Project description:Analysis of breast cancer survivors' gut microbiota after lifestyle intervention, during the COVID-19 lockdown, by 16S sequencing of fecal samples.
Project description:Gut microbiome research is rapidly moving towards the functional characterization of the microbiota by means of shotgun meta-omics. Here, we selected a cohort of healthy subjects from an indigenous and monitored Sardinian population to analyze their gut microbiota using both shotgun metagenomics and shotgun metaproteomics. We found a considerable divergence between genetic potential and functional activity of the human healthy gut microbiota, in spite of a quite comparable taxonomic structure revealed by the two approaches. Investigation of inter-individual variability of taxonomic features revealed Bacteroides and Akkermansia as remarkably conserved and variable in abundance within the population, respectively. Firmicutes-driven butyrogenesis (mainly due to Faecalibacterium spp.) was shown to be the functional activity with the higher expression rate and the lower inter-individual variability in the study cohort, highlighting the key importance of the biosynthesis of this microbial by-product for the gut homeostasis. The taxon-specific contribution to functional activities and metabolic tasks was also examined, giving insights into the peculiar role of several gut microbiota members in carbohydrate metabolism (including polysaccharide degradation, glycan transport, glycolysis and short-chain fatty acid production). In conclusion, our results provide useful indications regarding the main functions actively exerted by the gut microbiota members of a healthy human cohort, and support metaproteomics as a valuable approach to investigate the functional role of the gut microbiota in health and disease.
Project description:We discovered an enrichment of linoleic acid, ether lipid, glycerolipid, and glycerophospholipid metabolism among the SARS-CoV-2 infected group, suggesting a link to SARS-CoV-2 entry and replication in host cells.The identified differences provide a new insight to enrich our understanding of SARS-CoV-2-related changes in gut microbiota, their metabolic capabilities, and potential screening biomarkers linked to COVID-19 disease severity.
Project description:Analysis of COVID-19 hospitalized patients, with different kind of symptoms, by human rectal swabs collection and 16S sequencing approach.
Project description:Background: Gastrointestinal symptoms in COVID-19 patients suggests that the gut may present a viral target organ. Disease development and severity is dependent on viral interaction with two cell surface human proteins, ACE2 and TMPRSS2, and on antiviral response which may lead to systemic hyperinflammatory syndrome and multiorgan dysfunction Understanding the host response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the pathology of the disease will be greatly enhanced by the development of appropriate animal models. However, the virus does not grow in wild type mice and only induced mild disease in transgenic animals expressing human ACE2. Results: As there are known differences between immune response in laboratory mice and humans, the response of human gut developed as xenografts and host mouse gut following systemic LPS injections as a hyperinflammation model system was evaluated. Gene set enrichment analysis of significantly upregulated human and mouse genes revealed that a number of inflammatory and immune response pathways are commonly regulated in the two species. However, species differences were also observed. The analysis shows that the intestinal immune response to inflammation in humans and mice are generally very similar. However, certain human-specific diseases, such as COVID-19, can only be successfully studied in an experimental model of human tissue, such as the gut xenograft