Project description:Opioid analgesics are frequently prescribed in the United States and worldwide. However, serious side effects such as addiction, immunosuppression and gastrointestinal symptoms limit long term use. In the current study using a chronic morphine-murine model a longitudinal approach was undertaken to investigate the role of morphine modulation of gut microbiome as a mechanism contributing to the negative consequences associated with opioids use. The results revealed a significant shift in the gut microbiome and metabolome within 24 hours following morphine treatment when compared to placebo. Morphine induced gut microbial dysbiosis exhibited distinct characteristic signatures profiles including significant increase in communities associated with pathogenic function, decrease in communities associated with stress tolerance. Collectively, these results reveal opioids-induced distinct alteration of gut microbiome, may contribute to opioids-induced pathogenesis. Therapeutics directed at these targets may prolong the efficacy long term opioid use with fewer side effects.
Project description:Association of gut microbiota and gut metabolites and adverse outcomes in Biliary Atresia - a longitudinal prospective cohort controlled study
Project description:Gut dysbiosis and host genetics are implicated as causative factors in inflammatory bowel disease, yet mechanistic insights are lacking. Longitudinal analysis of ulcerative colitis patients following total colectomy with ileal anal anastomosis (IPAA) where >50% develop pouchitis, offers a unique setting to examine cause vs. effect. To recapitulate human IPAA, we employed a mouse model of surgically-created blind self-filling (SFL) and self-emptying (SEL) ileal loops. SFL exhibit fecal stasis due to directional peristalsis motility oriented towards away from the loop end, whereas SEL remain empty. In wild type mice, SFL, but not SEL, develop pouch-like microbial communities without accompanying active inflammation. However, in genetically susceptible IL-10-/- deficient mice, SFL, but not SEL, exhibit severe inflammation and mucosal transcriptomes resembling human pouchitis. Germ-free IL10-/- mice conventionalized with wild type SFL, but not SEL, microbiota, develop severe colitis. These data demonstrate an essential role for fecal stasis, gut dysbiosis, and genetic susceptibility and offer insights into human pouchitis and ulcerative colitis.
Project description:The product of dosage compensation in human females is the compacted inactive X chromosome (Xi). Here we show that loss of SET domain bifurcated 1 (SETDB1) results in decompaction of the Xi territory coupled with reactivation on the Xi of a powerful enhancer within the 1.4 Mb interleukin-1 receptor accessory protein like 1 (IL1RAPL1) gene at Xp21.2. The enhancer is centrally located in a 0.5 Mb region corresponding to the 3’ third of the IL1RAPL1 locus that transitions from a heterochromatic territory to a euchromatic configuration on the Xi in the absence of SETDB1. This same region showing chromatin instability is part of a common chromosome fragile site that is frequently deleted or rearranged in patients afflicted with intellectual disability and other neurological ailments. Immediately adjacent to the enhancer is an ERVL-MaLR element that drives bi-directional transcription of novel long sense and antisense transcripts. Deletion of the enhancer from the Xa (but not Xi), resulted in detection of bi-directional expression from the Xi coupled with decompaction of the chromosome territory, supporting a critical role for SETDB1 in maintaining this interval in a silent state to facilitate Xi compaction.
Project description:To gain insights into the molecular mechanisms underpinning the reversible, bi-directional CD138- Pre-PC and CD138+ PC transition we subjected highly purified (>99%) Pre-PC - PC pairs from 9 patients to global mRNA expression profiling