Medicine in Microecology最新文献

Gut microbiota influences the development of brain and behaviors in patients with autism. Acupuncture therapy reportedly alleviates the symptoms of patients with autism and can regulate the gut microbiota of patients with a disease of the central nervous system via the gut microbiota-brain axis. However, whether acupuncture therapy influences the function and composition of the gut microbiota in patients with autism remains unclear. Therefore, the present study was conducted using a valproic acid (VPA)-induced autism mouse model to investigate how acupuncture therapy influences the intestinal microbiota in terms of species diversity, composition, and function. Mice were treated with VPA to induce autism, and then divided into two groups: autism without treatment (ASD) and autism with manual acupuncture (ASD-MA). Mice in the ASD-MA group were treated with acupuncture once daily for four weeks. And behavior test was performed. Total bacterial DNA was extracted from stool samples to amplify and sequence the V3–V4 regions of 16 ​S rRNA. The alpha and beta diversity were analyzed, and changes in intestinal microbiota composition at various taxonomic levels were analyzed. The Morris water maze test results showed that the number of times the mice reached the platform was significantly higher in the ASD-MA group than in the ASD group. The results of nonmetric multidimensional scaling and principal coordinate analysis, which were used for beta diversity analyses, revealed significant differences in the microbial communities between the ASD and ASD-MA groups. The ASD-MA group mice had changed abundances of some specific microbiota, which were positively correlated with better cognitive performance. Accordingly, the gut microbiota, such as Flavonifractor, Akkermansia, Dorea, Ruminococcus, and Barnesiella, may affect cognitive function of VPA-induced autism mice after acupuncture treatment. In conclusion, the results revealed that acupuncture therapy could affect the composition of the gut microbiota in mice with VPA-induced autism-like behavior.

At the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, developing of new treatments to control the spread of infection and decrease morbidity and mortality are necessary. This prospective, open-label, case-control intervention study evaluates the impact of the oral intake of the probiotic yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus B0399 together with Lactobacillus rhamnosus CECT 30579, administered for 30 days, on the evolution of COVID-19 patients. Analysis of the digestive symptoms at the end of the follow up shows a benefit of the probiotic in the number of patients without pyrosis (100% vs 33.3%; p 0.05) and without abdominal pain (100% vs 62.5%; p 0.04). Results also show a better evolution when evaluating the difference in the overall number of patients without non-digestive symptoms at the end of the follow-up (41.7%, vs 13%; p 0.06). The percentage of improvement in the digestive symptoms (65% vs 88%; p value 0.06) and the global symptoms (digestive and non-digestive) (88.6% vs 70.8%; p value 0.03) is higher in the probiotic group. The probiotic was well tolerated with no relevant side effects and high adherence among patients. In conclusion, this coadjutant treatment seems to be promising, although results should be confirmed in new studies with higher number of patients.

Background

Increasing evidence suggests that the airway microbiome plays an important role in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). While oral bacterial lysates were found to reduce the number of acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD), little is known regarding the effects of bacterial lysates on COPD airway microbiome.

Methods

Sixteen patients with AECOPD were enrolled in this pilot, prospective study from November 2020 to June 2021. Patients were randomly divided into two groups to receive conventional treatment (n ​= ​8) or conventional treatment combined with bacterial lysates (n ​= ​8), respectively. Sputum samples were collected upon hospital admission and at discharge. Patients were followed-up over 6 months after discharge.

Results

The α-diversity was not significantly different pre- and post-treatment between the two treatment groups. There was a significantly greater weighted UniFrac distance between the paired pre- and post-treatment samples for patients receiving bacterial lysates compared to those receiving conventional treatment (P ​= ​0.021). Among all taxa, a significantly decrease of Pseudomonadaceae was observed for patients receiving bacterial lysates group, while this trend was non-significant for the conventional treatment group. The frequency of acute exacerbations during the 6-month follow-up period was significantly lower for patients receiving bacterial lysates compared to those receiving conventional treatment (P ​= ​0.042).

Conclusions

Bacterial lysates resulted in greater alteration of the airway microbiota compared to conventional treatment. Pseudomonadaceae was significantly decreased in sputum samples of patients receiving bacterial lysate, which may be a microbiome-related mechanism by which bacterial lysates reduce COPD exacerbations.

Cryptosporidium infection is a worldwide disease caused by intracellular protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium, which can disrupt gut epithelial barrier and contribute to mild or severe diarrhea. Emerging evidence demonstrates that fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an effective strategy for microbiota-related diseases by reconstructing gut microbiota. The new methodology of FMT depending on automatic facilities and washing processes was coined as washed microbiota transplantation (WMT). Transendoscopic enteral tubing (TET) through mid-gut is a novel and safe way for WMTs and enteral nutrition. We report a patient with immune-mediated enteropathy (IME) induced by Cryptosporidium infection, presenting with severe diarrhea, malnutrition and electrolyte disorders. Endoscopy showed diffuse inflammatory polyps in the stomach, duodenum and colon. We adopted the step-up WMT strategy, which here refers to multiple WMTs in combination with enteral nutrition and thalidomide. The patient remained asymptomatic and gastrointestinal polyps gradually decreased among three years of follow-up. This case report highlights that step-up WMT strategy may be an alternative therapy for immune-mediated diseases resistant to standard treatment.

Thyroid associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) manifests as orbital adipose hyperplasia, leading to high intraocular pressure, severe pain, and blindness. The underlying factors that trigger the abnormal immune process in TAO remain unknown. Here, we aim to test the hypothesis thata microbiome exists in TAO adipose tissue and are associated with TAO. We combined 16S rRNA gene sequencing and Tyramide signal amplification-fluorescence in situ hybridization of the orbital fat samples (size of 1 ​cm∗1 ​cm∗0.5 ​cm) from 36 with TAO ophthalmic patients, including 36 with TAO and 38 non-TAO ophthalmic patients as controls. We also collected environmental samples to perform decontamination using source-tracking algorithms. Bacterial staining signals were observed in both TAO and control sections. 6.2% of the bacterial community from orbital fat passed stringent decontamination against environmental samples. We identified four microbiome types in orbital fat, one of which was exclusive to TAO patients. Similarly, we found a higher proportion of Pseudomonas in TAO, but a lower proportion of Enhydrobacter. Flavobacterium was positively correlated with chemosis. For the first time, we provide evidence for the presence of bacteria in orbital fat tissue which are associated with TAO. Whether this orbital fat microbiome plays a causal role in the pathogenesis and manifestation of TAO requires further investigation.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a multisystem genetic disease which affects numerous organs in the body. Patients with CF exhibit profound alterations in the gastrointestinal microbiome, characterised by an increase in pathogenic bacteria and reduction in beneficial commensal species, accompanied by intestinal inflammation. The proposed pathophysiology of these gastrointestinal changes is multifactorial, driven primarily by dysfunction of the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein, and secondarily by medications and the high-fat CF diet. Increasingly, the gastrointestinal microbiome is being recognised as an endocrine-like organ which regulates the function of multiple organs via direct transmission of microbes and metabolites, inflammatory pathways, immunological crosstalk, and other mechanisms. This article aims to review how the gut microbiome in CF may influence other affected organs, including the intestines, lungs (gut-lung axis), liver (gut-liver axis), bones (gut-bone axis), pancreas (gut-pancreas axis), and brain (gut-brain axis). Further research is required to better understand the potential role of the gut microbiome in CF multisystem disease, and the therapeutic utility of gut and multi-organ axes in CF.

Lung cancer is becoming one of the most detrimental cancers with the highest morbidity and mortality rate of all cancers, posing a significant burden for the global health system. Nonetheless, the therapeutic efficacy of traditional lung cancer therapies still remains relatively unsatisfying with varied responsiveness and unexpected adverse effects. Fortunately, studies have reported that an intimate relationship might exist between microbiota and lung carcinoma. Notably, microbial dysbiosis might result in changes in the metabolism, induction of immunosuppression, and recruitment of inflammatory factors, thereby driving lung carcinogenesis. Certain microbial strains were identified to be specifically enriched in the lung tumor beds, indicating their predictive role in lung cancer. Furthermore, the particular microbial composition was also proved to potentiate the outcomes of lung cancer therapies, suggesting that lung and gut microbiome were promising to be clinically applied for lung cancer therapy. In this review, we will comprehensively summarize the recent findings on how microbes mediate the initiation, progression, and treatment of lung cancer, illustrating the potential mechanisms and probing into the putative manipulation of microbiota to facilitate lung cancer treatments.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common gastrointestinal cancers. 90% patients in the early stages of colorectal cancer can survive at least 5 years. However, most patients are diagnosed at terminal stages due to insignificant symptoms in early times and the traumatic pathological diagnosis methods. Previous studies have reported that the gut microbiome differs between healthy and colorectal cancer patients, which opens a new door to non-invasive diagnostic methods. The key prerequisite for colorectal cancer detection using the gut microbiome is the identification of effective markers. In this mini-review, we summarized the existing approaches of colorectal cancer screening based on gut microbiome in experimental design, markers selection and identification methods, and also proposed potential solutions to colorectal cancer detection and prediction using the gut microbiome, which could potentially improve detection accuracy as well as reduce costs.

Human microbiome research is critical to understanding the causes and complications of non-communicable diseases. However, this research is primarily focused on the gut microbiota, which limits our understanding of how other microbiotas in the body further contribute or confound some observations. Further, investigations into other body sites are critical to understand how the immune system holistically interacts with the microbiome. By performing multi-site and multi-omics approaches, the human body can be considered as a system, with interacting parts. An appreciation for the relationships between an individual's distinct microbiomes, micro-environments, and the human host will likely provide advancements in preventing or treating non-communicable diseases.

The human body harbors a myriad of microbial communities with the highest concentration and diversity found within the intestine whose disturbance is associated with many diseases. The potential of gut microbiota modulation to confer health benefits has resulted in tremendous efforts of testing extrinsic materials, e.g., probiotics, prebiotics, diet modulation and fecal microbiota transplantation. Meanwhile, the assembly of gut microbiota follows its intrinsic rules, including host selective pressures, bacteria-bacteria interactions, fungi-bacteria interactions, and virus-bacteria interactions. Understanding how these intrinsic factors and mechanisms shape the indigenous gut microbiota can provide crucial knowledge to guide evidence-based microbiota modulation therapies. Hence, this review focuses on our current understanding of the gut microbiota assemblage shaped by host, resident bacteria, fungi as well as virus.