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Field evaluation of the gut microbiome composition of pre-school and school-aged children in Tha Song Yang, Thailand, following oral MDA for STH infections.

ABSTRACT: Soil-transmitted helminths, such as roundworms (Ascaris lumbricoides), whipworms (Trichuris trichiura) and hookworms (Necator americanus and Ancylostoma spp.), are gastrointestinal parasites that occur predominantly in low- to middle-income countries worldwide and disproportionally impact children. Depending on the STH species, health status of the host and infection intensity, direct impacts of these parasites include malnutrition, anaemia, diarrhoea and physical and cognitive stunting. The indirect consequences of these infections are less well understood. Specifically, gastrointestinal infections may exert acute or chronic impacts on the natural gut microfauna, leading to increased risk of post-infectious gastrointestinal disorders, and reduced gut and overall health through immunomodulating mechanisms. To date a small number of preliminary studies have assessed the impact of helminths on the gut microbiome, but these studies are conflicting. Here, we assessed STH burden in 273 pre-school and school-aged children in Tha Song Yang district, Tak province, Thailand receiving annual oral mebendazole treatment. Ascaris lumbricoides (107/273) and Trichuris trichiura (100/273) were the most prevalent species and often occurred as co-infections (66/273). Ancylostoma ceylanicum was detected in a small number of children as well (n = 3). All of these infections were of low intensity (<4,999 or 999 eggs per gram for Ascaris and Trichuris respectively). Using this information, we characterised the baseline gut microbiome profile and investigated acute STH-induced alterations, comparing infected with uninfected children at the time of sampling. We found no difference between these groups in bacterial alpha-diversity, but did observe differences in beta-diversity and specific differentially abundant OTUs, including increased Akkermansia muciniphila and Bacteroides coprophilus, and reduced Bifidobacterium adolescentis, each of which have been previously implicated in STH-associated changes in the gut microfauna.

SUBMITTER: Stracke K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8341710 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundOne challenge in moving towards malaria elimination is cross-border malaria infection. The implemented measures to prevent and control malaria re-introduction across the demarcation line between two countries require intensive analyses and interpretation of data from both sides, particularly in border areas, to make correct and timely decisions. Reliable maps of projected malaria distribution can help to direct intervention strategies. In this study, a Bayesian spatiotemporal analytic model was proposed for analysing and generating aggregated malaria risk maps based on the exceedance probability of malaria infection in the township-district adjacent to the border between Myanmar and Thailand. Data of individual malaria cases in Hlaingbwe Township and Tha-Song-Yang District during 2016 were extracted from routine malaria surveillance databases. Bayesian zero-inflated Poisson model was developed to identify spatial and temporal distributions and associations between malaria infections and risk factors. Maps of the descriptive statistics and posterior distribution of predicted malaria infections were also developed.ResultsA similar seasonal pattern of malaria was observed in both Hlaingbwe Township and Tha-Song-Yang District during the rainy season. The analytic model indicated more cases of malaria among males and individuals aged???15 years. Mapping of aggregated risk revealed consistently high or low probabilities of malaria infection in certain village tracts or villages in interior parts of each country, with higher probability in village tracts/villages adjacent to the border in places where it could easily be crossed; some border locations with high mountains or dense forests appeared to have fewer malaria cases. The probability of becoming a hotspot cluster varied among village tracts/villages over the year, and some had close to no cases all year.ConclusionsThe analytic model developed in this study could be used for assessing the probability of hotspot cluster, which would be beneficial for setting priorities and timely preventive actions in such hotspot cluster areas. This approach might help to accelerate reaching the common goal of malaria elimination in the two countries.

Project description:BackgroundCurrent guidelines and targets for soil-transmitted helminth (STH) control focus on school-based deworming for school-age children, given the high risk of associated morbidity in this age group. However, expanding deworming to all age groups may achieve improved STH control among both the community in general and school-age children, by reducing their risk of reinfection. This trial aims to compare school-based targeted deworming with community-wide mass deworming in terms of impact on STH infections among school-age children.MethodsThe CoDe-STH (Community Deworming against STH) trial is a cluster-randomised controlled trial (RCT) in 64 primary schools in Dak Lak province, Vietnam. The control arm will receive one round of school-based targeted deworming with albendazole, while in the intervention arm, community-wide mass deworming with albendazole will be implemented alongside school-based deworming. Prevalence of STH infections will be measured in school-age children at baseline and 12?months following deworming. The primary outcome is hookworm prevalence in school-age children at 12?months, by quantitative PCR. Analysis will be intention-to-treat, with outcomes compared between study arms using generalised linear and non-linear mixed models. Additionally, cost-effectiveness of mass and targeted deworming will be calculated and compared, and focus group discussions and interviews will be used to assess acceptability and feasibility of deworming approaches. Individual based stochastic models will be used to predict the impact of mass and targeted deworming strategies beyond the RCT timeframe to assess the likelihood of parasite population 'bounce-back' if deworming is ceased due to low STH prevalence.DiscussionThe first large-scale trial comparing mass and targeted deworming for STH control in South East Asia will provide key information for policy makers regarding the optimal design of STH control programs.Trial registrationACTRN12619000309189 .

Project description:BackgroundEffective standardisation of methodologies to analyse the microbiome is essential to the entire microbiome community. Despite the microbiome field being established for over a decade, there are no accredited or certified reference materials available to the wider community. In this study, we describe the development of the first reference reagents produced by the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) for microbiome analysis by next-generation sequencing. These can act as global working standards and will be evaluated as candidate World Health Organization International Reference Reagents.ResultsWe developed the NIBSC DNA reference reagents Gut-Mix-RR and Gut-HiLo-RR and a four-measure framework for evaluation of bioinformatics tool and pipeline bias. Using these reagents and reporting system, we performed an independent evaluation of a variety of bioinformatics tools by analysing shotgun sequencing and 16S rRNA sequencing data generated from the Gut-Mix-RR and Gut-HiLo-RR. We demonstrate that key measures of microbiome health, such as diversity estimates, are largely inflated by the majority of bioinformatics tools. Across all tested tools, biases were present, with a clear trade-off occurring between sensitivity and the relative abundance of false positives in the final dataset. Using commercially available mock communities, we investigated how the composition of reference reagents may impact benchmarking studies. Reporting measures consistently changed when the same bioinformatics tools were used on different community compositions. This was influenced by both community complexity and taxonomy of species present. Both NIBSC reference reagents, which consisted of gut commensal species, proved to be the most challenging for the majority of bioinformatics tools tested. Going forward, we recommend the field uses site-specific reagents of a high complexity to ensure pipeline benchmarking is fit for purpose.ConclusionsIf a consensus of acceptable levels of error can be agreed on, widespread adoption of these reference reagents will standardise downstream gut microbiome analyses. We propose to do this through a large open-invite collaborative study for multiple laboratories in 2020. Video Abstract.

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Field evaluation of the gut microbiome composition of pre-school and school-aged children in Tha Song Yang, Thailand, following oral MDA for STH infections.

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