zika virus, and orthohantavirus infections. In this study, we compared paired serum and whole blood (WB) samples of COVID-19 patients and SARS-CoV-2 vaccine recipients. We found that LFRET also detects specific antibodies in WB samples. In 44 serum-WB pairs from patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, LFRET showed a strong correlation between the sample materials. By analyzing 89 additional WB samples, totaling 133 WB samples, we found that LFRET results were moderately correlated with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay results for samples collected 2 to 14 months after receiving COVID-19 diagnosis. However, the correlation decreased for samples >14 months after receiving a diagnosis. When comparing the WB LFRET results to neutralizing antibody titers, a strong correlation emerged for samples collected 1 to 14 months after receiving a diagnosis. This study also highlights the versatility of LFRET in detecting antibodies directly from WB samples and suggests that it could be employed for rapidly assessing antibody responses to infectious agents or vaccines.},
}
@article {pmid38605646,
year = {2024},
author = {Heston, SM and Hurst, JH and Kelly, MS},
title = {Understanding the influence of the microbiome on childhood infections.},
journal = {Expert review of anti-infective therapy},
volume = {22},
number = {7},
pages = {529-545},
pmid = {38605646},
issn = {1744-8336},
support = {K01 AI173398/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; K12 HD105253/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; Child ; *Microbiota/physiology ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; Adolescent ; Communicable Diseases/microbiology/immunology ; Vaccines/administration & dosage/immunology ; Respiratory Tract Infections/microbiology/immunology ; Disease Susceptibility ; Animals ; Immune System/microbiology ; },
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: The microbiome is known to have a substantial impact on human health and disease. However, the impacts of the microbiome on immune system development, susceptibility to infectious diseases, and vaccine-elicited immune responses are emerging areas of interest.
AREAS COVERED: In this review, we provide an overview of development of the microbiome during childhood. We highlight available data suggesting that the microbiome is critical to maturation of the immune system and modifies susceptibility to a variety of infections during childhood and adolescence, including respiratory tract infections, Clostridioides difficile infection, and sexually transmitted infections. We discuss currently available and investigational therapeutics that have the potential to modify the microbiome to prevent or treat infections among children. Finally, we review the accumulating evidence that the gut microbiome influences vaccine-elicited immune responses among children.
EXPERT OPINION: Recent advances in sequencing technologies have led to an explosion of studies associating the human microbiome with the risk and severity of infectious diseases. As our knowledge of the extent to which the microbiome influences childhood infections continues to grow, microbiome-based diagnostics and therapeutics will increasingly be incorporated into clinical practice to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infectious diseases among children.},
}
@article {pmid38601152,
year = {2024},
author = {Soto-Dávila, M and Langlois Fiorotto, L and Heath, JW and Lumsden, JS and Reid, G and Dixon, B},
title = {The effects of Pediococcus acidilactici MA18/5M on growth performance, gut integrity, and immune response using in vitro and in vivo Pacific salmonid models.},
journal = {Frontiers in immunology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1306458},
pmid = {38601152},
issn = {1664-3224},
mesh = {Animals ; *Pediococcus acidilactici ; *Probiotics/pharmacology ; Diet ; *Salmonidae ; Disease Resistance ; },
abstract = {Microbial management is central to aquaculture's efficiency. Pediococcus acidilactici MA18/5M has shown promising results promoting growth, modulation of the immune response, and disease resistance in many fishes. However, the mechanisms through which this strain confers health benefits in fish are poorly understood, particularly in Pacific salmonid models. Briefly, the aims of this study were to i) assess the protective effects of P. acidilactici MA18/5M by examining gut barrier function and the expression of tight junction (TJ) and immune genes in vitro and in vivo, and ii) to determine the protective effects of this strain against a common saltwater pathogen, Vibrio anguillarum J382. An in vitro model of the salmonid gut was employed utilizing the cell line RTgutGC. Barrier formation and integrity assessed by TEER measurements in RTgutGC, showed a significant decrease in resistance in cells exposed only to V. anguillarum J382 for 24 h, but pre-treatment with P. acidilactici MA18/5M for 48 h mitigated these effects. While P. acidilactici MA18/5M did not significantly upregulate tight junction and immune molecules, pre-treatment with this strain protected against pathogen-induced insults to the gut barrier. In particular, the expression of ocldn was significantly induced by V. anguillarum J382, suggesting that this molecule might play a role in the host response against this pathogen. To corroborate these observations in live fish, the effects of P. acidilactici MA18/5M was evaluated in Chinook salmon reared in real aquaculture conditions. Supplementation with P. acidilactici MA18/5M had no effect on Chinook salmon growth parameters after 10 weeks. Interestingly, histopathological results did not show alterations associated with P. acidilactici MA18/5M supplementation, indicating that this strain is safe to be used in the industry. Finally, the expression pattern of transcripts encoding TJ and immune genes in all the treatments suggest that variation in expression is more likely to be due to developmental processes rather than P. acidilactici MA18/5M supplementation. Overall, our results showed that P. acidilactici MA18/5M is a safe strain for use in fish production, however, to assess the effects on growth and immune response previously observed in other salmonid species, an assessment in adult fish is needed.},
}
@article {pmid38600604,
year = {2024},
author = {Hong, A and Umar, A and Chen, H and Yu, Z and Huang, J},
title = {Advances in the study of the interaction between schistosome infections and the host's intestinal microorganisms.},
journal = {Parasites & vectors},
volume = {17},
number = {1},
pages = {185},
pmid = {38600604},
issn = {1756-3305},
support = {2023JJ30651//Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province/ ; 32300051//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; },
mesh = {Animals ; Humans ; Schistosoma/physiology ; *Schistosomiasis/pathology ; *Liver Diseases ; },
abstract = {Schistosomiasis, also called bilharziasis, is a neglected tropical disease induced by schistosomes that infects hundreds of millions of people worldwide. In the life cycle of schistosomiasis, eggs are regarded as the main pathogenic factor, causing granuloma formation in the tissues and organs of hosts, which can cause severe gastrointestinal and liver granulomatous immune responses and irreversible fibrosis. Increasing evidence suggests that the gut microbiome influences the progression of schistosomiasis and plays a central role in liver disease via the gut-liver axis. When used as pharmaceutical supplements or adjunctive therapy, probiotics have shown promising results in preventing, mitigating, and even treating schistosomiasis. This review elucidates the potential mechanisms of this three-way parasite-host-microbiome interaction by summarizing schistosome-mediated intestinal flora disorders, local immune changes, and host metabolic changes, and elaborates the important role of the gut microbiome in liver disease after schistosome infection through the gut-liver axis. Understanding the mechanisms behind this interaction may aid in the discovery of probiotics as novel therapeutic targets and sustainable control strategies for schistosomiasis.},
}
@article {pmid38594499,
year = {2024},
author = {Franceschetti, L and Lodetti, G and Blandino, A and Amadasi, A and Bugelli, V},
title = {Exploring the role of the human microbiome in forensic identification: opportunities and challenges.},
journal = {International journal of legal medicine},
volume = {138},
number = {5},
pages = {1891-1905},
pmid = {38594499},
issn = {1437-1596},
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota ; *Skin/microbiology ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; DNA Fingerprinting ; Metagenomics/methods ; },
abstract = {Forensic microbiology is rapidly emerging as a novel tool for human identification. The human microbiome, comprising diverse microbial communities including fungi, bacteria, protozoa, and viruses, is unique to each individual, offering a new dimension to forensic investigations. While traditional identification methods primarily rely on DNA profiling and fingerprint analysis, they face limitations when complete DNA or fingerprints profiles are unattainable or degraded. In this context, the microbial signatures of the human skin microbiome present a promising alternative due to their resilience to environmental stresses and individual-specific composition. This review explores the potential of microbiome analysis in forensic human identification, evaluating its applications, advantages, limitations, and future prospects. The uniqueness of an individual's microbial community, particularly the skin microbiota, can provide distinctive biological markers for identification purposes, while technological advancements like 16 S rRNA sequencing and metagenomic shotgun sequencing are enhancing the specificity of microbial identification, enabling detailed analysis of these complex ecological communities. Despite these promising findings, current research has not yet achieved a level of identification probability that could establish microbial analysis as a stand-alone evidence tool. Therefore, it is presently considered ancillary to traditional methods, contributing to a more comprehensive biological profile of individuals.},
}
@article {pmid38593705,
year = {2024},
author = {Jian, C and Sorensen, N and Lutter, R and Albers, R and de Vos, W and Salonen, A and Mercenier, A},
title = {The impact of daily supplementation with rhamnogalacturonan-I on the gut microbiota in healthy adults: A randomized controlled trial.},
journal = {Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie},
volume = {174},
number = {},
pages = {116561},
doi = {10.1016/j.biopha.2024.116561},
pmid = {38593705},
issn = {1950-6007},
mesh = {Humans ; *Pectins/administration & dosage/pharmacology ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects ; Male ; Adult ; Double-Blind Method ; Female ; *Dietary Supplements ; *Healthy Volunteers ; Young Adult ; Rhinovirus/drug effects ; Middle Aged ; Feces/microbiology ; Bifidobacterium/drug effects ; },
abstract = {Pectin and its derivatives have been shown to modulate immune signaling as well as gut microbiota in preclinical studies, which may constitute the mechanisms by which supplementation of specific pectic polysaccharides confers protection against viral respiratory infections. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled rhinovirus (RV16) challenge study, healthy volunteers were randomized to consume placebo (0.0 g/day) (N = 46), low-dose (0.3 g/day) (N = 49) or high-dose (1.5 g/day) (N = 51) of carrot derived rhamnogalacturonan-I (cRG-I) for eight weeks and they were subsequently challenged with RV-16. Here, the effect of 8-week cRG-I supplementation on the gut microbiota was studied. While the overall gut microbiota composition in the population was generally unaltered by this very low dose of fibre, the relative abundance of Bifidobacterium spp. (mainly B. adolescentis and B. longum) was significantly increased by both doses of cRG-1. Moreover, daily supplementation of cRG-I led to a dose-dependent reduction in inter- and intra-individual microbiota heterogeneity, suggesting a stabilizing effect on the gut microbiota. The severity of respiratory symptoms did not directly correlate with the cRG-I-induced microbial changes, but several dominant groups of the Ruminococcaceae family and microbiota richness were positively associated with a reduced and hence desired post-infection response. Thus, the present results on the modulation of the gut microbiota composition support the previously demonstrated immunomodulatory and protective effect of cRG-I during a common cold infection.},
}
@article {pmid38593079,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhong, Q and Liao, B and Liu, J and Shen, W and Wang, J and Wei, L and Ma, Y and Dong, PT and Bor, B and McLean, JS and Chang, Y and Shi, W and Cen, L and Wu, M and Liu, J and Li, Y and He, X and Le, S},
title = {Episymbiotic Saccharibacteria TM7x modulates the susceptibility of its host bacteria to phage infection and promotes their coexistence.},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
volume = {121},
number = {16},
pages = {e2319790121},
pmid = {38593079},
issn = {1091-6490},
support = {R01 DE023810/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/United States ; R01 GM110243/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; R01 AI087946/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; R01 GM124378/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; R01 AI152421/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; R01 DE030943/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/United States ; R01 AI132818/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; R01 DE031274/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/United States ; S10 OD023603/OD/NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Bacteriophages/physiology ; Symbiosis ; Bacteria/genetics ; },
abstract = {Bacteriophages (phages) play critical roles in modulating microbial ecology. Within the human microbiome, the factors influencing the long-term coexistence of phages and bacteria remain poorly investigated. Saccharibacteria (formerly TM7) are ubiquitous members of the human oral microbiome. These ultrasmall bacteria form episymbiotic relationships with their host bacteria and impact their physiology. Here, we showed that during surface-associated growth, a human oral Saccharibacteria isolate (named TM7x) protects its host bacterium, a Schaalia odontolytica strain (named XH001) against lytic phage LC001 predation. RNA-Sequencing analysis identified in XH001 a gene cluster with predicted functions involved in the biogenesis of cell wall polysaccharides (CWP), whose expression is significantly down-regulated when forming a symbiosis with TM7x. Through genetic work, we experimentally demonstrated the impact of the expression of this CWP gene cluster on bacterial-phage interaction by affecting phage binding. In vitro coevolution experiments further showed that the heterogeneous populations of TM7x-associated and TM7x-free XH001, which display differential susceptibility to LC001 predation, promote bacteria and phage coexistence. Our study highlights the tripartite interaction between the bacterium, episymbiont, and phage. More importantly, we present a mechanism, i.e., episymbiont-mediated modulation of gene expression in host bacteria, which impacts their susceptibility to phage predation and contributes to the formation of "source-sink" dynamics between phage and bacteria in biofilm, promoting their long-term coexistence within the human microbiome.},
}
@article {pmid38590477,
year = {2024},
author = {Vijayan, S and Kandi, V and Palacholla, PS and Rajendran, R and Jarugu, C and Ca, J and Pravallika, M and Reddy, SC and Sucharitha, AS},
title = {Probiotics in Allergy and Immunological Diseases: A Comprehensive Review.},
journal = {Cureus},
volume = {16},
number = {3},
pages = {e55817},
pmid = {38590477},
issn = {2168-8184},
abstract = {Allergy and immunological disorders like autoimmune diseases are vastly prevalent worldwide. These conditions account for a substantial amount of personal and social burden. Such illnesses have lengthy, uncertain, and spotted courses with unpredictable exacerbations. A definite tendency for improving the overall quality of life of individuals suffering from such diseases is crucial to tackling these diseases, especially through diet or lifestyle modification. Further, interventions like microbiome-based therapeutics such as prebiotics or probiotics were explored. Changes in the microbial population were evident during the flare-up of autoimmune and allergic conditions. The realization that the human microbiome is a central player in immunological diseases is a hallmark of its potential usefulness in therapy for such illnesses. This review focuses on the intricate symphony in the orchestra of the human microbiome and the immune system. New therapeutic strategies involving probiotics appear to be the future of personalized medicine. Through this review, we explore the narrative of probiotics and reaffirm their use as therapeutic and preventive agents in immunological disorders.},
}
@article {pmid38590114,
year = {2024},
author = {Rezzani, R and Favero, G and Gianò, M and Pinto, D and Labanca, M and van Noorden, CJF and Rinaldi, F},
title = {Transient Receptor Potential Channels in the Healthy and Diseased Blood-Brain Barrier.},
journal = {The journal of histochemistry and cytochemistry : official journal of the Histochemistry Society},
volume = {72},
number = {4},
pages = {199-231},
pmid = {38590114},
issn = {1551-5044},
mesh = {Humans ; *Transient Receptor Potential Channels/metabolism ; Blood-Brain Barrier ; Endothelial Cells/metabolism ; TRPV Cation Channels ; *Nervous System Diseases ; },
abstract = {The large family of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are integral membrane proteins that function as environmental sensors and act as ion channels after activation by mechanical (touch), physical (heat, pain), and chemical stimuli (pungent compounds such as capsaicin). Most TRP channels are localized in the plasma membrane of cells but some of them are localized in membranes of organelles and function as intracellular Ca[2+]-ion channels. TRP channels are involved in neurological disorders but their precise role(s) and relevance in these disorders are not clear. Endothelial cells of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) express TRP channels such as TRP vanilloid 1-4 and are involved in thermal detection by regulating BBB permeability. In neurological disorders, TRP channels in the BBB are responsible for edema formation in the brain. Therefore, drug design to modulate locally activity of TRP channels in the BBB is a hot topic. Today, the application of TRP channel antagonists against neurological disorders is still limited.},
}
@article {pmid38587593,
year = {2024},
author = {Chung, IY and Kim, J and Koh, A},
title = {The Microbiome Matters: Its Impact on Cancer Development and Therapeutic Responses.},
journal = {Journal of microbiology (Seoul, Korea)},
volume = {62},
number = {3},
pages = {137-152},
pmid = {38587593},
issn = {1976-3794},
support = {KFRM 22A0301L1//Korean Fund for Regenerative Medicine (KFRM)/ ; 2023R1A2C1002876//National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)/ ; 2021R1I1A1A01052756//National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)/ ; 2021R1A6C101A390//the Basic Science Institute/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Neoplasms/microbiology/therapy ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Dysbiosis/microbiology ; Microbiota ; Bacteria/classification/genetics/isolation & purification ; Carcinogenesis ; Immunotherapy ; Mouth/microbiology ; },
abstract = {In the evolving landscape of cancer research, the human microbiome emerges as a pivotal determinant reshaping our understanding of tumorigenesis and therapeutic responses. Advanced sequencing technologies have uncovered a vibrant microbial community not confined to the gut but thriving within tumor tissues. Comprising bacteria, viruses, and fungi, this diverse microbiota displays distinct signatures across various cancers, with most research primarily focusing on bacteria. The correlations between specific microbial taxa within different cancer types underscore their pivotal roles in driving tumorigenesis and influencing therapeutic responses, particularly in chemotherapy and immunotherapy. This review amalgamates recent discoveries, emphasizing the translocation of the oral microbiome to the gut as a potential marker for microbiome dysbiosis across diverse cancer types and delves into potential mechanisms contributing to cancer promotion. Furthermore, it highlights the adverse effects of the microbiome on cancer development while exploring its potential in fortifying strategies for cancer prevention and treatment.},
}
@article {pmid38586050,
year = {2024},
author = {Ho, PY and Huang, KC},
title = {Challenges in quantifying functional redundancy and selection in microbial communities.},
journal = {bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1101/2024.03.26.586891},
pmid = {38586050},
issn = {2692-8205},
abstract = {Microbiomes can exhibit large variations in species abundances but high reproducibility in abundances of functional units, an observation often considered evidence for functional redundancy. Based on such reduction in functional variability, selection is hypothesized to act on functional units in these ecosystems. However, the link between functional redundancy and selection remains unclear. Here, we show that reduction in functional variability does not always imply selection on functional profiles. We propose empirical null models to account for the confounding effects of statistical averaging and bias toward environment-independent beneficial functions. We apply our models to existing data sets, and find that the abundances of metabolic groups within microbial communities from bromeliad foliage do not exhibit any evidence of the previously hypothesized functional selection. By contrast, communities of soil bacteria or human gut commensals grown in vitro are selected for metabolic capabilities. By separating the effects of averaging and functional bias on functional variability, we find that the appearance of functional selection in gut microbiome samples from the Human Microbiome Project is artifactual, and that there is no evidence of selection for any molecular function represented by KEGG orthology. These concepts articulate a basic framework for quantifying functional redundancy and selection, advancing our understanding of the mapping between microbiome taxonomy and function.},
}
@article {pmid38585738,
year = {2024},
author = {Hunter, C and Dia, K and Boykins, J and Perry, K and Banerjee, N and Cuffee, J and Armstrong, E and Morgan, G and Banerjee, HN and Banerjee, A and Bhattacharya, S},
title = {An investigation for phylogenetic characterization of human Pancreatic cancer microbiome by 16SrDNA Sequencing and Bioinformatics techniques.},
journal = {Research square},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {38585738},
issn = {2693-5015},
support = {T34 GM100831/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {Pancreatic cancer is a significant public health concern, with increasing incidence rates and limited treatment options. Recent studies have highlighted the role of the human microbiome, particularly the gut microbiota, in the development and progression of this disease. Microbial dysbiosis, characterized by alterations in the composition and function of the gut microbiota, has been implicated in pancreatic carcinogenesis through mechanisms involving chronic inflammation, immune dysregulation, and metabolic disturbances. Researchers have identified specific microbial signatures associated with pancreatic cancer, offering potential biomarkers for early detection and prognostication. By leveraging advanced sequencing and bioinformatics tools, scientists have delineated differences in the gut microbiota between pancreatic cancer patients and healthy individuals, providing insights into disease pathogenesis and potential diagnostic strategies. Moreover, the microbiome holds promise as a therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer treatment. Interventions aimed at modulating the microbiome, such as probiotics, prebiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation, have demonstrated potential in enhancing the efficacy of existing cancer therapies, including chemotherapy and immunotherapy. These approaches can influence immune responses, alter tumor microenvironments, and sensitize tumors to treatment, offering new avenues for improving patient outcomes and overcoming therapeutic resistance. Overall, understanding the complex interplay between the microbiome and pancreatic cancer is crucial for advancing our knowledge of disease mechanisms and identifying innovative therapeutic strategies. Here we report phylogenetic analysis of the 16S microbial sequences of the pancreatic cancer mice microbiome and corresponding age matched healthy mice microbiome. We successfully identified differentially abundance of microbiota in the pancreatic cancer.},
}
@article {pmid38585650,
year = {2024},
author = {Kiljunen, S and Resch, G},
title = {Editorial: Standards in personalized phage therapy: from phage collection to phage production.},
journal = {Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology},
volume = {14},
number = {},
pages = {1376386},
doi = {10.3389/fcimb.2024.1376386},
pmid = {38585650},
issn = {2235-2988},
mesh = {*Bacteriophages/genetics ; *Phage Therapy ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; },
}
@article {pmid38581020,
year = {2024},
author = {Douillard, FP and Derman, Y and Jian, C and Korpela, K and Saxén, H and Salonen, A and de Vos, WM and Korkeala, H and Lindström, M},
title = {Case report: Aberrant fecal microbiota composition of an infant diagnosed with prolonged intestinal botulism.},
journal = {Gut pathogens},
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {20},
pmid = {38581020},
issn = {1757-4749},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Intestinal botulism is primarily reported in small babies as a condition known as infant botulism. The condition results from the ingestion of environmental or foodborne spores of botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) producing Clostridia, usually Clostridium botulinum, and subsequent spore germination into active botulinum neurotoxinogenic cultures in the gut. It is generally considered that small babies are susceptible to C. botulinum colonization because of their immature gut microbiota. Yet, it is poorly understood which host factors contribute to the clinical outcome of intestinal botulism. We previously reported a case of infant botulism where the infant recovered clinically in six weeks but continued to secrete C. botulinum cells and/or BoNT in the feces for seven months.
CASE PRESENTATION: To further understand the microbial ecology behind this exceptionally long-lasting botulinum neurotoxinogenic colonization, we characterized the infant fecal microbiota using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing over the course of disease and recovery. C. botulinum could be detected in the infant fecal samples at low levels through the acute phase of the disease and three months after recovery. Overall, we observed a temporal delay in the maturation of the infant fecal microbiota associated with a persistently high-level bifidobacterial population and a low level of Lachnospiraceae, Bacteroidaceae and Ruminococcaceae compared to healthy infants over time.
CONCLUSION: This study brings novel insights into the infant fecal composition associated with intestinal botulism and provides a basis for a more systematic analysis of the gut microbiota of infants diagnosed with botulism. A better understanding of the gut microbial ecology associated with infant botulism may support the development of prophylactic strategies against this life-threatening disease in small babies.},
}
@article {pmid38579936,
year = {2024},
author = {Rivet-Noor, CR and Merchak, AR and Render, C and Gay, NM and Beiter, RM and Brown, RM and Keeler, A and Moreau, GB and Li, S and Olgun, DG and Steigmeyer, AD and Ofer, R and Phan, T and Vemuri, K and Chen, L and Mahoney, KE and Shin, JB and Malaker, SA and Deppmann, C and Verzi, MP and Gaultier, A},
title = {Stress-induced mucin 13 reductions drive intestinal microbiome shifts and despair behaviors.},
journal = {Brain, behavior, and immunity},
volume = {119},
number = {},
pages = {665-680},
pmid = {38579936},
issn = {1090-2139},
support = {R01 DK126446/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; T32 GM067543/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; R01 DC018842/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/United States ; R01 DK121915/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; T32 GM139787/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; T32 NS115657/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/United States ; F31 AI174782/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Animals ; Male ; Mice ; Behavior, Animal/physiology ; *Depression/metabolism/microbiology ; *Dysbiosis/metabolism/microbiology ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 4/metabolism ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Mice, Knockout ; Mucins/metabolism ; *Stress, Psychological/metabolism/microbiology ; },
abstract = {Depression is a prevalent psychological condition with limited treatment options. While its etiology is multifactorial, both chronic stress and changes in microbiome composition are associated with disease pathology. Stress is known to induce microbiome dysbiosis, defined here as a change in microbial composition associated with a pathological condition. This state of dysbiosis is known to feedback on depressive symptoms. While studies have demonstrated that targeted restoration of the microbiome can alleviate depressive-like symptoms in mice, translating these findings to human patients has proven challenging due to the complexity of the human microbiome. As such, there is an urgent need to identify factors upstream of microbial dysbiosis. Here we investigate the role of mucin 13 as an upstream mediator of microbiome composition changes in the context of stress. Using a model of chronic stress, we show that the glycocalyx protein, mucin 13, is selectively reduced after psychological stress exposure. We further demonstrate that the reduction of Muc13 is mediated by the Hnf4 transcription factor family. Finally, we determine that deleting Muc13 is sufficient to drive microbiome shifts and despair behaviors. These findings shed light on the mechanisms behind stress-induced microbial changes and reveal a novel regulator of mucin 13 expression.},
}
@article {pmid38577723,
year = {2024},
author = {Kozajda, A and Miśkiewicz, E and Jeżak, K},
title = {Zoonotic bacteria in the vicinity of animal farms as a factor disturbing the human microbiome: a review.},
journal = {International journal of occupational medicine and environmental health},
volume = {37},
number = {2},
pages = {138-152},
pmid = {38577723},
issn = {1896-494X},
mesh = {Humans ; Animals ; *Microbiota ; Farms ; Livestock/microbiology ; Zoonoses/microbiology/transmission ; Environmental Exposure/adverse effects ; Air Microbiology ; Bacteria/isolation & purification/classification ; },
abstract = {This review is aimed at summarizing the current state of knowledge about the relationship between environmental exposure to the bioaerosol emitted by intensive livestock farming and changes in the microbiome of people living in livestock farm vicinity. The PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases were searched by crossing keywords from the following 3 groups: a) "livestock," "animal farms," "animal breeding"; b) "microbiome," "resistome"; c) "livestock vicinity," "farm vicinity," "neighborhoods and health" in 2010-2022. Literature screening did not reveal any paper related to the full microbiome composition in the population studied. In the study, the authors included 7 papers (5 from the Netherlands, 1 from the USA, and 1 from China). The studies confirmed the carriage of Staphylococcus aureus, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), livestockassociated MRSA (LA-MRSA MC398) and multidrug-resistant S. aureus (MDRSA) in the nasal microbiome of adults and children living within 500-2000 m from a livestock farm. Clostridium difficile, including LA-ribotype RT078 carriage, was detected in the intestinal microbiome of adults living within 500-1000 m. Extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) producing Enterobacteriaceae were confirmed in the intestinal microbiome of adults living within 500-6200 m. Knowledge on the composition of the microflora of people living in livestock farm vicinity is insufficient to conclude about changes in the microbiome caused by the environmental emission of bioaerosol. The carriage prevalence of the LA-bacteria, including both strains with antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial resistance genes, confirms the presence of zoonotic bacteria in the human microflora in populations without occupational contact with animals. It cannot be ruled out that zoonotic bacteria, as a component of the microbiome, have a negative impact on people's health. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2024;37(2):138-52.},
}
@article {pmid38577200,
year = {2024},
author = {Salvadori, M and Rosso, G},
title = {Update on the gut microbiome in health and diseases.},
journal = {World journal of methodology},
volume = {14},
number = {1},
pages = {89196},
pmid = {38577200},
issn = {2222-0682},
abstract = {The Human Microbiome Project, Earth Microbiome Project, and next-generation sequencing have advanced novel genome association, host genetic linkages, and pathogen identification. The microbiome is the sum of the microbes, their genetic information, and their ecological niche. This study will describe how millions of bacteria in the gut affect the human body in health and disease. The gut microbiome changes in relation with age, with an increase in Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. Host and environmental factors affecting the gut microbiome are diet, drugs, age, smoking, exercise, and host genetics. In addition, changes in the gut microbiome may affect the local gut immune system and systemic immune system. In this study, we discuss how the microbiome may affect the metabolism of healthy subjects or may affect the pathogenesis of metabolism-generating metabolic diseases. Due to the high number of publications on the argument, from a methodologically point of view, we decided to select the best papers published in referred journals in the last 3 years. Then we selected the previously published papers. The major goals of our study were to elucidate which microbiome and by which pathways are related to healthy and disease conditions.},
}
@article {pmid38575895,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhang, M and Zhao, Y and Umar, A and Zhang, H and Yang, L and Huang, J and Long, Y and Yu, Z},
title = {Comparative analysis of microbial composition and functional characteristics in dental plaque and saliva of oral cancer patients.},
journal = {BMC oral health},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
pages = {411},
pmid = {38575895},
issn = {1472-6831},
support = {32170071 and 82273466//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; Saliva/microbiology ; *Dental Plaque/microbiology ; Bacteria/genetics ; *Mouth Neoplasms ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The oral cavity is home to various ecological niches, each with its own unique microbial composition. Understanding the microbial communities and gene composition in different ecological niches within the oral cavity of oral cancer (OC) patients is crucial for determining how these microbial populations contribute to disease progression.
METHODS: In this study, saliva and dental plaque samples were collected from patients with OC. Metagenomic sequencing was employed to analyze the microbial community classification and functional composition of the different sample groups.
RESULTS: The results of the study revealed significant differences in both the function and classification of microbial communities between saliva and dental plaque samples. The diversity of microbial species in saliva was found to be higher compared to that in plaque samples. Notably, Actinobacteria were enriched in the dental plaque of OC patients. Furthermore, the study identified several inter-group differential marker species, including Prevotella intermedia, Haemophilus parahaemolyticus, Actinomyces radius, Corynebacterium matruchitii, and Veillonella atypica. Additionally, 1,353 differential genes were annotated into 23 functional pathways. Interestingly, a significant correlation was observed between differentially labeled species and Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infection, which may be related to the occurrence and development of cancer.
CONCLUSIONS: Significant differences in the microbial and genetic composition of saliva and dental plaque samples were observed in OC patients. Furthermore, pathogenic bacteria associated with oral diseases were predominantly enriched in saliva. The identification of inter-group differential biomarkers and pathways provide insights into the relationship between oral microbiota and the occurrence and development of OC.},
}
@article {pmid38575862,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhang, M and Zhou, Y and Yao, S and Zhao, Y and Batool, SS and Huang, J and Jiang, L and Yan, D and Yan, W and Yu, Z},
title = {Effect of stress urinary incontinence on vaginal microbial communities.},
journal = {BMC microbiology},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
pages = {112},
pmid = {38575862},
issn = {1471-2180},
support = {32000054 and 32170071//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; },
mesh = {Female ; Humans ; *Urinary Incontinence, Stress/etiology ; Dysbiosis/microbiology ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; Vagina/microbiology ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Lactobacillus/genetics ; Bacteria/genetics ; *Vaginal Diseases/complications ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Postpartum women often experience stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and vaginal microbial dysbiosis, which seriously affect women's physical and mental health. Understanding the relationship between SUI and vaginal microbiota composition may help to prevent vaginal diseases, but research on the potential association between these conditions is limited.
RESULTS: This study employed 16S rRNA gene sequencing to explore the association between SUI and vaginal dysbiosis. In terms of the vaginal microbiota, both species richness and evenness were significantly higher in the SUI group. Additionally, the results of NMDS and species composition indicated that there were differences in the composition of the vaginal microbiota between the two groups. Specifically, compared to postpartum women without SUI (Non-SUI), the relative abundance of bacteria associated with bacterial dysbiosis, such as Streptococcus, Prevotella, Dialister, and Veillonella, showed an increase, while the relative abundance of Lactobacillus decreased in SUI patients. Furthermore, the vaginal microbial co-occurrence network of SUI patients displayed higher connectivity, complexity, and clustering.
CONCLUSION: The study highlights the role of Lactobacillus in maintaining vaginal microbial homeostasis. It found a correlation between SUI and vaginal microbiota, indicating an increased risk of vaginal dysbiosis. The findings could enhance our understanding of the relationship between SUI and vaginal dysbiosis in postpartum women, providing valuable insights for preventing bacterial vaginal diseases and improving women's health.},
}
@article {pmid38569469,
year = {2024},
author = {Caffrey, EB and Sonnenburg, JL and Devkota, S},
title = {Our extended microbiome: The human-relevant metabolites and biology of fermented foods.},
journal = {Cell metabolism},
volume = {36},
number = {4},
pages = {684-701},
doi = {10.1016/j.cmet.2024.03.007},
pmid = {38569469},
issn = {1932-7420},
support = {R01 DK085025/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Fermented Foods ; *Microbiota ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Biology ; },
abstract = {One of the key modes of microbial metabolism occurring in the gut microbiome is fermentation. This energy-yielding process transforms common macromolecules like polysaccharides and amino acids into a wide variety of chemicals, many of which are relevant to microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions. Analogous transformations occur during the production of fermented foods, resulting in an abundance of bioactive metabolites. In foods, the products of fermentation can influence food safety and preservation, nutrient availability, and palatability and, once consumed, may impact immune and metabolic status, disease expression, and severity. Human signaling pathways perceive and respond to many of the currently known fermented food metabolites, though expansive chemical novelty remains to be defined. Here we discuss several aspects of fermented food-associated microbes and metabolites, including a condensed history, current understanding of their interactions with hosts and host-resident microbes, connections with commercial probiotics, and opportunities for future research on human health and disease and food sustainability.},
}
@article {pmid38567073,
year = {2024},
author = {Wojciechowska, D and Salamon, S and Wróblewska-Seniuk, K},
title = {It's time to shed some light on the importance of fungi in neonatal intensive care units: what do we know about the neonatal mycobiome?.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {15},
number = {},
pages = {1355418},
pmid = {38567073},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {The 21st century, thanks to the development of molecular methods, including DNA barcoding, using Sanger sequencing, and DNA metabarcoding, based on next-generation sequencing (NGS), is characterized by flourishing research on the human microbiome. Microbial dysbiosis is perceived as a new pathogenetic factor for neonatal diseases. Fungi are crucial, but neglected, components of the neonatal microbiome, which, despite their low abundance, significantly impact morbidity and mortality rates of premature infants hospitalized in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). The neonatal mycobiome's composition and effect on health remain poorly studied research areas. Our knowledge about neonatal mycobiome, composed of limited genera, is mainly based on research on the bacterial microbiome. We presume it is influenced by clinical factors, including prematurity, antibiotic therapy, and type of delivery. Understanding these risk factors may be useful in prevention strategies against dysbiosis and invasive fungal infections. Despite the methodological challenges resulting from the biology of the fungal cell, this topic is an attractive area of research that may contribute to more effective treatment, especially of newborns from risk groups. In this mini review, we discuss the current state of knowledge, research gaps, study difficulties, and future research directions on the neonatal mycobiome, concerning potential future clinical applications.},
}
@article {pmid38565750,
year = {2024},
author = {Núñez Casal, A},
title = {Race and indigeneity in human microbiome science: microbiomisation and the historiality of otherness.},
journal = {History and philosophy of the life sciences},
volume = {46},
number = {2},
pages = {17},
pmid = {38565750},
issn = {1742-6316},
support = {RYC2022-036985-I//Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota ; United States ; Racial Groups ; },
abstract = {This article reformulates Stephan Helmreich´s the ¨microbiomisation of race¨ as the historiality of otherness in the foundations of human microbiome science. Through the lens of my ethnographic fieldwork of a transnational community of microbiome scientists that conducted a landmark human microbiome research on indigenous microbes and its affiliated and first personalised microbiome initiative, the American Gut Project, I follow and trace the key actors, experimental systems and onto-epistemic claims in the emergence of human microbiome science a decade ago. In doing so, I show the links between the reinscription of race, comparative research on the microbial genetic variation of human populations and the remining of bioprospected data for personalised medicine. In these unpredictable research movements, the microbiome of non-Western peoples and territories is much more than a side project or a specific approach within the field: it constitutes the nucleus of its experimental system, opening towards subsequent and cumulative research processes and knowledge production in human microbiome science. The article demonstrates that while human microbiome science is articulated upon the microbial 'makeup' of non-wester(nised) communities, societies, and locales, its results and therapeutics are only applicable to medical conditions affecting rich nations (i.e., inflammatory, autoimmune, and metabolic diseases). My reformulation of ¨microbiomisation of race¨ as the condition of possibility of human microbiome science reveals that its individual dimension is sustained by microbial DNA data from human populations through bioprospecting practices and gains meaning through personalised medicine initiatives, informal online networks of pseudoscientific and commodified microbial-related evidence.},
}
@article {pmid38563656,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhu, J and Yin, J and Chen, J and Hu, M and Lu, W and Wang, H and Zhang, H and Chen, W},
title = {Integrative analysis with microbial modelling and machine learning uncovers potential alleviators for ulcerative colitis.},
journal = {Gut microbes},
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {2336877},
pmid = {38563656},
issn = {1949-0984},
mesh = {Animals ; Mice ; Humans ; *Colitis, Ulcerative ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; *Colitis ; Machine Learning ; },
abstract = {Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a challenging form of inflammatory bowel disease, and its etiology is intricately linked to disturbances in the gut microbiome. To identify the potential alleviators of UC, we employed an integrative analysis combining microbial community modeling with advanced machine learning techniques. Using metagenomics data sourced from the Integrated Human Microbiome Project, we constructed individualized microbiome community models for each participant. Our analysis highlighted a significant decline in both α and β-diversity of strain-level microbial populations in UC subjects compared to controls. Distinct differences were also observed in the predicted fecal metabolite profiles and strain-to-metabolite contributions between the two groups. Using tree-based machine learning models, we successfully identified specific microbial strains and their associated metabolites as potential alleviators of UC. Notably, our experimental validation using a dextran sulfate sodium-induced UC mouse model demonstrated that the administration of Parabacteroides merdae ATCC 43,184 and N-acetyl-D-mannosamine provided notable relief from colitis symptoms. In summary, our study underscores the potential of an integrative approach to identify novel therapeutic avenues for UC, paving the way for future targeted interventions.},
}
@article {pmid38560624,
year = {2024},
author = {Wilson, NG and Hernandez-Leyva, A and Schwartz, DJ and Bacharier, LB and Kau, AL},
title = {The gut metagenome harbors metabolic and antibiotic resistance signatures of moderate-to-severe asthma.},
journal = {FEMS microbes},
volume = {5},
number = {},
pages = {xtae010},
pmid = {38560624},
issn = {2633-6685},
support = {F30 DK127584/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; K08 AI113184/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; K08 AI159384/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; T32 GM007200/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {Asthma is a common allergic airway disease that has been associated with the development of the human microbiome early in life. Both the composition and function of the infant gut microbiota have been linked to asthma risk, but functional alterations in the gut microbiota of older patients with established asthma remain an important knowledge gap. Here, we performed whole metagenomic shotgun sequencing of 95 stool samples from a cross-sectional cohort of 59 healthy and 36 subjects with moderate-to-severe asthma to characterize the metagenomes of gut microbiota in adults and children 6 years and older. Mapping of functional orthologs revealed that asthma contributes to 2.9% of the variation in metagenomic content even when accounting for other important clinical demographics. Differential abundance analysis showed an enrichment of long-chain fatty acid (LCFA) metabolism pathways, which have been previously implicated in airway smooth muscle and immune responses in asthma. We also observed increased richness of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in people with asthma. Several differentially abundant ARGs in the asthma cohort encode resistance to macrolide antibiotics, which are often prescribed to patients with asthma. Lastly, we found that ARG and virulence factor (VF) richness in the microbiome were correlated in both cohorts. ARG and VF pairs co-occurred in both cohorts suggesting that virulence and antibiotic resistance traits are coselected and maintained in the fecal microbiota of people with asthma. Overall, our results show functional alterations via LCFA biosynthetic genes and increases in antibiotic resistance genes in the gut microbiota of subjects with moderate-to-severe asthma and could have implications for asthma management and treatment.},
}
@article {pmid38555606,
year = {2024},
author = {Tutelyan, VA and Nikityuk, DB},
title = {[Key challenges in the dietary intake structure and cutting edge technologies for optimizing nutrition to protect the health of the Russian рopulation].},
journal = {Voprosy pitaniia},
volume = {93},
number = {1},
pages = {6-21},
doi = {10.33029/0042-8833-2024-93-1-6-21},
pmid = {38555606},
issn = {0042-8833},
support = {FGMF-2022-0001//The research was carried out using subsidies for the implementation of a state task/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Nutritional Status ; *Food ; Food Safety/methods ; Russia ; Eating ; },
abstract = {This article presents an analysis of some of the results of the work of the Federal Research Center for Nutrition and Biotechnology (Center) in recent years, highlighting the most important, promising areas of Nutrition Science and Food Hygiene that need further development. The priority area of Center functioning is scientific support for the implementation of the Doctrine of Food Security of the Russian Federation (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated January 21, 2020 No. 20), Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated July 21, 2020 No. 474 «On the national development goals of the Russian Federation for the period until 2030 «in terms of ensuring an increase in life expectancy and improving the life quality of the population, the Strategy for Improving the Quality of Food Products in the Russian Federation until 2030 (Order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated June 29, 2016 No. 1364-r). The Center coordinates all research on medical nutrition problems in the Russian Federation within the framework of the work of the Problem Commission on Nutrition Hygiene of the Scientific Council of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare, the Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Medical Nutrition Problems, the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Comprehensive Scientific Program «Priority Research in the Field of Nutrition of the Population», Profile Commission on Dietetics of the Expert Council in the Field of Health of the Ministry of Healthcare of Russian Federation, ensuring the implementation of their results with the participation of members of the Consortium "Healthcare, Nutrition, Demography". The most important area of the Center's work is scientific and expert support in the field of international and national technical regulation of the production and turnover of foods and raw materials, in particular, the work of the Russian national contact point of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (established by FAO and WHO), as well as the work of the Russian side in the Eurasian Economic Commission regarding the preparation of proposals for technical regulations of the Customs Union in the field of food safety, evaluation of draft technical regulations and amendments and additions to them.},
}
@article {pmid38555566,
year = {2024},
author = {Kuehnast, T and Kumpitsch, C and Mohammadzadeh, R and Weichhart, T and Moissl-Eichinger, C and Heine, H},
title = {Exploring the human archaeome: its relevance for health and disease, and its complex interplay with the human immune system.},
journal = {The FEBS journal},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1111/febs.17123},
pmid = {38555566},
issn = {1742-4658},
support = {COE 7//Austrian Science Fund/ ; P 32697//Austrian Science Fund/ ; SFB F83//Austrian Science Fund/ ; },
abstract = {This Review aims to coalesce existing knowledge on the human archaeome, a less-studied yet critical non-bacterial component of the human microbiome, with a focus on its interaction with the immune system. Despite a largely bacteria-centric focus in microbiome research, archaea present unique challenges and opportunities for understanding human health. We examine the archaeal distribution across different human body sites, such as the lower gastrointestinal tract (LGT), upper aerodigestive tract (UAT), urogenital tract (UGT), and skin. Variability in archaeal composition exists between sites; methanogens dominate the LGT, while Nitrososphaeria are prevalent on the skin and UAT. Archaea have yet to be classified as pathogens but show associations with conditions such as refractory sinusitis and vaginosis. In the LGT, methanogenic archaea play critical metabolic roles by converting bacterial end-products into methane, correlating with various health conditions, including obesity and certain cancers. Finally, this work looks at the complex interactions between archaea and the human immune system at the molecular level. Recent research has illuminated the roles of specific archaeal molecules, such as RNA and glycerolipids, in stimulating immune responses via innate immune receptors like Toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8) and 'C-type lectin domain family 4 member E' (CLEC4E; also known as MINCLE). Additionally, metabolic by-products of archaea, specifically methane, have demonstrated immunomodulatory effects through anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative pathways. Despite these advancements, the mechanistic underpinnings of how archaea influence immune activity remain a fertile area for further investigation.},
}
@article {pmid38553666,
year = {2024},
author = {Ma, ZS},
title = {Towards a unified medical microbiome ecology of the OMU for metagenomes and the OTU for microbes.},
journal = {BMC bioinformatics},
volume = {25},
number = {1},
pages = {137},
pmid = {38553666},
issn = {1471-2105},
mesh = {Animals ; Humans ; Metagenome ; *Microbiota/genetics ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Biodiversity ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Metagenomics/methods ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Metagenomic sequencing technologies offered unprecedented opportunities and also challenges to microbiology and microbial ecology particularly. The technology has revolutionized the studies of microbes and enabled the high-profile human microbiome and earth microbiome projects. The terminology-change from microbes to microbiomes signals that our capability to count and classify microbes (microbiomes) has achieved the same or similar level as we can for the biomes (macrobiomes) of plants and animals (macrobes). While the traditional investigations of macrobiomes have usually been conducted through naturalists' (Linnaeus & Darwin) naked eyes, and aerial and satellite images (remote-sensing), the large-scale investigations of microbiomes have been made possible by DNA-sequencing-based metagenomic technologies. Two major types of metagenomic sequencing technologies-amplicon sequencing and whole-genome (shotgun sequencing)-respectively generate two contrastingly different categories of metagenomic reads (data)-OTU (operational taxonomic unit) tables representing microorganisms and OMU (operational metagenomic unit), a new term coined in this article to represent various cluster units of metagenomic genes.
RESULTS: The ecological science of microbiomes based on the OTU representing microbes has been unified with the classic ecology of macrobes (macrobiomes), but the unification based on OMU representing metagenomes has been rather limited. In a previous series of studies, we have demonstrated the applications of several classic ecological theories (diversity, composition, heterogeneity, and biogeography) to the studies of metagenomes. Here I push the envelope for the unification of OTU and OMU again by demonstrating the applications of metacommunity assembly and ecological networks to the metagenomes of human gut microbiomes. Specifically, the neutral theory of biodiversity (Sloan's near neutral model), Ning et al.stochasticity framework, core-periphery network, high-salience skeleton network, special trio-motif, and positive-to-negative ratio are applied to analyze the OMU tables from whole-genome sequencing technologies, and demonstrated with seven human gut metagenome datasets from the human microbiome project.
CONCLUSIONS: All of the ecological theories demonstrated previously and in this article, including diversity, composition, heterogeneity, stochasticity, and complex network analyses, are equally applicable to OMU metagenomic analyses, just as to OTU analyses. Consequently, I strongly advocate the unification of OTU/OMU (microbiomes) with classic ecology of plants and animals (macrobiomes) in the context of medical ecology.},
}
@article {pmid38550775,
year = {2024},
author = {Monteiro, JS and Kaushik, K and de Arruda, JAA and Georgakopoulou, E and Vieira, AT and Silva, TA and Devadiga, D and Anyanechi, CE and Shetty, S},
title = {Fungal footprints in oral cancer: unveiling the oral mycobiome.},
journal = {Frontiers in oral health},
volume = {5},
number = {},
pages = {1360340},
pmid = {38550775},
issn = {2673-4842},
abstract = {Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common type of head and neck cancer, with a high mortality rate. There is growing evidence supporting a link between oral cancer and the microbiome. The microbiome can impact various aspects of cancer, such as pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. While there is existing information on bacteria and its connection to oral cancer, the fungi residing in the oral cavity represent a significant component of the microbiome that remains in its early stages of exploration and understanding. Fungi comprise a minuscule part of the human microbiome called the mycobiome. Mycobiome is ubiquitous in the human body but a weakened immune system offers a leeway space for fungi to showcase its virulence. The role of mycobiome as a colonizer, facilitator, or driver of carcinogenesis is still ambiguous. Reactivating the mycobiome that undergoes collateral damage associated with cancer treatment can be watershed event in cancer research. The coordinated, virulent, non-virulent behavior of the fungi once they reach a critical density must be hacked, considering its diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic implications in cancer. This review highlights the diversity of the mycobiome and its potential role in oral cancer.},
}
@article {pmid38549112,
year = {2024},
author = {Edwin, NR and Fitzpatrick, AH and Brennan, F and Abram, F and O'Sullivan, O},
title = {An in-depth evaluation of metagenomic classifiers for soil microbiomes.},
journal = {Environmental microbiome},
volume = {19},
number = {1},
pages = {19},
pmid = {38549112},
issn = {2524-6372},
support = {SFI/16/RC/3835//VistaMilk/ ; Ref: 2020019//Teagasc Walsh Scholarship Programme/ ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Recent endeavours in metagenomics, exemplified by projects such as the human microbiome project and TARA Oceans, have illuminated the complexities of microbial biomes. A robust bioinformatic pipeline and meticulous evaluation of their methodology have contributed to the success of these projects. The soil environment, however, with its unique challenges, requires a specialized methodological exploration to maximize microbial insights. A notable limitation in soil microbiome studies is the dearth of soil-specific reference databases available to classifiers that emulate the complexity of soil communities. There is also a lack of in-vitro mock communities derived from soil strains that can be assessed for taxonomic classification accuracy.
RESULTS: In this study, we generated a custom in-silico mock community containing microbial genomes commonly observed in the soil microbiome. Using this mock community, we simulated shotgun sequencing data to evaluate the performance of three leading metagenomic classifiers: Kraken2 (supplemented with Bracken, using a custom database derived from GTDB-TK genomes along with its own default database), Kaiju, and MetaPhlAn, utilizing their respective default databases for a robust analysis. Our results highlight the importance of optimizing taxonomic classification parameters, database selection, as well as analysing trimmed reads and contigs. Our study showed that classifiers tailored to the specific taxa present in our samples led to fewer errors compared to broader databases including microbial eukaryotes, protozoa, or human genomes, highlighting the effectiveness of targeted taxonomic classification. Notably, an optimal classifier performance was achieved when applying a relative abundance threshold of 0.001% or 0.005%. The Kraken2 supplemented with bracken, with a custom database demonstrated superior precision, sensitivity, F1 score, and overall sequence classification. Using a custom database, this classifier classified 99% of in-silico reads and 58% of real-world soil shotgun reads, with the latter identifying previously overlooked phyla using a custom database.
CONCLUSION: This study underscores the potential advantages of in-silico methodological optimization in metagenomic analyses, especially when deciphering the complexities of soil microbiomes. We demonstrate that the choice of classifier and database significantly impacts microbial taxonomic profiling. Our findings suggest that employing Kraken2 with Bracken, coupled with a custom database of GTDB-TK genomes and fungal genomes at a relative abundance threshold of 0.001% provides optimal accuracy in soil shotgun metagenome analysis.},
}
@article {pmid38543670,
year = {2024},
author = {Tosado-Rodríguez, E and Alvarado-Vélez, I and Romaguera, J and Godoy-Vitorino, F},
title = {Vaginal Microbiota and HPV in Latin America: A Narrative Review.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {12},
number = {3},
pages = {},
pmid = {38543670},
issn = {2076-2607},
support = {U54 CA096297/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; U54 MD007587/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States ; U54MD007600/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States ; P20GM103475/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; U54 MD007600/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States ; CA096297/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; U54MD007587/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; P20 GM103475/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {With the expansion of human microbiome studies in the last 15 years, we have realized the immense implications of microbes in human health. The human holobiont is now accepted, given the commensal relationships with bacteria, fungi, parasites, viruses, and human cells. The cervicovaginal microbiota is a specific case within the human microbiome where diversity is lower to maintain a chemical barrier of protection against infections. This narrative review focuses on the vaginal microbiome. It summarizes key findings on how native bacteria protect women from disease or predispose them to damaging inflammatory processes with an emphasis on the role of HPV infections in Latin America, one of the world's regions with the highest cervical cancer prevalence.},
}
@article {pmid38543514,
year = {2024},
author = {Efremova, I and Maslennikov, R and Medvedev, O and Kudryavtseva, A and Avdeeva, A and Krasnov, G and Romanikhin, F and Diatroptov, M and Fedorova, M and Poluektova, E and Levshina, A and Ivashkin, V},
title = {Gut Microbiota and Biomarkers of Intestinal Barrier Damage in Cirrhosis.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {12},
number = {3},
pages = {},
pmid = {38543514},
issn = {2076-2607},
abstract = {Gut dysbiosis and subclinical intestinal damage are common in cirrhosis. The aim of this study was to examine the association of intestinal damage biomarkers (diamine oxidase [DAO], claudin 3, and intestinal fatty acid binding protein [I-FABP; FABP2]) with the state of the gut microbiota in cirrhosis. The blood levels of DAO were inversely correlated with blood levels of claudin 3, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), presepsin, TNF-α, and the severity of cirrhosis according to Child-Pugh scores. The blood level of I-FABP was directly correlated with the blood level of claudin 3 but not with that of DAO. Patients with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) had lower DAO levels than patients without SIBO. There was no significant difference in claudin 3 levels and I-FABP detection rates between patients with and without SIBO. The DAO level was directly correlated with the abundance of Akkermansiaceae, Akkermansia, Allisonella, Clostridiaceae, Dialister, Lactobacillus, Muribaculaceae, Negativibacillus, Ruminococcus, Thiomicrospiraceae, Verrucomicrobiae, and Verrucomicrobiota; and it was inversely correlated with the abundance of Anaerostipes, Erysipelatoclostridium, and Vibrio. The I-FABP level was directly correlated with Anaerostipes, Bacteroidia, Bacteroidota, Bilophila, Megamonas, and Selenomonadaceae; and it was inversely correlated with the abundance of Brucella, Pseudomonadaceae, Pseudomonas, and Vibrionaceae. The claudin 3 level was directly correlated with Anaerostipes abundance and was inversely correlated with the abundance of Brucella, Coriobacteriia, Eggerthellaceae, and Lactobacillus.},
}
@article {pmid38542770,
year = {2024},
author = {Nikoloudaki, O and Pinto, D and Acin Albiac, M and Celano, G and Da Ros, A and De Angelis, M and Rinaldi, F and Gobbetti, M and Di Cagno, R},
title = {Exploring the Gut Microbiome and Metabolome in Individuals with Alopecia Areata Disease.},
journal = {Nutrients},
volume = {16},
number = {6},
pages = {},
pmid = {38542770},
issn = {2072-6643},
mesh = {Adult ; Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; *Alopecia Areata ; Metabolome ; Feces/chemistry ; Biomarkers/analysis ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; },
abstract = {In recent years, heightened attention has been devoted to unravelling the intricate interplay between genetic and environmental factors shaping the gut microbiota and its significance for human health. This study delves into exploring the plausible connection between Alopecia Areata (AA), an autoimmune disease, and the dynamics of the gut microbiome. Examining a cohort of healthy adults and individuals with AA, both the gut microbiota composition and volatile organic compound (VOC) metabolites from faeces and urine were analysed. While overall microbiota composition showed no significant differences, intra-individual variability revealed distinctions related to age, gender, and pathology status, with AA individuals exhibiting reduced species richness and evenness. Differential abundance analysis identified microbial biomarkers for AA, notably Firmicutes, Lachnospirales, and Blautia, while Coprococcus stood out for healthy individuals. The Data Integration Analysis for Biomarker discovery using Latent Components (DIABLO) method further supported these findings including metabolite biomarkers, such as esters of branched chain fatty acids and branched chain amino acids as predictors for AA, suggesting potential links to oxidative stress. Despite certain limitations, the study highlights the complexity of the gut microbiome and its metabolites in the context of AA, while the biomarkers identified could be useful starting points for upcoming studies.},
}
@article {pmid38542455,
year = {2024},
author = {Mak, AL and Augustijn, QJJ and Heymann, CJF and Havik, S and Verdoes, X and Rios-Morales, M and Bosmans, LA and Verheij, J and Meijnikman, AS and de Jonge, PA and Herrema, H and de Vos, WM and Nieuwdorp, M and Grefhorst, A and Holleboom, AG},
title = {Anaerobutyricum soehngenii Reduces Hepatic Lipogenic Pathways and Increases Intestinal Gluconeogenic Gene Expression in Metabolic-Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) Mice.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {25},
number = {6},
pages = {},
pmid = {38542455},
issn = {1422-0067},
mesh = {Male ; Animals ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Base Composition ; Gluconeogenesis ; Phylogeny ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; *Fatty Liver/etiology/genetics ; *Metabolic Diseases ; Butyrates ; Gene Expression ; Phosphatidate Phosphatase ; *Clostridiales ; },
abstract = {Metabolic-dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a growing health problem for which no therapy exists to date. The modulation of the gut microbiome may have treatment potential for MASLD. Here, we investigated Anaerobutyricum soehngenii, a butyrate-producing anaerobic bacterium with beneficial effects in metabolic syndrome, in a diet-induced MASLD mouse model. Male C57BL/6J mice received a Western-type high-fat diet and water with 15% fructose (WDF) to induce MASLD and were gavaged with A. soehngenii (10[8] or 10[9] colony-forming units (CFU) 3 times per week) or a placebo for 6 weeks. The A. soehngenii gavage increased the cecal butyrate concentrations. Although there was no effect on histological MASLD scores, A. soehngenii improved the glycemic response to insulin. In the liver, the WDF-associated altered expression of three genes relevant to the MASLD pathophysiology was reversed upon treatment with A. soehngenii: Lipin-1 (Lpin1), insulin-like growth factor binding protein 1 (Igfbp1) and Interleukin 1 Receptor Type 1 (Il1r1). A. soehngenii administration also increased the intestinal expression of gluconeogenesis and fructolysis genes. Although these effects did not translate into significant histological improvements in MASLD, these results provide a basis for combined gut microbial approaches to induce histological improvements in MASLD.},
}
@article {pmid38542265,
year = {2024},
author = {Uzelac, M and Xin, R and Ongkeko, WM},
title = {Microbiome Dysbiosis Is Associated with Castration Resistance and Cancer Stemness in Metastatic Prostate Cancer.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {25},
number = {6},
pages = {},
pmid = {38542265},
issn = {1422-0067},
support = {RG096651//UC San Diego Academic Senate/ ; },
mesh = {Male ; Humans ; *Prostatic Neoplasms, Castration-Resistant/pathology ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt/metabolism ; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases ; Dysbiosis ; Castration ; Receptors, Androgen/metabolism ; },
abstract = {Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death in males in America, with advanced prostate cancers exhibiting a 5-year survival rate of only 32%. Castration resistance often develops during the course of treatment, but its pathogenesis is poorly understood. This study explores the human microbiome for its implications in castration resistance and metastasis in prostate cancer. RNA sequencing data were downloaded for the bone and soft tissue biopsies of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. These included both metastatic and adjacent normal biopsies. These sequences were mapped to bacterial sequences, yielding species-level counts. A vast majority of species were found to be significantly underabundant in the CRPC samples. Of these, numerous were found to correlate with the expression of known markers of castration resistance, including AR, PI3K, and AKT. Castration resistance-associated signaling pathways were also enriched with these species, including PI3K-AKT signaling and endocrine resistance. For their implications in cancer aggression and metastasis, cancer stem cell markers were further explored for a relation to these species. EGFR and SLC3A2 were widely downregulated, with a greater abundance of most species. Our results suggest that the microbiome is heavily associated with castration resistance and stemness in prostate cancer. By considering the microbiome's importance in these factors, we may better understand the highly aggressive and highly invasive nature of castration-resistant prostate cancer, allowing for the needed improvements in the treatment of this disease.},
}
@article {pmid38530031,
year = {2024},
author = {Cao, B and Wang, X and Yin, W and Gao, Z and Xia, B},
title = {The human microbiota is a beneficial reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 mutations.},
journal = {mBio},
volume = {15},
number = {5},
pages = {e0318723},
pmid = {38530031},
issn = {2150-7511},
support = {22QA1411000//STCSM | Science and Technology Innovation Plan Of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *SARS-CoV-2/genetics/immunology ; *Mutation ; *COVID-19/virology/immunology ; *Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/genetics/immunology ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Bacteria/genetics/classification ; },
abstract = {UNLABELLED: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) mutations are rapidly emerging. In particular, beneficial mutations in the spike (S) protein, which can either make a person more infectious or enable immunological escape, are providing a significant obstacle to the prevention and treatment of pandemics. However, how the virus acquires a high number of beneficial mutations in a short time remains a mystery. We demonstrate here that variations of concern may be mutated due in part to the influence of the human microbiome. We searched the National Center for Biotechnology Information database for homologous fragments (HFs) after finding a mutation and the six neighboring amino acids in a viral mutation fragment. Among the approximate 8,000 HFs obtained, 61 mutations in S and other outer membrane proteins were found in bacteria, accounting for 62% of all mutation sources, which is 12-fold higher than the natural variable proportion. A significant proportion of these bacterial species-roughly 70%-come from the human microbiota, are mainly found in the lung or gut, and share a composition pattern with COVID-19 patients. Importantly, SARS-CoV-2 RNA-dependent RNA polymerase replicates corresponding bacterial mRNAs harboring mutations, producing chimeric RNAs. SARS-CoV-2 may collectively pick up mutations from the human microbiota that change the original virus's binding sites or antigenic determinants. Our study clarifies the evolving mutational mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2.
IMPORTANCE: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) mutations are rapidly emerging, in particular advantageous mutations in the spike (S) protein, which either increase transmissibility or lead to immune escape and are posing a major challenge to pandemic prevention and treatment. However, how the virus acquires a high number of advantageous mutations in a short time remains a mystery. Here, we provide evidence that the human microbiota is a reservoir of advantageous mutations and aids mutational evolution and host adaptation of SARS-CoV-2. Our findings demonstrate a conceptual breakthrough on the mutational evolution mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 for human adaptation. SARS-CoV-2 may grab advantageous mutations from the widely existing microorganisms in the host, which is undoubtedly an "efficient" manner. Our study might open a new perspective to understand the evolution of virus mutation, which has enormous implications for comprehending the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic.},
}
@article {pmid38528457,
year = {2024},
author = {Buetas, E and Jordán-López, M and López-Roldán, A and D'Auria, G and Martínez-Priego, L and De Marco, G and Carda-Diéguez, M and Mira, A},
title = {Full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing by PacBio improves taxonomic resolution in human microbiome samples.},
journal = {BMC genomics},
volume = {25},
number = {1},
pages = {310},
pmid = {38528457},
issn = {1471-2164},
support = {PRE2019-088126//Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation/ ; RTI2018- 102032-B-I00//The Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Science/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; Genes, rRNA ; Phylogeny ; Sequence Analysis, DNA/methods ; *Microbiota/genetics ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing/methods ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Sequencing variable regions of the 16S rRNA gene (≃300 bp) with Illumina technology is commonly used to study the composition of human microbiota. Unfortunately, short reads are unable to differentiate between highly similar species. Considering that species from the same genus can be associated with health or disease it is important to identify them at the lowest possible taxonomic rank. Third-generation sequencing platforms such as PacBio SMRT, increase read lengths allowing to sequence the whole gene with the maximum taxonomic resolution. Despite its potential, full length 16S rRNA gene sequencing is not widely used yet. The aim of the current study was to compare the sequencing output and taxonomic annotation performance of the two approaches (Illumina short read sequencing and PacBio long read sequencing of 16S rRNA gene) in different human microbiome samples. DNA from saliva, oral biofilms (subgingival plaque) and faeces of 9 volunteers was isolated. Regions V3-V4 and V1-V9 were amplified and sequenced by Illumina Miseq and by PacBio Sequel II sequencers, respectively.
RESULTS: With both platforms, a similar percentage of reads was assigned to the genus level (94.79% and 95.06% respectively) but with PacBio a higher proportion of reads were further assigned to the species level (55.23% vs 74.14%). Regarding overall bacterial composition, samples clustered by niche and not by sequencing platform. In addition, all genera with > 0.1% abundance were detected in both platforms for all types of samples. Although some genera such as Streptococcus tended to be observed at higher frequency in PacBio than in Illumina (20.14% vs 14.12% in saliva, 10.63% vs 6.59% in subgingival plaque biofilm samples) none of the differences were statistically significant when correcting for multiple testing.
CONCLUSIONS: The results presented in the current manuscript suggest that samples sequenced using Illumina and PacBio are mostly comparable. Considering that PacBio reads were assigned at the species level with higher accuracy than Illumina, our data support the use of PacBio technology for future microbiome studies, although a higher cost is currently required to obtain an equivalent number of reads per sample.},
}
@article {pmid38528097,
year = {2024},
author = {Wang, B and Sun, F and Luan, Y},
title = {Comparison of the effectiveness of different normalization methods for metagenomic cross-study phenotype prediction under heterogeneity.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {14},
number = {1},
pages = {7024},
pmid = {38528097},
issn = {2045-2322},
support = {2018YFA0703900//National Key Research and Development Program of China/ ; 2018YFA0703900//National Key Research and Development Program of China/ ; 11971264//National Science Foundation of China/ ; 11971264//National Science Foundation of China/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Metagenome ; Metagenomics ; Research Design ; Phenotype ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome, comprising microorganisms residing within and on the human body, plays a crucial role in various physiological processes and has been linked to numerous diseases. To analyze microbiome data, it is essential to account for inherent heterogeneity and variability across samples. Normalization methods have been proposed to mitigate these variations and enhance comparability. However, the performance of these methods in predicting binary phenotypes remains understudied. This study systematically evaluates different normalization methods in microbiome data analysis and their impact on disease prediction. Our findings highlight the strengths and limitations of scaling, compositional data analysis, transformation, and batch correction methods. Scaling methods like TMM show consistent performance, while compositional data analysis methods exhibit mixed results. Transformation methods, such as Blom and NPN, demonstrate promise in capturing complex associations. Batch correction methods, including BMC and Limma, consistently outperform other approaches. However, the influence of normalization methods is constrained by population effects, disease effects, and batch effects. These results provide insights for selecting appropriate normalization approaches in microbiome research, improving predictive models, and advancing personalized medicine. Future research should explore larger and more diverse datasets and develop tailored normalization strategies for microbiome data analysis.},
}
@article {pmid38526734,
year = {2024},
author = {Wan, X and Skurnik, M},
title = {Multidisciplinary Methods for Screening Toxic Proteins from Phages and Their Potential Molecular Targets.},
journal = {Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)},
volume = {2793},
number = {},
pages = {237-256},
pmid = {38526734},
issn = {1940-6029},
mesh = {*Bacteriophages/genetics ; Genomics ; Bacteria ; Computational Biology/methods ; Bacterial Proteins/genetics ; },
abstract = {This chapter presents a comprehensive methodology for the identification, characterization, and functional analyses of potentially toxic hypothetical proteins of unknown function (toxHPUFs) in phages. The methods begin with in vivo toxicity verification of toxHPUFs in bacterial hosts, utilizing conventional drop tests and following growth curves. Computational methods for structural and functional predictions of toxHPUFs are outlined, incorporating the use of tools such as Phyre2, HHpred, and AlphaFold2. To ascertain potential targets, a comparative genomic approach is described using bioinformatics toolkits for sequence alignment and functional annotation. Moreover, steps are provided to predict protein-protein interactions and visualizing these using PyMOL. The culmination of these methods equips researchers with an effective pipeline to identify and analyze toxHPUFs and their potential targets, laying the groundwork for future experimental confirmations.},
}
@article {pmid38522483,
year = {2024},
author = {Bijla, M and Saini, SK and Pathak, AK and Bharadwaj, KP and Sukhavasi, K and Patil, A and Saini, D and Yadav, R and Singh, S and Leeuwenburgh, C and Kumar, P},
title = {Microbiome interactions with different risk factors in development of myocardial infarction.},
journal = {Experimental gerontology},
volume = {189},
number = {},
pages = {112409},
doi = {10.1016/j.exger.2024.112409},
pmid = {38522483},
issn = {1873-6815},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Myocardial Infarction ; *Microbiota ; Risk Factors ; *Hypertension ; },
abstract = {Among all non-communicable diseases, Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) stand as the leading global cause of mortality. Within this spectrum, Myocardial Infarction (MI) strikingly accounts for over 15 % of all deaths. The intricate web of risk factors for MI, comprising family history, tobacco use, oral health, hypertension, nutritional pattern, and microbial infections, is firmly influenced by the human gut and oral microbiota, their diversity, richness, and dysbiosis, along with their respective metabolites. Host genetic factors, especially allelic variations in signaling and inflammatory markers, greatly affect the progression or severity of the disease. Despite the established significance of the human microbiome-nutrient-metabolite interplay in associations with CVDs, the unexplored terrain of the gut-heart-oral axis has risen as a critical knowledge gap. Moreover, the pivotal role of the microbiome and the complex interplay with host genetics, compounded by age-related changes, emerges as an area of vital importance in the development of MI. In addition, a distinctive disease susceptibility and severity influenced by gender-based or ancestral differences, adds a crucial insights to the association with increased mortality. Here, we aimed to provide an overview on interactions of microbiome (oral and gut) with major risk factors (tobacco use, alcohol consumption, diet, hypertension host genetics, gender, and aging) in the development of MI and therapeutic regulation.},
}
@article {pmid38513074,
year = {2024},
author = {Khawaja, T and Kajova, M and Levonen, I and Pietilä, JP and Välimaa, H and Paajanen, J and Pakkanen, SH and Patjas, A and Montonen, R and Miettinen, S and Virtanen, J and Smura, T and Sironen, T and Fagerlund, R and Ugurlu, H and Iheozor-Ejiofor, R and Saksela, K and Vahlberg, T and Ranki, A and Vierikko, A and Ihalainen, J and Vapalahti, O and Kantele, A},
title = {Double-blinded, randomised, placebo-controlled trial of convalescent plasma for COVID-19: analyses by neutralising antibodies homologous to recipients' variants.},
journal = {Infectious diseases (London, England)},
volume = {56},
number = {6},
pages = {423-433},
doi = {10.1080/23744235.2024.2329957},
pmid = {38513074},
issn = {2374-4243},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Convalescent plasma (CP) emerged as potential treatment for COVID-19 early in the pandemic. While efficacy in hospitalised patients has been lacklustre, CP may be beneficial at the first stages of disease. Despite multiple new variants emerging, no trials have involved analyses on variant-specific antibody titres of CP.
METHODS: We recruited hospitalised COVID-19 patients within 10 days of symptom onset and, employing a double-blinded approach, randomised them to receive 200 ml convalescent plasma with high (HCP) or low (LCP) neutralising antibody (NAb) titre against the ancestral strain (Wuhan-like variant) or placebo in 1:1:1 ratio. Primary endpoints comprised intubation, corticosteroids for symptom aggravation, and safety assessed as serious adverse events. For a preplanned ad hoc analysis, the patients were regrouped by infused CP's NAb titers to variants infecting the recipients i.e. by titres of homologous HCP (hHCP) or LCP (hLCP).
RESULTS: Of the 57 patients, 18 received HCP, 19 LCP and 20 placebo, all groups smaller than planned. No significant differences were found for primary endpoints. In ad hoc analysis, hHCPrecipients needed significantly less respiratory support, and appeared to be given corticosteroids less frequently (1/14; 7.1%) than those receiving hLCP (9/23; 39.1%) or placebo (8/20; 40%), (p = 0.077).
DISCUSSION: Our double-blinded, placebo-controlled CP therapy trial remained underpowered and does not allow any firm conclusions for early-stage hospitalised COVID-19 patients. Interestingly, however, regrouping by homologous - recipients' variant-specific - CP titres suggested benefits for hHCP. We encourage similar re-analysis of ongoing/previous larger CP studies.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinTrials.gov identifier: NCT0473040.},
}
@article {pmid38510311,
year = {2023},
author = {Gellman, RH and Olm, MR and Terrapon, N and Enam, F and Higginbottom, SK and Sonnenburg, JL and Sonnenburg, ED},
title = {Hadza Prevotella require diet-derived microbiota-accessible carbohydrates to persist in mice.},
journal = {Cell reports},
volume = {42},
number = {11},
pages = {},
pmid = {38510311},
issn = {2211-1247},
support = {DP1 AT009892/AT/NCCIH NIH HHS/United States ; R01 DK085025/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Animals ; Mice ; *Microbiota ; Diet ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Carbohydrates ; Bacteroides ; Prevotella ; },
abstract = {Industrialization has transformed the gut microbiota, reducing the prevalence of Prevotella relative to Bacteroides. Here, we isolate Bacteroides and Prevotella strains from the microbiota of Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, a population with high levels of Prevotella. We demonstrate that plant-derived microbiota-accessible carbohydrates (MACs) are required for persistence of Prevotella copri but not Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron in vivo. Differences in carbohydrate metabolism gene content, expression, and in vitro growth reveal that Hadza Prevotella strains specialize in degrading plant carbohydrates, while Hadza Bacteroides isolates use both plant and host-derived carbohydrates, a difference mirrored in Bacteroides from non-Hadza populations. When competing directly, P. copri requires plant-derived MACs to maintain colonization in the presence of B. thetaiotaomicron, as a no-MAC diet eliminates P. copri colonization. Prevotella's reliance on plant-derived MACs and Bacteroides' ability to use host mucus carbohydrates could explain the reduced prevalence of Prevotella in populations consuming a low-MAC, industrialized diet.},
}
@article {pmid38506889,
year = {2024},
author = {Koskenvuo, L and Lunkka, P and Varpe, P and Hyöty, M and Satokari, R and Haapamäki, C and Lepistö, A and Sallinen, V},
title = {Morbidity After Mechanical Bowel Preparation and Oral Antibiotics Prior to Rectal Resection: The MOBILE2 Randomized Clinical Trial.},
journal = {JAMA surgery},
volume = {159},
number = {6},
pages = {606-614},
pmid = {38506889},
issn = {2168-6262},
mesh = {Humans ; Male ; Female ; Double-Blind Method ; Middle Aged ; *Surgical Wound Infection/prevention & control/epidemiology ; Aged ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/administration & dosage/therapeutic use ; *Rectal Neoplasms/surgery ; Administration, Oral ; Antibiotic Prophylaxis ; Preoperative Care/methods ; Neomycin/administration & dosage/therapeutic use ; Cathartics/administration & dosage ; Metronidazole/administration & dosage/therapeutic use ; Proctectomy/adverse effects ; Rectum/surgery ; Surgical Wound Dehiscence/prevention & control/etiology ; Elective Surgical Procedures/adverse effects ; },
abstract = {IMPORTANCE: Surgical site infections (SSIs)-especially anastomotic dehiscence-are major contributors to morbidity and mortality after rectal resection. The role of mechanical and oral antibiotics bowel preparation (MOABP) in preventing complications of rectal resection is currently disputed.
OBJECTIVE: To assess whether MOABP reduces overall complications and SSIs after elective rectal resection compared with mechanical bowel preparation (MBP) plus placebo.
This multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial was conducted at 3 university hospitals in Finland between March 18, 2020, and October 10, 2022. Patients aged 18 years and older undergoing elective resection with primary anastomosis of a rectal tumor 15 cm or less from the anal verge on magnetic resonance imaging were eligible for inclusion. Outcomes were analyzed using a modified intention-to-treat principle, which included all patients who were randomly allocated to and underwent elective rectal resection with an anastomosis.
INTERVENTIONS: Patients were stratified according to tumor distance from the anal verge and neoadjuvant treatment given and randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive MOABP with an oral regimen of neomycin and metronidazole (n = 277) or MBP plus matching placebo tablets (n = 288). All study medications were taken the day before surgery, and all patients received intravenous antibiotics approximately 30 minutes before surgery.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was overall cumulative postoperative complications measured using the Comprehensive Complication Index. Key secondary outcomes were SSI and anastomotic dehiscence within 30 days after surgery.
RESULTS: In all, 565 patients were included in the analysis, with 288 in the MBP plus placebo group (median [IQR] age, 69 [62-74] years; 190 males [66.0%]) and 277 in the MOABP group (median [IQR] age, 70 [62-75] years; 158 males [57.0%]). Patients in the MOABP group experienced fewer overall postoperative complications (median [IQR] Comprehensive Complication Index, 0 [0-8.66] vs 8.66 [0-20.92]; Wilcoxon effect size, 0.146; P < .001), fewer SSIs (23 patients [8.3%] vs 48 patients [16.7%]; odds ratio, 0.45 [95% CI, 0.27-0.77]), and fewer anastomotic dehiscences (16 patients [5.8%] vs 39 patients [13.5%]; odds ratio, 0.39 [95% CI, 0.21-0.72]) compared with patients in the MBP plus placebo group.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Findings of this randomized clinical trial indicate that MOABP reduced overall postoperative complications as well as rates of SSIs and anastomotic dehiscences in patients undergoing elective rectal resection compared with MBP plus placebo. Based on these findings, MOABP should be considered as standard treatment in patients undergoing elective rectal resection.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04281667.},
}
@article {pmid38504586,
year = {2024},
author = {Brogna, C and Montano, L and Zanolin, ME and Bisaccia, DR and Ciammetti, G and Viduto, V and Fabrowski, M and Baig, AM and Gerlach, J and Gennaro, I and Bignardi, E and Brogna, B and Frongillo, A and Cristoni, S and Piscopo, M},
title = {A retrospective cohort study on early antibiotic use in vaccinated and unvaccinated COVID-19 patients.},
journal = {Journal of medical virology},
volume = {96},
number = {3},
pages = {e29507},
doi = {10.1002/jmv.29507},
pmid = {38504586},
issn = {1096-9071},
mesh = {Humans ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use ; *COVID-19/prevention & control ; Rifaximin ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome ; COVID-19 Vaccines ; Retrospective Studies ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal ; Adrenal Cortex Hormones ; },
abstract = {The bacteriophage behavior of SARS-CoV-2 during the acute and post-COVID-19 phases appears to be an important factor in the development of the disease. The early use of antibiotics seems to be crucial to inhibit disease progression-to prevent viral replication in the gut microbiome, and control toxicological production from the human microbiome. To study the impact of specific antibiotics on recovery from COVID-19 and long COVID (LC) taking into account: vaccination status, comorbidities, SARS-CoV-2 wave, time of initiation of antibiotic therapy and concomitant use of corticosteroids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). A total of 211 COVID-19 patients were included in the study: of which 59 were vaccinated with mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 while 152 were unvaccinated. Patients were enrolled in three waves: from September 2020 to October 2022, corresponding to the emergence of the pre-Delta, Delta, and Omicron variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The three criteria for enrolling patients were: oropharyngeal swab positivity or fecal findings; moderate symptoms with antibiotic intake; and measurement of blood oxygen saturation during the period of illness. The use of antibiotic combinations, such as amoxicillin with clavulanic acid (875 + 125 mg tablets, every 12 h) plus rifaximin (400 mg tablets every 12 h), as first choice, as suggested from the previous data, or azithromycin (500 mg tablets every 24 h), plus rifaximin as above, allows healthcare professionals to focus on the gut microbiome and its implications in COVID-19 disease during patient care. The primary outcome measured in this study was the estimated average treatment effect, which quantified the difference in mean recovery between patients receiving antibiotics and those not receiving antibiotics at 3 and 9 days after the start of treatment. In the analysis, both vaccinated and unvaccinated groups had a median illness duration of 7 days (interquartile range [IQR] 6-9 days for each; recovery crude hazard ratio [HR] = 0.94, p = 0.700). The median illness duration for the pre-Delta and Delta waves was 8 days (IQR 7-10 days), while it was shorter, 6.5 days, for Omicron (IQR 6-8 days; recovery crude HR = 1.71, p < 0.001). These results were confirmed by multivariate analysis. Patients with comorbidities had a significantly longer disease duration: median 8 days (IQR 7-10 days) compared to 7 days (IQR 6-8 days) for those without comorbidities (crude HR = 0.75, p = 0.038), but this result was not confirmed in multivariate analysis as statistical significance was lost. Early initiation of antibiotic therapy resulted in a significantly shorter recovery time (crude HR = 4.74, p < 0.001). Concomitant use of NSAIDs did not reduce disease duration and in multivariate analysis prolonged the disease (p = 0.041). A subgroup of 42 patients receiving corticosteroids for a median of 3 days (IQR 3-6 days) had a longer recovery time (median 9 days, IQR 8-10 days) compared to others (median 7 days, IQR 6-8 days; crude HR = 0.542, p < 0.001), as confirmed also by the adjusted HR. In this study, a statistically significant reduction in recovery time was observed among patients who received early antibiotic treatment. Early initiation of antibiotics played a crucial role in maintaining higher levels of blood oxygen saturation. In addition, it is worth noting that a significant number of patients who received antibiotics in the first 3 days and for a duration of 7 days, during the acute phase did not develop LC.},
}
@article {pmid38497260,
year = {2024},
author = {Singh, A and Luallen, RJ},
title = {Understanding the factors regulating host-microbiome interactions using Caenorhabditis elegans.},
journal = {Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences},
volume = {379},
number = {1901},
pages = {20230059},
pmid = {38497260},
issn = {1471-2970},
support = {R35 GM146836/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Animals ; Humans ; Caenorhabditis elegans/genetics ; *Microbiota ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; },
abstract = {The Human Microbiome Project was a research programme that successfully identified associations between microbial species and healthy or diseased individuals. However, a major challenge identified was the absence of model systems for studying host-microbiome interactions, which would increase our capacity to uncover molecular interactions, understand organ-specificity and discover new microbiome-altering health interventions. Caenorhabditis elegans has been a pioneering model organism for over 70 years but was largely studied in the absence of a microbiome. Recently, ecological sampling of wild nematodes has uncovered a large amount of natural genetic diversity as well as a slew of associated microbiota. The field has now explored the interactions of C. elegans with its associated gut microbiome, a defined and non-random microbial community, highlighting its suitability for dissecting host-microbiome interactions. This core microbiome is being used to study the impact of host genetics, age and stressors on microbiome composition. Furthermore, single microbiome species are being used to dissect molecular interactions between microbes and the animal gut. Being amenable to health altering genetic and non-genetic interventions, C. elegans has emerged as a promising system to generate and test new hypotheses regarding host-microbiome interactions, with the potential to uncover novel paradigms relevant to other systems. This article is part of the theme issue 'Sculpting the microbiome: how host factors determine and respond to microbial colonization'.},
}
@article {pmid38491556,
year = {2024},
author = {Elradi, M and Ahmed, AI and Saleh, AM and Abdel-Raouf, KMA and Berika, L and Daoud, Y and Amleh, A},
title = {Derivation of a novel antimicrobial peptide from the Red Sea Brine Pools modified to enhance its anticancer activity against U2OS cells.},
journal = {BMC biotechnology},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
pages = {14},
pmid = {38491556},
issn = {1472-6750},
mesh = {Animals ; Mice ; Humans ; Caspase 3/genetics/metabolism/pharmacology ; Survivin/genetics/metabolism/pharmacology ; Escherichia coli/metabolism ; Antimicrobial Peptides ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Indian Ocean ; Ki-67 Antigen/metabolism ; Staphylococcus aureus ; Apoptosis ; Peptides/pharmacology/metabolism ; *Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacology/chemistry ; *Anti-Infective Agents/pharmacology ; Annexins/pharmacology ; *Salts ; },
abstract = {Cancer associated drug resistance is a major cause for cancer aggravation, particularly as conventional therapies have presented limited efficiency, low specificity, resulting in long term deleterious side effects. Peptide based drugs have emerged as potential alternative cancer treatment tools due to their selectivity, ease of design and synthesis, safety profile, and low cost of manufacturing. In this study, we utilized the Red Sea metagenomics database, generated during AUC/KAUST Red Sea microbiome project, to derive a viable anticancer peptide (ACP). We generated a set of peptide hits from our library that shared similar composition to ACPs. A peptide with a homeodomain was selected, modified to improve its anticancer properties, verified to maintain high anticancer properties, and processed for further in-silico prediction of structure and function. The peptide's anticancer properties were then assessed in vitro on osteosarcoma U2OS cells, through cytotoxicity assay (MTT assay), scratch-wound healing assay, apoptosis/necrosis detection assay (Annexin/PI assay), RNA expression analysis of Caspase 3, KI67 and Survivin, and protein expression of PARP1. L929 mouse fibroblasts were also assessed for cytotoxicity treatment. In addition, the antimicrobial activity of the peptide was also examined on E coli and S. aureus, as sample representative species of the human bacterial microbiome, by examining viability, disk diffusion, morphological assessment, and hemolytic analysis. We observed a dose dependent cytotoxic response from peptide treatment of U2OS, with a higher tolerance in L929s. Wound closure was debilitated in cells exposed to the peptide, while annexin fluorescent imaging suggested peptide treatment caused apoptosis as a major mode of cell death. Caspase 3 gene expression was not altered, while KI67 and Survivin were both downregulated in peptide treated cells. Additionally, PARP-1 protein analysis showed a decrease in expression with peptide exposure. The peptide exhibited minimal antimicrobial activity on critical human microbiome species E. coli and S. aureus, with a low inhibition rate, maintenance of structural morphology and minimal hemolytic impact. These findings suggest our novel peptide displayed preliminary ACP properties against U2OS cells, through limited specificity, while triggering apoptosis as a primary mode of cell death and while having minimal impact on the microbiological species E. coli and S. aureus.},
}
@article {pmid38489954,
year = {2024},
author = {Huang, Y and Zhang, R and Hong, X and Liu, S and Zhang, S and Guo, M and Shi, L and Li, Z and Liu, Y},
title = {Correlation between sarcopenia index and cognitive function in older adult women: A cross-sectional study using NHANES data.},
journal = {Journal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia},
volume = {122},
number = {},
pages = {73-79},
doi = {10.1016/j.jocn.2024.02.026},
pmid = {38489954},
issn = {1532-2653},
mesh = {Humans ; Female ; United States/epidemiology ; Aged ; *Sarcopenia/diagnosis/epidemiology ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Nutrition Surveys ; Reproducibility of Results ; Cognition/physiology ; },
abstract = {OBJECTIVES: The Sarcopenia Index (SI) has the potential as a biomarker for sarcopenia, which is characterized by muscle loss. There is a clear association between sarcopenia and cognitive impairment. However, the relationship between SI and cognitive impairment is yet to be fully understood.
METHODS: We employed data extracted from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) spanning the years 1999 to 2002. Our study encompassed individuals aged 65 to 80 who possessed accessible information regarding both SI and cognitive evaluations with a GFR ≥ 90. Cognitive function was assessed using the digit symbol substitution test (DSST). SI was calculated by serum creatinine (mg/dL)/cystatin C (mg/L)*100. Employing multivariate modeling, we estimated the connection between SI and cognitive performance. Furthermore, to enhance the reliability of our data analysis, we categorized SI using tertiles and subsequently calculated the P-value for trend.
RESULTS: After adjustment for potential confounders, we found SI was significantly and positively correlated with cognitive function scores both in older female in the American population [β = 0.160, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.050 to 0.271, P = 0.00461]. Similarly, when the total cognitive function score was treated as a categorical variable according to tertiles, higher SI was related to better total cognitive function scores in females [odds ratio (OR) = 3.968, 95 % CI 1.863 to 6.073, P = 0.00025] following adjustment for confounders.
CONCLUSIONS: Higher SI was correlated with a lower prevalence of cognitive impairment among older adult women with normal kidney function.},
}
@article {pmid38484733,
year = {2024},
author = {Zheng, J and Zhang, XM and Tang, W and Li, Y and Wang, P and Jin, J and Luo, Z and Fang, S and Yang, S and Wei, Z and Song, K and Huang, Z and Wang, Z and Zhu, Z and Shi, N and Xiao, D and Yuan, L and Shen, H and Huang, L and Li, B},
title = {An insular cortical circuit required for itch sensation and aversion.},
journal = {Current biology : CB},
volume = {34},
number = {7},
pages = {1453-1468.e6},
doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2024.02.060},
pmid = {38484733},
issn = {1879-0445},
mesh = {Humans ; *Insular Cortex ; *Sensation/physiology ; GABAergic Neurons/metabolism ; Histamine/adverse effects/metabolism ; Pruritus/chemically induced ; },
abstract = {Itch encompasses both sensory and emotional dimensions, with the two dimensions reciprocally exacerbating each other. However, whether a shared neural circuit mechanism governs both dimensions remains elusive. Here, we report that the anterior insular cortex (AIC) is activated by both histamine-dependent and -independent itch stimuli. The activation of AIC elicits aversive emotion and exacerbates pruritogen-induced itch sensation and aversion. Mechanistically, AIC excitatory neurons project to the GABAergic neurons in the dorsal bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (dBNST). Manipulating the activity of the AIC → dBNST pathway affects both itch sensation and itch-induced aversion. Our study discovers the shared neural circuit (AIC → dBNST pathway) underlying the itch sensation and aversion, highlights the critical role of the AIC as a central hub for the itch processing, and provides a framework to understand the neural mechanisms underlying the sensation and emotion interaction.},
}
@article {pmid38484036,
year = {2024},
author = {Noto Guillen, M and Li, C and Rosener, B and Mitchell, A},
title = {Antibacterial activity of nonantibiotics is orthogonal to standard antibiotics.},
journal = {Science (New York, N.Y.)},
volume = {384},
number = {6691},
pages = {93-100},
doi = {10.1126/science.adk7368},
pmid = {38484036},
issn = {1095-9203},
support = {R01 AI170722/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States ; R35 GM133775/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Anti-Bacterial Agents/chemistry/classification/pharmacology ; Escherichia coli/drug effects/genetics ; Inhibitory Concentration 50 ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; *Microbiota/drug effects/genetics ; },
abstract = {Numerous nonantibiotic drugs have potent antibacterial activity and can adversely affect the human microbiome. The mechanistic underpinning of this toxicity remains largely unknown. We investigated the antibacterial activity of 200 drugs using genetic screens with thousands of barcoded Escherichia coli knockouts. We analyzed 2 million gene-drug interactions underlying drug-specific toxicity. Network-based analysis of drug-drug similarities revealed that antibiotics clustered into modules that are consistent with the mode of action of their established classes, whereas nonantibiotics remained unconnected. Half of the nonantibiotics clustered into separate modules, potentially revealing shared and unexploited targets for new antimicrobials. Analysis of efflux systems revealed that they widely affect antibiotics and nonantibiotics alike, suggesting that the impact of nonantibiotics on antibiotic cross-resistance should be investigated closely in vivo.},
}
@article {pmid38479397,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhou, X and Shen, X and Johnson, JS and Spakowicz, DJ and Agnello, M and Zhou, W and Avina, M and Honkala, A and Chleilat, F and Chen, SJ and Cha, K and Leopold, S and Zhu, C and Chen, L and Lyu, L and Hornburg, D and Wu, S and Zhang, X and Jiang, C and Jiang, L and Jiang, L and Jian, R and Brooks, AW and Wang, M and Contrepois, K and Gao, P and Rose, SMS and Tran, TDB and Nguyen, H and Celli, A and Hong, BY and Bautista, EJ and Dorsett, Y and Kavathas, PB and Zhou, Y and Sodergren, E and Weinstock, GM and Snyder, MP},
title = {Longitudinal profiling of the microbiome at four body sites reveals core stability and individualized dynamics during health and disease.},
journal = {Cell host & microbe},
volume = {32},
number = {4},
pages = {506-526.e9},
pmid = {38479397},
issn = {1934-6069},
support = {RM1 HG007735/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/United States ; U54 DE023789/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/United States ; K08 ES028825/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; P30 AG059307/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States ; F32 DK126287/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; R01 DK110186/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; R01 AT010232/AT/NCCIH NIH HHS/United States ; UL1 TR001085/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/United States ; P30 CA016058/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; K01 AG070310/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States ; P30 DK116074/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; U54 DK102556/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; UL1 TR003142/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Core Stability ; *Microbiota ; Skin/microbiology ; Host Microbial Interactions ; Biomarkers ; },
abstract = {To understand the dynamic interplay between the human microbiome and host during health and disease, we analyzed the microbial composition, temporal dynamics, and associations with host multi-omics, immune, and clinical markers of microbiomes from four body sites in 86 participants over 6 years. We found that microbiome stability and individuality are body-site specific and heavily influenced by the host. The stool and oral microbiome are more stable than the skin and nasal microbiomes, possibly due to their interaction with the host and environment. We identify individual-specific and commonly shared bacterial taxa, with individualized taxa showing greater stability. Interestingly, microbiome dynamics correlate across body sites, suggesting systemic dynamics influenced by host-microbial-environment interactions. Notably, insulin-resistant individuals show altered microbial stability and associations among microbiome, molecular markers, and clinical features, suggesting their disrupted interaction in metabolic disease. Our study offers comprehensive views of multi-site microbial dynamics and their relationship with host health and disease.},
}
@article {pmid38477427,
year = {2024},
author = {Zhang, J and Qi, H and Li, M and Wang, Z and Jia, X and Sun, T and Du, S and Su, C and Zhi, M and Du, W and Ouyang, Y and Wang, P and Huang, F and Jiang, H and Li, L and Bai, J and Wei, Y and Zhang, X and Wang, H and Zhang, B and Feng, Q},
title = {Diet Mediate the Impact of Host Habitat on Gut Microbiome and Influence Clinical Indexes by Modulating Gut Microbes and Serum Metabolites.},
journal = {Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)},
volume = {11},
number = {19},
pages = {e2310068},
pmid = {38477427},
issn = {2198-3844},
support = {ZR202102230369//Excellent Scientist Foundation of Shandong Province/ ; P30 AG066615/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States ; R01 HD038700/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States ; 2021SFGC0502//Major Innovation Projects in Shandong Province/ ; P30-DK056350/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; R01 DK104371/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; R01 AG065357/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States ; R01-DK104371/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; R01-HD30880//Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development/ ; R01 HL108427/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; D43 TW009077/TW/FIC NIH HHS/United States ; 82071122//National Natural Science Foundation of China/ ; 2021YFE0114200//Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China/ ; R01-HD38700//Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development/ ; P30 DK056350/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; //National Young Scientist Project Foundation of China (2019)/ ; R24 HD050924/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States ; 2021GXRC021//Oral Microbiome Innovation Team of Jinan City/ ; //Program of Taishan Young from Shandong Province/ ; R01 HD030880/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States ; 2020KJK001//Oral Microbiome Innovation Team of Shandong Province/ ; D43 TW007709/TW/FIC NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; *Diet/methods ; China ; Male ; Female ; Metabolome/physiology ; Adult ; Middle Aged ; Ecosystem ; },
abstract = {The impact of external factors on the human gut microbiota and how gut microbes contribute to human health is an intriguing question. Here, the gut microbiome of 3,224 individuals (496 with serum metabolome) with 109 variables is studied. Multiple analyses reveal that geographic factors explain the greatest variance of the gut microbiome and the similarity of individuals' gut microbiome is negatively correlated with their geographic distance. Main food components are the most important factors that mediate the impact of host habitats on the gut microbiome. Diet and gut microbes collaboratively contribute to the variation of serum metabolites, and correlate to the increase or decrease of certain clinical indexes. Specifically, systolic blood pressure is lowered by vegetable oil through increasing the abundance of Blautia and reducing the serum level of 1-palmitoyl-2-palmitoleoyl-GPC (16:0/16:1), but it is reduced by fruit intake through increasing the serum level of Blautia improved threonate. Besides, aging-related clinical indexes are also closely correlated with the variation of gut microbes and serum metabolites. In this study, the linkages of geographic locations, diet, the gut microbiome, serum metabolites, and physiological indexes in a Chinese population are characterized. It is proved again that gut microbes and their metabolites are important media for external factors to affect human health.},
}
@article {pmid38474213,
year = {2024},
author = {Hong, BY and Driscoll, M and Gratalo, D and Jarvie, T and Weinstock, GM},
title = {Improved DNA Extraction and Amplification Strategy for 16S rRNA Gene Amplicon-Based Microbiome Studies.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {25},
number = {5},
pages = {},
pmid = {38474213},
issn = {1422-0067},
mesh = {Humans ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; Sequence Analysis, DNA/methods ; Genes, rRNA ; Reproducibility of Results ; DNA, Bacterial/genetics ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Bacteria/genetics ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing/methods ; },
abstract = {Next-generation sequencing technology has driven the rapid advancement of human microbiome studies by enabling community-level sequence profiling of microbiomes. Although all microbiome sequencing methods depend on recovering the DNA from a sample as a first critical step, lysis methods can be a major determinant of microbiome profile bias. Gentle enzyme-based DNA preparation methods preserve DNA quality but can bias the results by failing to open difficult-to-lyse bacteria. Mechanical methods like bead beating can also bias DNA recovery because the mechanical energy required to break tougher cell walls may shear the DNA of the more easily lysed microbes, and shearing can vary depending on the time and intensity of beating, influencing reproducibility. We introduce a non-mechanical, non-enzymatic, novel rapid microbial DNA extraction procedure suitable for 16S rRNA gene-based microbiome profiling applications that eliminates bead beating. The simultaneous application of alkaline, heat, and detergent ('Rapid' protocol) to milligram quantity samples provided consistent representation across the population of difficult and easily lysed bacteria equal to or better than existing protocols, producing sufficient high-quality DNA for full-length 16S rRNA gene PCR. The novel 'Rapid' method was evaluated using mock bacterial communities containing both difficult and easily lysed bacteria. Human fecal sample testing compared the novel Rapid method with a standard Human Microbiome Project (HMP) protocol for samples from lung cancer patients and controls. DNA recovered from both methods was analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the V1V3 and V4 regions on the Illumina platform and the V1V9 region on the PacBio platform. Our findings indicate that the 'Rapid' protocol consistently yielded higher levels of Firmicutes species, which reflected the profile of the bacterial community structure more accurately, which was confirmed by mock community evaluation. The novel 'Rapid' DNA lysis protocol reduces population bias common to bead beating and enzymatic lysis methods, presenting opportunities for improved microbial community profiling, combined with the reduction in sample input to 10 milligrams or less, and it enables rapid transfer and simultaneous lysis of 96 samples in a standard plate format. This results in a 20-fold reduction in sample handling time and an overall 2-fold time advantage when compared to widely used commercial methods. We conclude that the novel 'Rapid' DNA extraction protocol offers a reliable alternative for preparing fecal specimens for 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.},
}
@article {pmid38472421,
year = {2024},
author = {Cai, J and Lin, K and Luo, T and Weng, J and Liu, H and Yuan, Z and Wan, Z and Han, J and Lin, J and Liu, X and Wang, X and Huang, M and Luo, Y and Yu, H},
title = {Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is noninferior to chemoradiotherapy for early-onset locally advanced rectal cancer in the FOWARC trial.},
journal = {British journal of cancer},
volume = {130},
number = {9},
pages = {1434-1440},
pmid = {38472421},
issn = {1532-1827},
support = {No. 81972245, YL; No. 82173067, YL; No. 81902877, HY; No. 82272965, HY//National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)/ ; No. 2022A1515012656, HY; No.2021A1515010134, MH;No.2020A1515010036, XL//Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Guangdong Natural Science Foundation)/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Rectal Neoplasms/therapy/pathology ; *Neoadjuvant Therapy/methods ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Aged ; Chemoradiotherapy/methods ; Adult ; Treatment Outcome ; Age of Onset ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The early-onset rectal cancer with rapidly increasing incidence is considered to have distinct clinicopathological and molecular profiles with high-risk features. This leads to challenges in developing specific treatment strategies for early-onset rectal cancer patients and questions of whether early-onset locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) needs aggressive neoadjuvant treatment.
METHODS: In this post hoc analysis of FOWARC trial, we investigated the role of preoperative radiation in early-onset LARC by comparing the clinicopathological profiles and short-term and long-term outcomes between the early-onset and late-onset LARCs.
RESULTS: We revealed an inter-tumor heterogeneity of clinical profiles and treatment outcomes between the early-onset and late-onset LARCs. The high-risk features were more prevalent in early-onset LARC. The neoadjuvant radiation brought less benefits of tumor response and more risk of complications in early-onset group (pCR: OR = 3.75, 95% CI = 1.37-10.27; complications: HR = 11.35, 95% CI = 1.46-88.31) compared with late-onset group (pCR: OR = 5.33, 95% CI = 1.83-15.58; complications: HR = 5.80, 95% CI = 2.32-14.49). Furthermore, the addition of radiation to neoadjuvant chemotherapy didn't improve long-term OS (HR = 1.37, 95% CI = 0.49-3.87) and DFS (HR = 1.05, 95% CI = 0.58-1.90) for early-onset patients.
CONCLUSION: Preoperative radiation plus chemotherapy may not be superior to the chemotherapy alone in the early-onset LARC. Our findings provide insight into the treatment of early-onset LARC by interrogating the aggressive treatment and alternative regimens.},
}
@article {pmid38471667,
year = {2024},
author = {Ghelfenstein-Ferreira, T and Serris, A and Salmona, M and Lanternier, F and Alanio, A},
title = {Revealing the hidden interplay: The unexplored relationship between fungi and viruses beyond HIV, SARS-CoV-2, and influenza.},
journal = {Medical mycology},
volume = {62},
number = {4},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/mmy/myae021},
pmid = {38471667},
issn = {1460-2709},
mesh = {Humans ; SARS-CoV-2 ; *Influenza, Human/complications ; *COVID-19/complications/veterinary ; Ecosystem ; *Viruses ; Fungi ; *Pulmonary Aspergillosis/veterinary ; *HIV Infections/complications/veterinary ; },
abstract = {The complex interaction between viruses and fungi has profound implications, especially given the significant impact of these microorganisms on human health. While well-known examples such as HIV, influenza, and SARS-CoV-2 are recognized as risk factors for invasive fungal diseases, the relationship between viruses and fungi remains largely underexplored outside of these cases. Fungi and viruses can engage in symbiotic or synergistic interactions. Remarkably, some viruses, known as mycoviruses, can directly infect fungi, may influencing their phenotype and potentially their virulence. In addition, viruses and fungi can coexist within the human microbiome, a complex ecosystem of microorganisms. Under certain conditions, viral infection might predispose the host to an invasive fungal infection, as observed with influenza-associated pulmonary aspergillosis or COVID-19 associated pulmonary aspergillosis. We aim in this review to highlight potential connections between fungi and viruses (CMV and other herpesviruses, HTLV-1 and respiratory viruses), excluding SARS-CoV-2 and influenza.},
}
@article {pmid38467837,
year = {2024},
author = {Bhosle, A and Bae, S and Zhang, Y and Chun, E and Avila-Pacheco, J and Geistlinger, L and Pishchany, G and Glickman, JN and Michaud, M and Waldron, L and Clish, CB and Xavier, RJ and Vlamakis, H and Franzosa, EA and Garrett, WS and Huttenhower, C},
title = {Integrated annotation prioritizes metabolites with bioactivity in inflammatory bowel disease.},
journal = {Molecular systems biology},
volume = {20},
number = {4},
pages = {338-361},
pmid = {38467837},
issn = {1744-4292},
support = {P30 DK040561/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; P30 DK043351/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; R01 CA230551/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; R24 DK110499/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; Animals ; Mice ; *Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/drug therapy/metabolism ; *Colitis ; Metabolome ; Bile Acids and Salts ; },
abstract = {Microbial biochemistry is central to the pathophysiology of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Improved knowledge of microbial metabolites and their immunomodulatory roles is thus necessary for diagnosis and management. Here, we systematically analyzed the chemical, ecological, and epidemiological properties of ~82k metabolic features in 546 Integrative Human Microbiome Project (iHMP/HMP2) metabolomes, using a newly developed methodology for bioactive compound prioritization from microbial communities. This suggested >1000 metabolic features as potentially bioactive in IBD and associated ~43% of prevalent, unannotated features with at least one well-characterized metabolite, thereby providing initial information for further characterization of a significant portion of the fecal metabolome. Prioritized features included known IBD-linked chemical families such as bile acids and short-chain fatty acids, and less-explored bilirubin, polyamine, and vitamin derivatives, and other microbial products. One of these, nicotinamide riboside, reduced colitis scores in DSS-treated mice. The method, MACARRoN, is generalizable with the potential to improve microbial community characterization and provide therapeutic candidates.},
}
@article {pmid38466102,
year = {2024},
author = {Cheng, G and Westerholm, M and Schnürer, A},
title = {Complete genome sequence of Citroniella saccharovorans DSM 29873, isolated from human fecal sample.},
journal = {Microbiology resource announcements},
volume = {13},
number = {4},
pages = {e0001524},
pmid = {38466102},
issn = {2576-098X},
support = {2018-01341//Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas (Formas)/ ; 948138//EC | European Research Council (ERC)/ ; 2018-01341//Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas (Formas)/ ; },
abstract = {A complete genome was recovered from Citroniella saccharovorans, strain DSM 29873, using Oxford Nanopore Technologies. The genome assembly contains 1,413,868 bp with 30.23% G+C content. The species belongs to the family Peptoniphilaceae and, as of yet, is the only cultivated representative of the genus Citroniella.},
}
@article {pmid38465728,
year = {2024},
author = {Michán-Doña, A and Vázquez-Borrego, MC and Michán, C},
title = {Are there any completely sterile organs or tissues in the human body? Is there any sacred place?.},
journal = {Microbial biotechnology},
volume = {17},
number = {3},
pages = {e14442},
pmid = {38465728},
issn = {1751-7915},
support = {PRYES223170ARJO//Fundación Científica Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer/ ; PI22/01213//Instituto de Salud Carlos III/ ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Human Body ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; *Infertility ; DNA, Ribosomal/genetics ; RNA/genetics ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome comprises an ample set of organisms that inhabit and interact within the human body, contributing both positively and negatively to our health. In recent years, several research groups have described the presence of microorganisms in organs or tissues traditionally considered as 'sterile' under healthy and pathological conditions. In this sense, microorganisms have been detected in several types of cancer, including those in 'sterile' organs. But how can the presence of microorganisms be detected? In most studies, 16S and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequencing has led to the identification of prokaryotes and fungi. However, a major limitation of this technique is that it cannot distinguish between living and dead organisms. RNA-based methods have been proposed to overcome this limitation, as the shorter half-life of the RNA would identify only the transcriptionally active microorganisms, although perhaps not all the viable ones. In this sense, metaproteomic techniques or the search for molecular metabolic signatures could be interesting alternatives for the identification of living microorganisms. In summary, new technological advances are challenging the notion of 'sterile' organs in our body. However, to date, evidence for a structured living microbiome in most of these organs is scarce or non-existent. The implementation of new technological approaches will be necessary to fully understand the importance of the microbiome in these organs, which could pave the way for the development of a wide range of new therapeutic strategies.},
}
@article {pmid38464031,
year = {2024},
author = {Zolfo, M and Silverj, A and Blanco-Míguez, A and Manghi, P and Rota-Stabelli, O and Heidrich, V and Jensen, J and Maharjan, S and Franzosa, E and Menni, C and Visconti, A and Pinto, F and Ciciani, M and Huttenhower, C and Cereseto, A and Asnicar, F and Kitano, H and Yamada, T and Segata, N},
title = {Discovering and exploring the hidden diversity of human gut viruses using highly enriched virome samples.},
journal = {bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {38464031},
issn = {2692-8205},
support = {R01 CA230551/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; U01 CA230551/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {Viruses are an abundant and crucial component of the human microbiome, but accurately discovering them via metagenomics is still challe