Project description:Morphine causes microbial dysbiosis. In this study we focused on restoration of native microbiota in morphine treated mice and looked at the extent of restoration and immunological consequences of this restoration. Fecal transplant has been successfully used clinically, especially for treating C. difficile infection2528. With our expanding knowledge of the central role of microbiome in maintenance of host immune homeostasis17, fecal transplant is gaining importance as a therapy for indications resulting from microbial dysbiosis. There is a major difference between fecal transplant being used for the treatment of C. difficile infection and the conditions described in our studies. The former strategy is based on the argument that microbial dysbiosis caused by disproportionate overgrowth of a pathobiont can be out-competed by re-introducing the missing flora by way of a normal microbiome transplant. This strategy is independent of host factors and systemic effects on the microbial composition. Here, we show that microbial dysbiosis caused due to morphine can be reversed by transplantation of microbiota from the placebo-treated animals.
Project description:Autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, are associated with significant gut microbiota dysbiosis. Here we show that remodelling of 24h rhythms within the gut during inflammatory joint disease drives profound changes in the microbiome and gut permeability.
Project description:The mammalian gastrointestinal tract contains a diverse ecosystem of microbial species collectively making up the gut microbiome. Emerging evidence highlights a critical relationship between gut microbiota and neurocognitive development. Consumption of unhealthy yet palatable dietary factors associated with obesity and metabolic dysfunction (e.g., saturated fat, added sugar) produces microbiota dysbiosis and negatively impacts neurocognitive function, particularly when consumed during early life developmental periods. Here we explore whether excessive early life consumption of added sugars negatively impacts neurocognitive development via the gut microbiome. Using a rodent model of habitual sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption during the adolescent stage of development, we first show that excessive early life sugar intake impairs hippocampal-dependent memory function when tested during adulthood while preserving other neurocognitive domains. Gut microbiome genomic sequencing analyses reveal that early life SSB consumption alters the abundance of various bacterial populations, including elevations in operational taxonomic units within the genus Parabacteroides (P. distasonis and P. johnsonii) whose abundance negatively correlated with memory task performance. Additional results reveal that in vivo Parabacteroides enrichment of cultured P. distasonis and P. johnsonii bacterial species in adolescent rats severely impairs memory function during adulthood. Hippocampus transcriptome analyses identify gene expression alterations in neurotransmitter synaptic signaling, intracellular kinase signaling, metabolic function, neurodegenerative disease, and dopaminergic synaptic signaling-associated pathways as potential mechanisms linking microbiome outcomes with memory impairment. Collectively these results identify microbiota dysbiosis as a mechanism through which early life unhealthy dietary patterns negatively impact neurocognitive outcomes.
Project description:Persistent mucosal inflammation and microbial infection are characteristic of Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS). Though mucosal microbiota dysbiosis is a characteristic feature of other chronic inflammatory diseases, the relationship between sinus microbiota composition and CRS is unknown. Here we demonstrate, using comparative microbiome profiling of a cohort of CRS patients and healthy subjects, that the sinus microbiota of CRS patients exhibit significantly reduced bacterial diversity. Characteristic of this community collapse is the depletion of multiple, phylogenetically distinct, Lactic Acid Bacteria and the concomitant increase in relative abundance of a single species, Corynebacterium tuberculostearicum. Recapitulating the conditions observed in our human cohort in a murine model confirmed the pathogenic potential of C. tuberculostearicum and the critical necessity for a replete mucosal microbiota to protect against this species. Moreover, we provide evidence that Lactobacillus sakei, identified from our comparative microbiome analyses as a potentially protective species, affords defense against C. tuberculostearicum sinus infection, even in the context of a depleted sinus bacterial community. These studies demonstrate that sinus mucosal health is highly dependent on the composition of the resident microbiota, and identifies a new sino-pathogen and a strong bacterial candidate for therapeutic intervention. A total of 14 samples were profiled for microbiome composition: 7 from non-sinusitis patients, and 7 from patients with clinically diagnosed chronic sinusitis.
Project description:Gut microbiota dysbiosis characterizes systemic metabolic alteration, yet its causality is debated. To address this issue, we transplanted antibiotic-free conventional wild-type mice with either dysbiotic (“obese”) or eubiotic (“lean”) gut microbiota and fed them either a NC or a 72%HFD. We report that, on NC, obese gut microbiota transplantation reduces hepatic gluconeogenesis with decreased hepatic PEPCK activity, compared to non-transplanted mice. Of note, this phenotype is blunted in conventional NOD2KO mice. By contrast, lean microbiota transplantation did not affect hepatic gluconeogenesis. In addition, obese microbiota transplantation changed both gut microbiota and microbiome of recipient mice. Interestingly, hepatic gluconeogenesis, PEPCK and G6Pase activity were reduced even once mice transplanted with the obese gut microbiota were fed a 72%HFD, together with reduced fed glycaemia and adiposity compared to non-transplanted mice. Notably, changes in gut microbiota and microbiome induced by the transplantation were still detectable on 72%HFD. Finally, we report that obese gut microbiota transplantation may impact on hepatic metabolism and even prevent HFD-increased hepatic gluconeogenesis. Our findings may provide a new vision of gut microbiota dysbiosis, useful for a better understanding of the aetiology of metabolic diseases. all livers are from NC-fed mice only.
Project description:Pancreatic cancer is the 3rd most prevalent cause of cancer related deaths in United states alone, with over 55000 patients being diagnosed in 2019 alone and nearly as many succumbing to it. Late detection, lack of effective therapy and poor understanding of pancreatic cancer systemically contributes to its poor survival statistics. Obesity and high caloric intake linked co-morbidities like type 2 diabetes (T2D) have been attributed as being risk factors for a number of cancers including pancreatic cancer. Studies on gut microbiome has shown that lifestyle factors as well as diet has a huge effect on the microbial flora of the gut. Further, modulation of gut microbiome has been seen to contribute to effects of intensive insulin therapy in mice on high fat diet. In another study, abnormal gut microbiota was reported to contribute to development of diabetes in Db/Db mice. Recent studies indicate that microbiome and microbial dysbiosis plays a role in not only the onset of disease but also in its outcome. In colorectal cancer, Fusobacterium has been reported to promote therapy resistance. Certain intra-tumoral bacteria have also been shown to elicit chemo-resistance by metabolizing anti-cancerous agents. In pancreatic cancer, studies on altered gut microbiome have been relatively recent. Microbial dysbiosis has been observed to be associated with pancreatic tumor progression. Modulation of microbiome has been shown to affect response to anti-PD1 therapy in this disease as well. However, most of the studies in pancreatic cancer and microbiome have remained focused om immune modulation. In the current study, we observed that in a T2D mouse model, the microbiome changed significantly as the hyperglycemia developed in these animals. Our results further showed that, tumors implanted in the T2D mice responded poorly to Gemcitabine/Paclitaxel (Gem/Pac) standard of care compared to those in the control group. A metabolomic reconstruction of the WGS of the gut microbiota further revealed that an enrichment of bacterial population involved in drug metabolism in the T2D group.
Project description:In the presented study, in order to unravel gut microbial community multiplicity and the influence of maternal milk nutrients (i.e., IgA) on gut mucosal microbiota onset and shaping, a mouse GM (MGM) was used as newborn study model to discuss genetic background and feeding modulation on gut microbiota in term of symbiosis, dysbiosis and rebiosis maintenance during early gut microbiota onset and programming after birth. Particularly, a bottom-up shotgun metaproteomic approach, combined with a computational pipeline, has been compred with a culturomics analysis of mouse gut microbiota, obtained by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (MS).
Project description:Enterococcus faecalis is a natural inhabitant of the human gastrointestinal tract. In a healthy physiological state of the gut (eubiosis), E. faecalis is a subdominant species in the intestinal microbiota. When the intestinal homeostasis is disrupted (dysbiosis), it becomes dominant species and can cause infections. The taurocholate bile acid (TCA) becomes prominent during dysbiosis. This experiment aimed to better understand how E. faecalis adapts to TCA. We showed that TCA reprograms genes involved in the pool management of amino acids and nucleotides.
Project description:Colorectal cancer (CRC) is closely related to gut dysbiosis. We investigated the effects of imbalanced gut microbiota on the progression of intestinal adenoma in Apcmin/+ mice model using fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). Administration of feces from CRC patients increased tumor proliferation and decreased apoptosis in tumor cells. Abnormal expression of genes related to Wnt-protein binding and lipid metabolic process was observed.