@article {pmid37237407,
year = {2023},
author = {Schamarek, I and Anders, L and Chakaroun, RM and Kovacs, P and Rohde-Zimmermann, K},
title = {The role of the oral microbiome in obesity and metabolic disease: potential systemic implications and effects on taste perception.},
journal = {Nutrition journal},
volume = {22},
number = {1},
pages = {28},
pmid = {37237407},
issn = {1475-2891},
abstract = {Obesity and its metabolic sequelae still comprise a challenge when it comes to understanding mechanisms, which drive these pandemic diseases. The human microbiome as a potential key player has attracted the attention of broader research for the past decade. Most of it focused on the gut microbiome while the oral microbiome has received less attention. As the second largest niche, the oral microbiome is associated with a multitude of mechanisms, which are potentially involved in the complex etiology of obesity and associated metabolic diseases. These mechanisms include local effects of oral bacteria on taste perception and subsequent food preference as well as systemic effects on adipose tissue function, the gut microbiome and systemic inflammation. This review summarizes a growing body of research, pointing towards a more prominent role of the oral microbiome in obesity and associated metabolic diseases than expected. Ultimately, our knowledge on the oral microbiome may support the development of new patient oriented therapeutic approaches inevitable to relieve the health burden of metabolic diseases and to reach long-term benefits in patients´ lives.},
}

@article {pmid37228387,
year = {2023},
author = {Fung, DLX and Li, X and Leung, CK and Hu, P},
title = {A self-knowledge distillation-driven CNN-LSTM model for predicting disease outcomes using longitudinal microbiome data.},
journal = {Bioinformatics advances},
volume = {3},
number = {1},
pages = {vbad059},
pmid = {37228387},
issn = {2635-0041},
abstract = {MOTIVATION: Human microbiome is complex and highly dynamic in nature. Dynamic patterns of the microbiome can capture more information than single point inference as it contains the temporal changes information. However, dynamic information of the human microbiome can be hard to be captured due to the complexity of obtaining the longitudinal data with a large volume of missing data that in conjunction with heterogeneity may provide a challenge for the data analysis.

RESULTS: We propose using an efficient hybrid deep learning architecture convolutional neural network-long short-term memory, which combines with self-knowledge distillation to create highly accurate models to analyze the longitudinal microbiome profiles to predict disease outcomes. Using our proposed models, we analyzed the datasets from Predicting Response to Standardized Pediatric Colitis Therapy (PROTECT) study and DIABIMMUNE study. We showed the significant improvement in the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve scores, achieving 0.889 and 0.798 on PROTECT study and DIABIMMUNE study, respectively, compared with state-of-the-art temporal deep learning models. Our findings provide an effective artificial intelligence-based tool to predict disease outcomes using longitudinal microbiome profiles from collected patients.

The data and source code can be accessed at https://github.com/darylfung96/UC-disease-TL.},
}

@article {pmid37228370,
year = {2023},
author = {Thijssen, M and Tacke, F and Van Espen, L and Cassiman, D and Naser Aldine, M and Nevens, F and Van Ranst, M and Matthijnssens, J and Pourkarim, MR},
title = {Plasma virome dynamics in chronic hepatitis B virus infected patients.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {14},
number = {},
pages = {1172574},
pmid = {37228370},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {The virome remains an understudied domain of the human microbiome. The role of commensal viruses on the outcome of infections with known pathogens is not well characterized. In this study we aimed to characterize the longitudinal plasma virome dynamics in chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infected patients. Eighty-five longitudinal plasma samples were collected from 12 chronic HBV infected individuals that were classified in the four stages of HBV infection. The virome was characterized with an optimized viral extraction protocol and deep-sequenced on a NextSeq 2500 platform. The plasma virome was primarily composed of members of the Anello- Flavi-, and Hepadnaviridae (HBV) families. The virome structure and dynamics did not correlate with the different stages of chronic HBV infection nor with the administration of antiviral therapy. We observed a higher intrapersonal similarity of viral contigs. Genomic analysis of viruses observed in multiple timepoint demonstrated the presence of a dynamic community. This study comprehensively assessed the blood virome structure in chronic HBV infected individuals and provided insights in the longitudinal development of this viral community.},
}

@article {pmid37224760,
year = {2023},
author = {Dixon, R and Egan, S and Hughes, S and Chapman, B},
title = {The Sexome - A proof of concept study into microbial transfer between heterosexual couples after sexual intercourse.},
journal = {Forensic science international},
volume = {348},
number = {},
pages = {111711},
doi = {10.1016/j.forsciint.2023.111711},
pmid = {37224760},
issn = {1872-6283},
abstract = {The detection and recovery of male DNA post-assault is important in sexual assault investigations, particularly where an offender is unknown to the victim. The collection of DNA evidence often occurs when the female victim undergoes a forensic medical assessment. Analysis regularly results in mixed autosomal DNA profiles with both victim and perpetrator DNA, often making it difficult to interpret a male profile suitable for DNA database searching. While short tandem repeat (STR) profiling of the male Y-chromosome is often used to overcome this challenge, successful identification of an individual can be hindered by the paternal inheritance pattern of Y-STRs and small Y-STR databases. Human microbiome research has suggested that a person's microbial diversity is unique. Therefore microbiome analysis using Massively Parallel Sequencing (MPS) could serve as a useful adjunct method of perpetrator identification. This study aimed to identify bacteria taxa that were unique to each participant and compare the bacterial communities found on their genitals both pre- and post-coitus. Samples were collected from six male-female sexual partner pairs. Volunteers were asked to self-collect low vaginal (females) and penis shaft and glans (males) samples before and after intercourse. Samples were extracted using the PureLink™ Microbiome DNA Purification Kit. Extracted DNA underwent library preparation using primers targeting the V3-V4 hypervariable regions of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene (∼450 bp). Libraries were sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq® platform. From the sequence data derived, statistical analysis was performed to investigate if bacteria sequences could be used to infer contact between each male-female pairing. Unique bacterial signatures were detected in low frequencies (<1%) in male and female participants pre-coitus. The data indicated a significant disruption to microbial diversity post-coitus in all samples. A transfer of the female microbiome during intercourse was most significant. As expected, one couple who did not use a barrier contraceptive yielded the most microbial transfer and disruption to diversity demonstrating a proof-of-concept in the utility of microbiome interrogation for sexual assault cases. Further genomic analysis is needed to confirm species and subspecies classification of bacteria that may produce a unique microbial profile that could then be used to identify a specific individual.},
}

@article {pmid37219087,
year = {2023},
author = {Gao, Y and Li, D and Liu, YX},
title = {Microbiome research outlook: past, present, and future.},
journal = {Protein & cell},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/procel/pwad031},
pmid = {37219087},
issn = {1674-8018},
abstract = {With its critical role in human health and disease, the microbiome has transformed modern biology. Over the past few years, microbiome research has evolved rapidly, with microbiologists gradually shifting their focus from cataloging microorganisms in the human microbiome to understanding their functional roles and how they interact with the host. Here, we present the global trends in microbiome research and summarize the past and current work on microbiome published in Protein & Cell. In closing, we highlight some of the major advancements in microbiome research, including technical, practical, and conceptual advancements, that aim to enhance disease diagnosis, medicine development, and personalized interventions.},
}

@article {pmid37218407,
year = {2023},
author = {Renardy, M and Prokopienko, AJ and Maxwell, JR and Flusberg, DA and Makaryan, S and Selimkhanov, J and Vakilynejad, M and Subramanian, K and Wille, L},
title = {A quantitative systems pharmacology model describing the cellular kinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship for a live biotherapeutic product to support microbiome drug development.},
journal = {Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1002/cpt.2952},
pmid = {37218407},
issn = {1532-6535},
abstract = {Live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) are human microbiome therapies showing promise in the clinic for a range of diseases and conditions. Describing the kinetics and behavior of LBPs poses a unique modeling challenge since, unlike traditional therapies, LBPs can expand, contract, and colonize the host digestive tract. Here, we present a novel cellular kinetic-pharmacodynamic quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) model of an LBP. The model describes bacterial growth and competition, vancomycin effects, binding and unbinding to the epithelial surface, and production and clearance of butyrate as a therapeutic metabolite. The model is calibrated and validated to published data from healthy volunteers. Using the model, we simulate the impact of treatment dose, frequency, and duration as well as vancomycin pretreatment on butyrate production. This model enables model-informed drug development (MIDD) and can be used for future microbiome therapies to inform decision making around antibiotic pretreatment, dose selection, loading dose and dosing duration.},
}

@article {pmid37216534,
year = {2023},
author = {Barbour, A and Smith, L and Oveisi, M and Williams, M and Huang, RC and Marks, C and Fine, N and Sun, C and Younesi, F and Zargaran, S and Orugunty, R and Horvath, TD and Haidacher, SJ and Haag, AM and Sabharwal, A and Hinz, B and Glogauer, M},
title = {Discovery of phosphorylated lantibiotics with proimmune activity that regulate the oral microbiome.},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
volume = {120},
number = {22},
pages = {e2219392120},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2219392120},
pmid = {37216534},
issn = {1091-6490},
mesh = {Humans ; *Bacteriocins/pharmacology/chemistry ; Bacteria ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology/chemistry ; Peptides ; },
abstract = {Lantibiotics are ribosomally synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptides (RiPPs) that are produced by bacteria. Interest in this group of natural products is increasing rapidly as alternatives to conventional antibiotics. Some human microbiome-derived commensals produce lantibiotics to impair pathogens' colonization and promote healthy microbiomes. Streptococcus salivarius is one of the first commensal microbes to colonize the human oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract, and its biosynthesis of RiPPs, called salivaricins, has been shown to inhibit the growth of oral pathogens. Herein, we report on a phosphorylated class of three related RiPPs, collectively referred to as salivaricin 10, that exhibit proimmune activity and targeted antimicrobial properties against known oral pathogens and multispecies biofilms. Strikingly, the immunomodulatory activities observed include upregulation of neutrophil-mediated phagocytosis, promotion of antiinflammatory M2 macrophage polarization, and stimulation of neutrophil chemotaxis-these activities have been attributed to the phosphorylation site identified on the N-terminal region of the peptides. Salivaricin 10 peptides were determined to be produced by S. salivarius strains found in healthy human subjects, and their dual bactericidal/antibiofilm and immunoregulatory activity may provide new means to effectively target infectious pathogens while maintaining important oral microbiota.},
}

Humans
*Bacteriocins/pharmacology/chemistry
Bacteria
Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology/chemistry
Peptides

@article {pmid37215849,
year = {2023},
author = {Zhao, Z and Lin, J and Chen, S and Wang, X and Wang, H and Xu, G and Wang, J and Zhou, R and Huang, Z and Li, Y and Zhang, Y and Liu, X and Wang, P and Huang, M and Luo, Y and Yu, H},
title = {Clinical atlas of rectal cancer highlights the barriers and insufficient interventions underlying the unfavorable outcomes in older patients.},
journal = {Heliyon},
volume = {9},
number = {5},
pages = {e15966},
pmid = {37215849},
issn = {2405-8440},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Aging confers an increased risk of developing cancer, and the global burden of cancer is cumulating as human longevity increases. Providing adequate care for old patients with rectal cancer is challenging and complex.

METHOD: A total of 428 and 44,788 patients diagnosed with non-metastatic rectal cancer from a referral tertiary care center (SYSU cohort) and the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database (SEER cohort) were included. Patients were categorized into old (over 65 years) and young (aged 50-65 years) groups. An age-specific clinical atlas of rectal cancer was generated, including the demographic and clinicopathological features, molecular profiles, treatment strategies, and clinical outcomes.

RESULTS: Old and young patients were similar in clinicopathological risk factors and molecular features, including TNM stage, tumor location, tumor differentiation, tumor morphology, lymphovascular invasion, and perineural invasion. However, old patients had significantly worse nutritional status and more comorbidities than young patients. In addition, old age was independently associated with less systemic cancer treatment (adjusted odds ratio 0.294 [95% CI 0.184-0.463, P < 0.001]). We found that old patients had significantly worse overall survival (OS) outcomes in both SYSU (P < 0.001) and SEER (P < 0.001) cohorts. Moreover, the death and recurrence risk of old patients in the subgroup not receiving chemo/radiotherapy (P < 0.001 for OS, and P = 0.046 for time to recurrence [TTR]) reverted into no significant risk in the subgroup receiving chemo/radiotherapy.

CONCLUSIONS: Although old patients had similar tumor features to young patients, they had unfavorable survival outcomes associated with insufficient cancer care from old age. Specific trials with comprehensive geriatric assessment for old patients are needed to identify the optimal treatment regimens and improve unmet cancer care.

STUDY REGISTRATION: The study was registered on the research registry with the identifier of researchregistry 7635.},
}

@article {pmid37213403,
year = {2023},
author = {Lahtinen, P and Jalanka, J and Mattila, E and Tillonen, J and Bergman, P and Satokari, R and Arkkila, P},
title = {Fecal microbiota transplantation for the maintenance of remission in patients with ulcerative colitis: A randomized controlled trial.},
journal = {World journal of gastroenterology},
volume = {29},
number = {17},
pages = {2666-2678},
pmid = {37213403},
issn = {2219-2840},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Fecal microbial transplantation (FMT) is a promising new method for treating active ulcerative colitis (UC), but knowledge regarding FMT for quiescent UC is scarce.

AIM: To investigate FMT for the maintenance of remission in UC patients.

METHODS: Forty-eight UC patients were randomized to receive a single-dose FMT or autologous transplant via colonoscopy. The primary endpoint was set to the maintenance of remission, a fecal calprotectin level below 200 μg/g, and a clinical Mayo score below three throughout the 12-mo follow-up. As secondary endpoints, we recorded the patient's quality of life, fecal calprotectin, blood chemistry, and endoscopic findings at 12 mo.

RESULTS: The main endpoint was achieved by 13 out of 24 (54%) patients in the FMT group and by 10 out of 24 (41%) patients in the placebo group (log-rank test, P = 0.660). Four months after FMT, the quality-of-life scores decreased in the FMT group compared to the placebo group (P = 0.017). In addition, the disease-specific quality of life measure was higher in the placebo group than in the FMT group at the same time point (P = 0.003). There were no differences in blood chemistry, fecal calprotectin, or endoscopic findings among the study groups at 12 mo. The adverse events were infrequent, mild, and distributed equally between the groups.

CONCLUSION: There were no differences in the number of relapses between the study groups at the 12-mo follow-up. Thus, our results do not support the use of a single-dose FMT for the maintenance of remission in UC.},
}

@article {pmid37211280,
year = {2023},
author = {Chow, EWL and Mei Pang, L and Wang, Y},
title = {Impact of the host microbiota on fungal infections: new possibilities for intervention?.},
journal = {Advanced drug delivery reviews},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {114896},
doi = {10.1016/j.addr.2023.114896},
pmid = {37211280},
issn = {1872-8294},
abstract = {Many human fungal pathogens are opportunistic. They are primarily benign residents of the human body and only become infectious when the host's immunity and microbiome are compromised. Bacteria dominate the human microbiome, playing an essential role in keeping fungi harmless and acting as the first line of defense against fungal infection. The Human Microbiome Project, launched by NIH in 2007, has stimulated extensive investigation and significantly advanced our understanding of the molecular mechanisms governing the interaction between bacteria and fungi, providing valuable insights for developing future antifungal strategies by exploiting the interaction. This review summarizes recent progress in this field and discusses new possibilities and challenges. We must seize the opportunities presented by researching bacterial-fungal interplay in the human microbiome to address the global spread of drug-resistant fungal pathogens and the drying pipelines of effective antifungal drugs.},
}

@article {pmid37208436,
year = {2023},
author = {Winders, TM and Holman, DB and Schmidt, KN and Luecke, SM and Smith, DJ and Neville, BW and Dahlen, CR and Swanson, KC and Amat, S},
title = {Feeding hempseed cake alters the bovine gut, respiratory and reproductive microbiota.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {13},
number = {1},
pages = {8121},
pmid = {37208436},
issn = {2045-2322},
mesh = {Humans ; Cattle ; Animals ; Female ; Infant ; *Animal Feed/analysis ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; *Diet/veterinary ; Silage/analysis ; Reproduction ; Zea mays/chemistry ; Rumen ; },
abstract = {A growing number of studies have investigated the feasibility of utilizing hemp by-products as livestock feedstuffs; however, their impact on livestock microbiomes remains unexplored. Here, we evaluated the effects of feeding hempseed cake on the gastrointestinal, respiratory, and reproductive microbiota in beef heifers. Angus-crossbred heifers (19-months old, initial body weight = 494 ± 10 kg [SE]) were fed a corn-based finishing diet containing 20% hempseed cake as a substitute for 20% corn dried distillers' grains with solubles (DM basis; Control; n = 16/group) for 111 days until slaughter. Ruminal fluid and deep nasopharyngeal swabs (days 0, 7, 42, 70 and 98), and vaginal and uterine swabs (at slaughter) were collected, and the microbiota assessed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Diet affected the community structure of the ruminal (d 7-98; 0.06 ≤ R[2] ≤ 0.12; P < 0.05), nasopharyngeal (d 98; R[2] = 0.18; P < 0.001), and vaginal (R[2] = 0.06; P < 0.01) microbiota. Heifers fed hempseed cake had increased microbial diversity in the rumen, reduced microbial richness in the vagina, and greater microbial diversity and richness in the uterus. In addition to the distinct microbial communities in the rumen, nasopharynx, vagina and uterus, we identified 28 core taxa that were shared (≥ 60% of all samples) across these sampling locations. Feeding hempseed cake appeared to alter the bovine gut, respiratory and reproductive microbiota. Our results suggest that future research aiming to evaluate the use of hemp by-products in livestock diet should consider their impact on animal microbiome and microbiome mediated animal health and reproductive efficiency. Our findings also highlight the need for research evaluating the impact of hemp-associated food and personal care products on the human microbiome.},
}

Humans
Cattle
Animals
Female
Infant
*Animal Feed/analysis
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics
*Diet/veterinary
Silage/analysis
Reproduction
Zea mays/chemistry
Rumen

@article {pmid37205434,
year = {2023},
author = {Inglis, LK and Roach, MJ and Edwards, RA},
title = {Prophage rates in the human microbiome vary by body site and host health.},
journal = {bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {37205434},
abstract = {Phages integrated into a bacterial genome-called prophages-continuously monitor the health of the host bacteria to determine when to escape the genome, protect their host from other phage infections, and may provide genes that promote bacterial growth. Prophages are essential to almost all microbiomes, including the human microbiome. However, most human microbiome studies focus on bacteria, ignoring free and integrated phages, so we know little about how these prophages affect the human microbiome. We compared the prophages identified in 11,513 bacterial genomes isolated from human body sites to characterise prophage DNA in the human microbiome. Here, we show that prophage DNA comprised an average of 1-5% of each bacterial genome. The prophage content per genome varies with the isolation site on the human body, the health of the human, and whether the disease was symptomatic. The presence of prophages promotes bacterial growth and sculpts the microbiome. However, the disparities caused by prophages vary throughout the body.},
}

@article {pmid37204436,
year = {2023},
author = {Kodila, A and Franko, N and Sollner Dolenc, M},
title = {A review on immunomodulatory effects of BPA analogues.},
journal = {Archives of toxicology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {37204436},
issn = {1432-0738},
abstract = {Bisphenol A (BPA) is a known endocrine disruptor found in many consumer products that humans come into contact with on a daily basis. Due to increasing concerns about the safety of BPA and the introduction of new legislation restricting its use, industry has responded by adopting new, less studied BPA analogues that have similar polymer-forming properties. Some BPA analogues have already been shown to exhibit effects similar to BPA, for example, contributing to endocrine disruption through agonistic or antagonistic behaviour at various nuclear receptors such as estrogen (ER), androgen (AR), glucocorticoid (GR), aryl hydrocarbon (AhR), and pregnane X receptor (PXR). Since the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued a draft re-evaluation of BPA and drastically reduced the temporary tolerable daily intake (t-TDI) of BPA from 4 mg/kg body weight/day to 0.2 ng/kg body weight/day due to increasing concern about the toxic properties of BPA, including its potential to disrupt immune system processes, we conducted a comprehensive review of the immunomodulatory activity of environmentally abundant BPA analogues. The results of the review suggest that BPA analogues may affect both the innate and acquired immune systems and can contribute to various immune-mediated conditions such as hypersensitivity reactions, allergies, and disruption of the human microbiome.},
}

@article {pmid37202853,
year = {2023},
author = {Velsko, IM and Gallois, S and Stahl, R and Henry, AG and Warinner, C},
title = {High conservation of the dental plaque microbiome across populations with differing subsistence strategies and levels of market integration.},
journal = {Molecular ecology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1111/mec.16988},
pmid = {37202853},
issn = {1365-294X},
abstract = {Industrialization-including urbanization, participation in the global food chain and consumption of heavily processed foods-is thought to drive substantial shifts in the human microbiome. While diet strongly influences stool microbiome composition, the influence of diet on the oral microbiome is largely speculative. Multiple ecologically distinct surfaces in the mouth, each harbouring a unique microbial community, pose a challenge to assessing changes in the oral microbiome in the context of industrialization, as the results depend on the oral site under study. Here, we investigated whether microbial communities of dental plaque, the dense biofilm on non-shedding tooth surfaces, are distinctly different across populations with dissimilar subsistence strategies and degree of industrialized market integration. Using a metagenomic approach, we compared the dental plaque microbiomes of Baka foragers and Nzime subsistence agriculturalists in Cameroon (n = 46) with the dental plaque and calculus microbiomes of highly industrialized populations in North America and Europe (n = 38). We found that differences in microbial taxonomic composition between populations were minimal, with high conservation of abundant microbial taxa and no significant differences in microbial diversity related to dietary practices. Instead, we find that the major source of variation in dental plaque microbial species composition is related to tooth location and oxygen availability, which may be influenced by toothbrushing or other dental hygiene measures. Our results support that dental plaque, in contrast to the stool microbiome, maintains an inherent stability against ecological perturbations in the oral environment.},
}

@article {pmid37198426,
year = {2023},
author = {Benincà, E and Pinto, S and Cazelles, B and Fuentes, S and Shetty, S and Bogaards, JA},
title = {Wavelet clustering analysis as a tool for characterizing community structure in the human microbiome.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {13},
number = {1},
pages = {8042},
pmid = {37198426},
issn = {2045-2322},
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota ; Wavelet Analysis ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Microbial Consortia ; Cluster Analysis ; },
abstract = {Human microbiome research is helped by the characterization of microbial networks, as these may reveal key microbes that can be targeted for beneficial health effects. Prevailing methods of microbial network characterization are based on measures of association, often applied to limited sampling points in time. Here, we demonstrate the potential of wavelet clustering, a technique that clusters time series based on similarities in their spectral characteristics. We illustrate this technique with synthetic time series and apply wavelet clustering to densely sampled human gut microbiome time series. We compare our results with hierarchical clustering based on temporal correlations in abundance, within and across individuals, and show that the cluster trees obtained by using either method are significantly different in terms of elements clustered together, branching structure and total branch length. By capitalizing on the dynamic nature of the human microbiome, wavelet clustering reveals community structures that remain obscured in correlation-based methods.},
}

Humans
*Microbiota
Wavelet Analysis
*Gastrointestinal Microbiome
Microbial Consortia
Cluster Analysis

@article {pmid37191901,
year = {2023},
author = {Seidel, J and Magzamen, S and Wang, YH and Neujahr, V and Schaeffer, JW},
title = {Lessons from Dairy Farmers for Occupational Allergy and Respiratory Disease.},
journal = {Current allergy and asthma reports},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {1-15},
pmid = {37191901},
issn = {1534-6315},
support = {1R01OH012046-01-00/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States ; 5U54-OH008085/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Exposure to bioaerosols at dairies has long been associated with allergy, respiratory disease, and decreases in lung function. Recent advancements in exposure assessments have aided our understanding on the size distribution and composition of these bioaerosols, but investigations focusing solely on exposures may overlook important intrinsic factors impacting worker's susceptibility to disease.

RECENT FINDINGS: In our review, we discuss the most recent studies examining the exposures and genetic factors that contribute to occupational disease in dairy work. We also review more recent concerns in livestock work associated with zoonotic pathogens, antimicrobial resistant genes, and the role of the human microbiome. The studies highlighted in this review demonstrate the need for further research to better understand bioaerosol exposure-response relationships in the context of extrinsic and intrinsic factors, antibiotic-resistant genes, viral pathogens, and the human microbiome to help inform effective interventions that improve respiratory health among dairy farmers.},
}

@article {pmid37190067,
year = {2023},
author = {Lupu, VV and Adam Raileanu, A and Mihai, CM and Morariu, ID and Lupu, A and Starcea, IM and Frasinariu, OE and Mocanu, A and Dragan, F and Fotea, S},
title = {The Implication of the Gut Microbiome in Heart Failure.},
journal = {Cells},
volume = {12},
number = {8},
pages = {},
pmid = {37190067},
issn = {2073-4409},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; Dysbiosis/microbiology ; *Heart Failure ; *Microbiota ; Risk Factors ; },
abstract = {Heart failure is a worldwide health problem with important consequences for the overall wellbeing of affected individuals as well as for the healthcare system. Over recent decades, numerous pieces of evidence have demonstrated that the associated gut microbiota represent an important component of human physiology and metabolic homeostasis, and can affect one's state of health or disease directly, or through their derived metabolites. The recent advances in human microbiome studies shed light on the relationship between the gut microbiota and the cardiovascular system, revealing its contribution to the development of heart failure-associated dysbiosis. HF has been linked to gut dysbiosis, low bacterial diversity, intestinal overgrowth of potentially pathogenic bacteria and a decrease in short chain fatty acids-producing bacteria. An increased intestinal permeability allowing microbial translocation and the passage of bacterial-derived metabolites into the bloodstream is associated with HF progression. A more insightful understanding of the interactions between the human gut microbiome, HF and the associated risk factors is mandatory for optimizing therapeutic strategies based on microbiota modulation and offering individualized treatment. The purpose of this review is to summarize the available data regarding the influence of gut bacterial communities and their derived metabolites on HF, in order to obtain a better understanding of this multi-layered complex relationship.},
}

Humans
*Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology
Dysbiosis/microbiology
*Heart Failure
*Microbiota
Risk Factors

@article {pmid37189783,
year = {2023},
author = {Monticolo, M and Mucha, K and Foroncewicz, B},
title = {Lupus Nephritis and Dysbiosis.},
journal = {Biomedicines},
volume = {11},
number = {4},
pages = {},
pmid = {37189783},
issn = {2227-9059},
abstract = {Lupus nephritis (LN) is one of the most common and serious complications of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The risk factors for developing LN by SLE patients are not fully understood. They are considered to be a mix of genetic and environmental variables, one of them being dysbiosis, proposed recently to interfere with autoimmunity. As of yet, the relations between the human microbiome, its genetic determinants, individual variability and clinical consequences remain to be established. One of the major obstacles in studying them is the magnitude of confounders, such as diet, drugs, infections or antibiotics use. They also make comparison between the studies extremely complicated. We reviewed the available evidence for the interplay between microbiome, dysbiosis and mechanisms triggering the autoimmune responses and potentially contributing to LN development. One such mechanism is the stimulation of autoimmune responses by bacterial metabolites that can mimic autoantigens and cause antibody production. These mimicking microbial antigens seem to be a promising target for future interventions.},
}

@article {pmid37188642,
year = {2023},
author = {Stevens, E and Marco, M},
title = {Bacterial extracellular electron transfer in plant and animal ecosystems.},
journal = {FEMS microbiology reviews},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/femsre/fuad019},
pmid = {37188642},
issn = {1574-6976},
abstract = {Extracellular electron transfer (EET) is a bioelectrochemical process performed by electrochemically active bacteria (EAB) found in host-associated environments, including plant and animal ecosystems and fermenting plant- and animal-derived foods. Through direct or mediated electron transfer pathways, certain bacteria use EET to enhance ecological fitness with host-impacting effects. In the plant rhizosphere, electron acceptors support the growth of EAB such as members of the Geobacter, cable bacteria, and some clostridia with the capacity to influence iron and heavy metal uptake by plants. In animal microbiomes, EET is associated with diet-derived iron in the intestines of soil-dwelling termites, earthworms, and beetle larvae. EET is also associated with the colonization and metabolism of some bacteria in human and animal microbiomes, such as Streptococcus mutans in the mouth, Enterococcus faecalis and Listeria monocytogenes in the intestine, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the lungs. During the fermentation of plant tissues and bovine milk, lactic acid bacteria like Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Lactococcus lactis may use EET to increase their growth and food acidification, as well as decrease environmental oxidation-reduction potential. EET is thus likely an important metabolic pathway for host-associated bacteria and has implications for ecosystem function, health and disease, and biotechnological applications.},
}

@article {pmid37180436,
year = {2023},
author = {Che, Y and Wang, N and Ma, Q and Liu, J and Xu, Z and Li, Q and Wang, J and Sun, Y},
title = {Microbial characterization of the nasal cavity in patients with allergic rhinitis and non-allergic rhinitis.},
journal = {Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology},
volume = {13},
number = {},
pages = {1166389},
pmid = {37180436},
issn = {2235-2988},
mesh = {Humans ; *Rhinitis/diagnosis ; Nasal Cavity ; *Rhinitis, Allergic/metabolism ; Lactobacillus ; },
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Although recent studies have shown that the human microbiome is involved in the pathogenesis of allergic diseases, the impact of microbiota on allergic rhinitis (AR) and non-allergic rhinitis (nAR) has not been elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in the composition of the nasal flora in patients with AR and nAR and their role in the pathogenesis.

METHOD: From February to September 2022, 35 AR patients and 35 nAR patients admitted to Harbin Medical University's Second Affiliated Hospital, as well as 20 healthy subjects who underwent physical examination during the same period, were subjected to 16SrDNA and metagenomic sequencing of nasal flora.

RESULTS: The microbiota composition of the three groups of study subjects differs significantly. The relative abundance of Vibrio vulnificus and Acinetobacter baumanni in the nasal cavity of AR patients was significantly higher when compared to nAR patients, while the relative abundance of Lactobacillus murinus, Lactobacillus iners, Proteobacteria, Pseudomonadales, and Escherichia coli was lower. In addition, Lactobacillus murinus and Lacttobacillus kunkeei were also negatively correlated with IgE, while Lacttobacillus kunkeei was positively correlated with age. The relative distribution of Faecalibacterium was higher in moderate than in severe AR patients. According to KEGG functional enrichment annotation, ICMT(protein-S-isoprenylcysteine O-methyltransferase,ICMT) is an AR microbiota-specific enzyme that plays a role, while glycan biosynthesis and metabolism are more active in AR microbiota. For AR, the model containing Parabacteroides goldstemii, Sutterella-SP-6FBBBBH3, Pseudoalteromonas luteoviolacea, Lachnospiraceae bacterium-615, and Bacteroides coprocola had the highest the area under the curve (AUC), which was 0.9733(95%CI:0.926-1.000) in the constructed random forest prediction model. The largest AUC for nAR is 0.984(95%CI:0.949-1.000) for the model containing Pseudomonas-SP-LTJR-52, Lachnospiraceae bacterium-615, Prevotella corporis, Anaerococcus vaginalis, and Roseburia inulinivorans.

CONCLUSION: In conclusion, patients with AR and nAR had significantly different microbiota profiles compared to healthy controls. The results suggest that the nasal microbiota may play a key role in the pathogenesis and symptoms of AR and nAR, providing us with new ideas for the treatment of AR and nAR.},
}

Humans
*Rhinitis/diagnosis
Nasal Cavity
*Rhinitis, Allergic/metabolism
Lactobacillus

@article {pmid37178069,
year = {2023},
author = {Bracaglia, C and Marucci, G and Del Chierico, F and Russo, A and Pardeo, M and Pires Marafon, D and Quagliariello, A and Caiello, I and Rea, F and Fingerhutova, S and Insalaco, A and Prencipe, G and Dolezalova, P and De Benedetti, F and Putignani, L},
title = {Microbiota transplant to control inflammation in a patient with NLRC4 gain-of-function-induced disease.},
journal = {The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.jaci.2023.03.031},
pmid = {37178069},
issn = {1097-6825},
}

@article {pmid37181836,
year = {2022},
author = {Tochilina, AG and Belova, IV and Ilyicheva, TN and Marchenko, VY and Zhirnov, VA and Molodtsova, SB and Ikonnikov, AV and Muhkina, IV and Blagonravova, AS and Soloveva, IV},
title = {Genome Features of Probiotic Bifidobacteria Determining Their Strain-Specific Properties.},
journal = {Sovremennye tekhnologii v meditsine},
volume = {14},
number = {5},
pages = {36-43},
pmid = {37181836},
issn = {2309-995X},
mesh = {Animals ; Dogs ; Humans ; Bifidobacterium/genetics ; *Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype ; *Influenza, Human ; Tryptophan ; *Probiotics/pharmacology ; *Bifidobacterium bifidum/physiology ; *Bacteriocins ; Antiviral Agents ; Folic Acid ; },
abstract = {UNLABELLED: The aim of the study was to analyze the genome features of the probiotic strains Bifidobacterium longum 379, Bifidobacterium bifidum 1, and Bifidobacterium bifidum 791 and study their antiviral activity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Whole genome sequencing of three strains of bifidobacteria was performed on the MiSeq platform (Illumina Inc., USA). The genomes were annotated using the Prokka v. 1.11 utility and RAST genomic server. The individual genetic determinants were searched using the ResFinder 3.2, PathogenFinder, PlasmidFinder, RAST, and Bagel 4 software. The antiviral activity of the strains against influenza A viruses was studied using MDCK cells (Madin-Darby canine kidney cells), the epidemic strain of influenza A/Lipetsk/1V/2018 (H1N1 pdm09) (EPI_ISL_332798), the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus A/common gull/Saratov/1676/2018 (H5N6) strain (EPI_ISL_336925), and neutral red vital dye.

RESULTS: The genomes of all studied strains contained determinants responsible for utilization of carbohydrates of plant origin; the genes of key enzymes for the synthesis of tryptophan and folic acid are present in the genomes of B. longum 379 and B. bifidum 791. A feature of the B. bifidum 791 genome is the presence of determinants responsible for the synthesis of thermostable type I bacteriocins - flavucin and lasso peptide. The B. bifidum 791 strain was found to show pronounced antiviral activity against both the strains of influenza A, the supernatant of which suppressed viral replication in vitro up to a dilution of 1:8, and the cells inhibited viral reproduction up to a concentration of 6·106 CFU/ml.

CONCLUSION: The analysis of complete genomes of B. longum 379, B. bifidum 1, and B. bifidum 791 showed features that determine their strain-specific properties, the findings on which were previously made empirically based on indirect signs. In the genomes of B. longum 379 and B. bifidum 791 strains, in contrast to B. bifidum 1 strain, key enzymes for the synthesis of tryptophan and folic acid were found. These substances have an impact on the human body in many ways, including having a thymoleptic effect (reducing emotional stress, irritability, anxiety, eliminating lethargy, apathy, melancholy, anxiety) and regulating cognitive activity. The presence of determinants responsible for the synthesis of thermostable type I bacteriocins in the genome of B. bifidum 791 strain determines its pronounced antiviral activity.},
}

Animals
Dogs
Humans
Bifidobacterium/genetics
*Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype
*Influenza, Human
Tryptophan
*Probiotics/pharmacology
*Bifidobacterium bifidum/physiology
*Bacteriocins
Antiviral Agents
Folic Acid

@article {pmid37174009,
year = {2023},
author = {Munteanu, R and Feder, RI and Onaciu, A and Munteanu, VC and Iuga, CA and Gulei, D},
title = {Insights into the Human Microbiome and Its Connections with Prostate Cancer.},
journal = {Cancers},
volume = {15},
number = {9},
pages = {},
pmid = {37174009},
issn = {2072-6694},
abstract = {The human microbiome represents the diversity of microorganisms that live together at different organ sites, influencing various physiological processes and leading to pathological conditions, even carcinogenesis, in case of a chronic imbalance. Additionally, the link between organ-specific microbiota and cancer has attracted the interest of numerous studies and projects. In this review article, we address the important aspects regarding the role of gut, prostate, urinary and reproductive system, skin, and oral cavity colonizing microorganisms in prostate cancer development. Various bacteria, fungi, virus species, and other relevant agents with major implications in cancer occurrence and progression are also described. Some of them are assessed based on their values of prognostic or diagnostic biomarkers, while others are presented for their anti-cancer properties.},
}

@article {pmid37173453,
year = {2023},
author = {Baba, Y and Hara, Y and Toihata, T and Kosumi, K and Iwatsuki, M and Iwagami, S and Miyamoto, Y and Yoshida, N and Komohara, Y and Baba, H},
title = {Relationship between gut microbiome Fusobacterium nucleatum and LINE-1 methylation level in esophageal cancer.},
journal = {Esophagus : official journal of the Japan Esophageal Society},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {37173453},
issn = {1612-9067},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: We previously demonstrated the relationship of human microbiome Fusobacterium nucleatum with unfavorable clinical outcomes and inferior chemotherapeutic responses in esophageal cancer. Global DNA methylation is associated with the occurrence and development of various cancers. In our previous study, LINE-1 hypomethylation (i.e., global DNA hypomethylation) was associated with a poor prognosis in esophageal cancer. As the gut microbiota may play crucial roles in the DNA methylation of host cells, we hypothesized that F. nucleatum might influence LINE-1 methylation levels in esophageal cancer.

METHODS: We qualified the F. nucleatum DNA using a quantitative PCR assay and LINE-1 methylation via a pyrosequencing assay using formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens from 306 esophageal cancer patients.

RESULTS: Intratumoral F. nucleatum DNA was detected in 65 cases (21.2%). The LINE-1 methylation scores ranged from 26.9 to 91.8 (median = 64.8) in tumors. F. nucleatum DNA was related to the LINE-1 hypomethylation of tumor lesions in esophageal cancer (P < 0.0001). The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the area under the curve was 0.71 for F. nucleatum positivity. Finally, we found that the impact of F. nucleatum on clinical outcomes was not modified by LINE-1 hypomethylation (P for interaction = 0.34).

CONCLUSIONS: F. nucleatum alters genome-wide methylation levels in cancer cells, which may be one of the mechanisms by which F. nucleatum affects the malignant behavior of esophageal cancer.},
}

@article {pmid37173385,
year = {2023},
author = {Dave, A and Beyoğlu, D and Park, EJ and Idle, JR and Pezzuto, JM},
title = {Influence of grape consumption on the human microbiome.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {13},
number = {1},
pages = {7706},
pmid = {37173385},
issn = {2045-2322},
abstract = {Over the years, a substantial body of information has accumulated suggesting dietary consumption of grapes may have a positive influence on human health. Here, we investigate the potential of grapes to modulate the human microbiome. Microbiome composition as well as urinary and plasma metabolites were sequentially assessed in 29 healthy free-living male (age 24-55 years) and female subjects (age 29-53 years) following two-weeks of a restricted diet (Day 15), two-weeks of a restricted diet with grape consumption (equivalent to three servings per day) (Day 30), and four-weeks of restricted diet without grape consumption (Day 60). Based on alpha-diversity indices, grape consumption did not alter the overall composition of the microbial community, other than with the female subset based on the Chao index. Similarly, based on beta-diversity analyses, the diversity of species was not significantly altered at the three time points of the study. However, following 2 weeks of grape consumption, taxonomic abundance was altered (e.g., decreased Holdemania spp. and increased Streptococcus thermophiles), as were various enzyme levels and KEGG pathways. Further, taxonomic, enzyme and pathway shifts were observed 30 days following the termination of grape consumption, some of which returned to baseline and some of which suggest a delayed effect of grape consumption. Metabolomic analyses supported the functional significance of these alterations wherein, for example, 2'-deoxyribonic acid, glutaconic acid, and 3-hydroxyphenylacetic acid were elevated following grape consumption and returned to baseline following the washout period. Inter-individual variation was observed and exemplified by analysis of a subgroup of the study population showing unique patterns of taxonomic distribution over the study period. The biological ramifications of these dynamics remain to be defined. However, while it seems clear that grape consumption does not perturb the eubiotic state of the microbiome with normal, healthy human subjects, it is likely that shifts in the intricate interactive networks that result from grape consumption have physiological significance of relevance to grape action.},
}

@article {pmid37171860,
year = {2023},
author = {Snaith, AE and Dunn, SJ and Moran, RA and Newton, PN and Dance, DAB and Davong, V and Kuenzli, E and Kantele, A and Corander, J and McNally, A},
title = {The highly diverse plasmid population found in Escherichia coli colonizing travellers to Laos and its role in antimicrobial resistance gene carriage.},
journal = {Microbial genomics},
volume = {9},
number = {5},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1099/mgen.0.001000},
pmid = {37171860},
issn = {2057-5858},
abstract = {Increased colonization by antimicrobial-resistant organisms is closely associated with international travel. This study investigated the diversity of mobile genetic elements involved with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) gene carriage in extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli that colonized travellers to Laos. Long-read sequencing was used to reconstruct complete plasmid sequences from 48 isolates obtained from the daily stool samples of 23 travellers over a 3 week period. This method revealed a collection of 105 distinct plasmids, 38.1 % (n=40) of which carried AMR genes. The plasmids in this population were diverse, mostly unreported and included 38 replicon types, with F-type plasmids (n=23) the most prevalent amongst those carrying AMR genes. Fine-scale analysis of all plasmids identified numerous AMR gene contexts and emphasized the importance of IS elements, specifically members of the IS6/IS26 family, in the evolution of complex multidrug resistance regions. We found a concerning convergence of ESBL and colistin resistance determinants, with three plasmids from two different F-type lineages carrying bla CTX-M and mcr genes. The extensive diversity seen here highlights the worrying probability that stable new vehicles for AMR will evolve in E. coli populations that can disseminate internationally through travel networks.},
}

@article {pmid37171266,
year = {2023},
author = {Nagarajan, G and Govindan, R and Poomarimuthu, M and Andiappan, R and Elango, S and Maruthamuthu, S and Mariakuttikan, J and Kadiam, S},
title = {The microbiome and rheumatic heart disease: current knowledge and future perspectives.},
journal = {Acta cardiologica},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {1-9},
doi = {10.1080/00015385.2023.2207933},
pmid = {37171266},
issn = {1784-973X},
abstract = {Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a cardiovascular disease caused by an autoimmune response to group A Streptococcus (GAS) infection resulting in the damage of heart valves. RHD is the most commonly acquired heart disease among children and young adults with a global burden of over 40 million cases accounting for 306,000 deaths annually. Inflammation in the heart valves caused due to molecular mimicry between the GAS antigens and host cardiac proteins is facilitated by cytokines, cross-reactive antibodies and CD4[+] T cells. The complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors linked with erratic events leads to the loss of immunological tolerance and autoimmunity in RHD. Despite extensive research on the etiopathogenesis of RHD, the precise mechanism underpinning the initiation of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) to the progression of RHD still remains elusive. Mounting evidences support the contribution of the human microbiome in the development of several immune-mediated diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, Kawasaki disease, inflammatory bowel disease and type 1 diabetes. The microbiome and their metabolites could play a crucial role in the integrity of the epithelial barrier, development of the immune system, inflammation and differentiation of T cell subsets. Consequently, microbiome dysbiosis might result in autoimmunity by molecular mimicry, epitope spreading and bystander activation. This review discusses various aspects of the interaction between the microbiome and the immune system in order to reveal causative links relating dysbiosis and autoimmune diseases with special emphasis on RHD.},
}

@article {pmid37165188,
year = {2023},
author = {Shalon, D and Culver, RN and Grembi, JA and Folz, J and Treit, PV and Shi, H and Rosenberger, FA and Dethlefsen, L and Meng, X and Yaffe, E and Aranda-Díaz, A and Geyer, PE and Mueller-Reif, JB and Spencer, S and Patterson, AD and Triadafilopoulos, G and Holmes, SP and Mann, M and Fiehn, O and Relman, DA and Huang, KC},
title = {Profiling the human intestinal environment under physiological conditions.},
journal = {Nature},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {37165188},
issn = {1476-4687},
abstract = {The spatiotemporal structure of the human microbiome[1,2], proteome[3] and metabolome[4,5] reflects and determines regional intestinal physiology and may have implications for disease[6]. Yet, little is known about the distribution of microorganisms, their environment and their biochemical activity in the gut because of reliance on stool samples and limited access to only some regions of the gut using endoscopy in fasting or sedated individuals[7]. To address these deficiencies, we developed an ingestible device that collects samples from multiple regions of the human intestinal tract during normal digestion. Collection of 240 intestinal samples from 15 healthy individuals using the device and subsequent multi-omics analyses identified significant differences between bacteria, phages, host proteins and metabolites in the intestines versus stool. Certain microbial taxa were differentially enriched and prophage induction was more prevalent in the intestines than in stool. The host proteome and bile acid profiles varied along the intestines and were highly distinct from those of stool. Correlations between gradients in bile acid concentrations and microbial abundance predicted species that altered the bile acid pool through deconjugation. Furthermore, microbially conjugated bile acid concentrations exhibited amino acid-dependent trends that were not apparent in stool. Overall, non-invasive, longitudinal profiling of microorganisms, proteins and bile acids along the intestinal tract under physiological conditions can help elucidate the roles of the gut microbiome and metabolome in human physiology and disease.},
}

@article {pmid37163788,
year = {2023},
author = {Seyedsayamdost, MR and Clardy, J},
title = {Discovering functional small molecules in the gut microbiome.},
journal = {Current opinion in chemical biology},
volume = {75},
number = {},
pages = {102309},
doi = {10.1016/j.cbpa.2023.102309},
pmid = {37163788},
issn = {1879-0402},
abstract = {The human microbiome has emerged as a source of bacterially produced, functional small molecules that help regulate health and disease, and their discovery and annotation has become a popular research topic. Identifying these molecules provides an essential step in unraveling the molecular mechanisms underlying biological outcomes. The relevance of specific bacterial members of the microbiome has been demonstrated in a variety of correlative studies, and there are many possible paths from these correlations to the responsible metabolites. Herein, we summarize two studies that have recently identified gut microbiome metabolites that modulate immune responses or promote physical activity. Aside from the deep insights gained, these studies provide blueprints for successfully uncovering the molecules and mechanisms that control important physiological pathways.},
}

@article {pmid37161031,
year = {2023},
author = {Chmiel, JA and Stuivenberg, GA and Al, KF and Akouris, PP and Razvi, H and Burton, JP and Bjazevic, J},
title = {Vitamins as regulators of calcium-containing kidney stones - new perspectives on the role of the gut microbiome.},
journal = {Nature reviews. Urology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {37161031},
issn = {1759-4820},
abstract = {Calcium-based kidney stone disease is a highly prevalent and morbid condition, with an often complicated and multifactorial aetiology. An abundance of research on the role of specific vitamins (B6, C and D) in stone formation exists, but no consensus has been reached on how these vitamins influence stone disease. As a consequence of emerging research on the role of the gut microbiota in urolithiasis, previous notions on the contribution of these vitamins to urolithiasis are being reconsidered in the field, and investigation into previously overlooked vitamins (A, E and K) was expanded. Understanding how the microbiota influences host vitamin regulation could help to determine the role of vitamins in stone disease.},
}

@article {pmid37159872,
year = {2023},
author = {Golob, JL},
title = {Human Microbiomes and Disease for the Biomedical Data Scientist.},
journal = {Annual review of biomedical data science},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1146/annurev-biodatasci-020722-043017},
pmid = {37159872},
issn = {2574-3414},
abstract = {The human microbiome is complex, variable from person to person, essential for health, and related to both the risk for disease and the efficacy of our treatments. There are robust techniques to describe microbiota with high-throughput sequencing, and there are hundreds of thousands of already-sequenced specimens in public archives. The promise remains to use the microbiome both as a prognostic factor and as a target for precision medicine. However, when used as an input in biomedical data science modeling, the microbiome presents unique challenges. Here, we review the most common techniques used to describe microbial communities, explore these unique challenges, and discuss the more successful approaches for biomedical data scientists seeking to use the microbiome as an input in their studies. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Biomedical Data Science, Volume 6 is August 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.},
}

@article {pmid37155564,
year = {2023},
author = {Chernyaeva, L and Ratti, G and Teirilä, L and Fudo, S and Rankka, U and Pelkonen, A and Korhonen, P and Leskinen, K and Keskitalo, S and Salokas, K and Gkolfinopoulou, C and Crompton, KE and Javanainen, M and Happonen, L and Varjosalo, M and Malm, T and Leinonen, V and Chroni, A and Saavalainen, P and Meri, S and Kajander, T and Wollman, AJ and Nissilä, E and Haapasalo, K},
title = {Reduced binding of apoE4 to complement factor H promotes amyloid-β oligomerization and neuroinflammation.},
journal = {EMBO reports},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e56467},
doi = {10.15252/embr.202256467},
pmid = {37155564},
issn = {1469-3178},
abstract = {The APOE4 variant of apolipoprotein E (apoE) is the most prevalent genetic risk allele associated with late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD). ApoE interacts with complement regulator factor H (FH), but the role of this interaction in AD pathogenesis is unknown. Here we elucidate the mechanism by which isoform-specific binding of apoE to FH alters Aβ1-42-mediated neurotoxicity and clearance. Flow cytometry and transcriptomic analysis reveal that apoE and FH reduce binding of Aβ1-42 to complement receptor 3 (CR3) and subsequent phagocytosis by microglia which alters expression of genes involved in AD. Moreover, FH forms complement-resistant oligomers with apoE/Aβ1-42 complexes and the formation of these complexes is isoform specific with apoE2 and apoE3 showing higher affinity to FH than apoE4. These FH/apoE complexes reduce Aβ1-42 oligomerization and toxicity, and colocalize with complement activator C1q deposited on Aβ plaques in the brain. These findings provide an important mechanistic insight into AD pathogenesis and explain how the strongest genetic risk factor for AD predisposes for neuroinflammation in the early stages of the disease pathology.},
}

@article {pmid37154305,
year = {2023},
author = {Zou, D and Dong, Y and Chen, J},
title = {[Live biotherapeutic products: the forefront of innovative drug development driven by biotechnology].},
journal = {Sheng wu gong cheng xue bao = Chinese journal of biotechnology},
volume = {39},
number = {4},
pages = {1275-1289},
doi = {10.13345/j.cjb.220669},
pmid = {37154305},
issn = {1872-2075},
mesh = {Humans ; *Probiotics ; Dietary Supplements ; Bacteria ; Drug Development ; Biotechnology ; },
abstract = {As human microbiome research advances, a large body of evidence shows that microorganisms are closely related to human health. Probiotics were discovered and used as foods or dietary supplements with health benefits in the last century. Microorganisms have shown broader application prospects in human health since the turn of the century, owing to the rapid development of technologies such as microbiome analysis, DNA synthesis and sequencing, and gene editing. In recent years, the concept of "next-generation probiotics" has been proposed as new drugs, and microorganisms are considered as "live biotherapeutic products (LBP)". In a nutshell, LBP is a living bacterial drug that can be used to prevent or treat certain human diseases and indications. Because of its distinct advantages, LBP has risen to the forefront of drug development research and has very broad development prospects. This review introduces the varieties and research advances on LBP from a biotechnology standpoint, followed by summarizing the challenges and opportunities for LBP clinical implementations, with the aim to facilitate LBP development.},
}

Humans
*Probiotics
Dietary Supplements
Bacteria
Drug Development
Biotechnology

@article {pmid37146137,
year = {2023},
author = {Lietzan, AD and Simpson, JB and Walton, WG and Jariwala, PB and Xu, Y and Boynton, MH and Liu, J and Redinbo, MR},
title = {Microbial β-glucuronidases drive human periodontal disease etiology.},
journal = {Science advances},
volume = {9},
number = {18},
pages = {eadg3390},
pmid = {37146137},
issn = {2375-2548},
mesh = {Humans ; Glucuronidase/metabolism ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; *Periodontal Diseases/etiology ; *Microbiota ; *Periodontitis/microbiology ; Enzyme Inhibitors/pharmacology ; },
abstract = {Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with persistent oral microbial dysbiosis. The human β-glucuronidase (GUS) degrades constituents of the periodontium and is used as a biomarker for periodontitis severity. However, the human microbiome also encodes GUS enzymes, and the role of these factors in periodontal disease is poorly understood. Here, we define the 53 unique GUSs in the human oral microbiome and examine diverse GUS orthologs from periodontitis-associated pathogens. Oral bacterial GUS enzymes are more efficient polysaccharide degraders and processers of biomarker substrates than the human enzyme, particularly at pHs associated with disease progression. Using a microbial GUS-selective inhibitor, we show that GUS activity is reduced in clinical samples obtained from individuals with untreated periodontitis and that the degree of inhibition correlates with disease severity. Together, these results establish oral GUS activity as a biomarker that captures both host and microbial contributions to periodontitis, facilitating more efficient clinical monitoring and treatment paradigms for this common inflammatory disease.},
}

Humans
Glucuronidase/metabolism
*Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology
*Periodontal Diseases/etiology
*Microbiota
*Periodontitis/microbiology
Enzyme Inhibitors/pharmacology

@article {pmid37144511,
year = {2023},
author = {Xia, B and Wang, J and Zhang, D and Hu, X},
title = {The human microbiome links to prostate cancer risk and treatment (Review).},
journal = {Oncology reports},
volume = {49},
number = {6},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3892/or.2023.8560},
pmid = {37144511},
issn = {1791-2431},
mesh = {Male ; Humans ; *Prostatic Neoplasms/therapy ; Androgen Antagonists ; *Microbiota/physiology ; },
abstract = {Prostate cancer (Pca) is the second most common cancer type worldwide. Microorganisms colonized in different body parts may affect the development/progression and treatment of Pca through direct or indirect interactions. The composition of microorganisms in different colonization sites and their effects on Pca may differ. In recent years, several studies have focused on the differences in the microbiota of patients with Pca, and dysbiosis may affect the inflammatory status, hormone levels and microbial metabolites leading to Pca progression. However, little is known about the interaction between Pca treatment and microorganisms; for example, how androgen deprivation therapy and androgen receptor axis‑targeting therapeutics for Pca affect microbiota composition and metabolism, and how the microbiota affects treatment response in patients with Pca remain to be understood. The present review explored the current studies on the relevance of microbiota to Pca progression and treatment to provide direction for future microbiome‑Pca research. Due to the complexity of the potential interconnections between Pca and the microbiota, further investigation is critical.},
}

Male
Humans
*Prostatic Neoplasms/therapy
Androgen Antagonists
*Microbiota/physiology

@article {pmid37139495,
year = {2023},
author = {Gao, J and Zhao, L and Cheng, Y and Lei, W and Wang, Y and Liu, X and Zheng, N and Shao, L and Chen, X and Sun, Y and Ling, Z and Xu, W},
title = {Probiotics for the treatment of depression and its comorbidities: A systemic review.},
journal = {Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology},
volume = {13},
number = {},
pages = {1167116},
pmid = {37139495},
issn = {2235-2988},
mesh = {Animals ; Humans ; Depression/therapy ; Brain ; *Mental Disorders ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology ; *Probiotics/therapeutic use ; Dysbiosis/therapy ; },
abstract = {Depression is one of the most common psychiatric conditions, characterized by significant and persistent depressed mood and diminished interest, and often coexists with various comorbidities. The underlying mechanism of depression remain elusive, evidenced by the lack of an appreciate therapy. Recent abundant clinical trials and animal studies support the new notion that the gut microbiota has emerged as a novel actor in the pathophysiology of depression, which partakes in bidirectional communication between the gut and the brain through the neuroendocrine, nervous, and immune signaling pathways, collectively known as the microbiota-gut-brain (MGB) axis. Alterations in the gut microbiota can trigger the changes in neurotransmitters, neuroinflammation, and behaviors. With the transition of human microbiome research from studying associations to investigating mechanistic causality, the MGB axis has emerged as a novel therapeutic target in depression and its comorbidities. These novel insights have fueled idea that targeting on the gut microbiota may open new windows for efficient treatment of depression and its comorbidities. Probiotics, live beneficial microorganisms, can be used to modulate gut dysbiosis into a new eubiosis and modify the occurrence and development of depression and its comorbidities. In present review, we summarize recent findings regarding the MGB axis in depression and discuss the potential therapeutic effects of probiotics on depression and its comorbidities.},
}

Animals
Humans
Depression/therapy
Brain
*Mental Disorders
*Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology
*Probiotics/therapeutic use
Dysbiosis/therapy

@article {pmid37138077,
year = {2023},
author = {Bayfield, OW and Shkoporov, AN and Yutin, N and Khokhlova, EV and Smith, JLR and Hawkins, DEDP and Koonin, EV and Hill, C and Antson, AA},
title = {Structural atlas of a human gut crassvirus.},
journal = {Nature},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {37138077},
issn = {1476-4687},
abstract = {CrAssphage and related viruses of the order Crassvirales (hereafter referred to as crassviruses) were originally discovered by cross-assembly of metagenomic sequences. They are the most abundant viruses in the human gut, are found in the majority of individual gut viromes, and account for up to 95% of the viral sequences in some individuals[1-4]. Crassviruses are likely to have major roles in shaping the composition and functionality of the human microbiome, but the structures and roles of most of the virally encoded proteins are unknown, with only generic predictions resulting from bioinformatic analyses[4,5]. Here we present a cryo-electron microscopy reconstruction of Bacteroides intestinalis virus ΦcrAss001[6], providing the structural basis for the functional assignment of most of its virion proteins. The muzzle protein forms an assembly about 1 MDa in size at the end of the tail and exhibits a previously unknown fold that we designate the 'crass fold', that is likely to serve as a gatekeeper that controls the ejection of cargos. In addition to packing the approximately 103 kb of virus DNA, the ΦcrAss001 virion has extensive storage space for virally encoded cargo proteins in the capsid and, unusually, within the tail. One of the cargo proteins is present in both the capsid and the tail, suggesting a general mechanism for protein ejection, which involves partial unfolding of proteins during their extrusion through the tail. These findings provide a structural basis for understanding the mechanisms of assembly and infection of these highly abundant crassviruses.},
}

@article {pmid37132117,
year = {2023},
author = {Gong, J and Liu, S and Wang, S and Ruan, H and Mou, Q and Fan, P and Chen, T and Cai, W and Lu, Y and Lu, Z},
title = {Identification of fecal microbiome signatures associated with familial longevity and candidate metabolites for healthy aging.},
journal = {Aging cell},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e13848},
doi = {10.1111/acel.13848},
pmid = {37132117},
issn = {1474-9726},
abstract = {Gut microbiota associated with longevity plays an important role in the adaptation to damaging stimuli accumulated during the aging process. The mechanism by which the longevity-associated microbiota protects the senescent host remains unclear, while the metabolites of the gut bacteria are of particular interest. Here, an integrated analysis of untargeted metabolomics and 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to characterize the metabolite and microbiota profiles of long-lived individuals (aged ≥90 years) in comparison to old-elderly (aged 75-89 years), young-elderly (aged 60-74 years), and young to middle-aged (aged ≤59 years) individuals. This novel study constructed both metabolite and microbiota trajectories across aging in populations from Jiaoling county (the seventh longevity town of the world) in China. We found that the long-lived group exhibited remarkably differential metabolomic signatures, highlighting the existence of metabolic heterogeneity with aging. Importantly, we also discovered that long-lived individuals from the familial longevity cohort harbored a microbiome distinguished from that of the general population. Specifically, we identified that the levels of a candidate metabolite, pinane thromboxane A2 (PTA2), which is positively associated with aging, were consistently higher in individuals with familial longevity and their younger descendants than in those of the general population. Furtherly, functional analysis revealed that PTA2 potentiated the efficiency of microglial phagocytosis of β-amyloid 40 and enhanced an anti-inflammatory phenotype, indicating a protective role of PTA2 toward host health. Collectively, our results improve the understanding of the role of the gut microbiome in longevity and may facilitate the development of strategies for healthy aging.},
}

@article {pmid37129834,
year = {2023},
author = {Duarte, MJ and Tien, PC and Somsouk, M and Price, JC},
title = {The human microbiome and gut-liver axis in people living with HIV.},
journal = {Current HIV/AIDS reports},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {37129834},
issn = {1548-3576},
support = {K24 AI108516/NH/NIH HHS/United States ; U01 HL146242/NH/NIH HHS/United States ; R01 DK109823/NH/NIH HHS/United States ; R01DK123746/NH/NIH HHS/United States ; U01 HL146242/NH/NIH HHS/United States ; T32 DK060414/NH/NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Chronic liver disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality amongst people living with HIV (PLWH). Emerging data suggests that gut microbial translocation may play a role in driving and modulating liver disease, a bi-directional relationship termed the gut-liver axis. While it is recognized that PLWH have a high degree of dysbiosis and gut microbial translocation, little is known about the gut-liver axis in PLWH.

RECENT FINDINGS: Recent studies have shown that microbial translocation can directly lead to hepatic inflammation, and have linked gut microbial signatures, dysbiosis, and translocation to liver disease in PLWH. Additionally, multiple trials have explored interventions targeting the microbiome in PLWH. Emerging research supports the interaction between the gut microbiome and liver disease in PLWH. This offers new opportunities to expand our understanding of the pathophysiology of liver disease in this population, as well as to explore possible clinical interventions.},
}

@article {pmid37127667,
year = {2023},
author = {Nearing, JT and DeClercq, V and Langille, MGI},
title = {Investigating the oral microbiome in retrospective and prospective cases of prostate, colon, and breast cancer.},
journal = {NPJ biofilms and microbiomes},
volume = {9},
number = {1},
pages = {23},
pmid = {37127667},
issn = {2055-5008},
mesh = {Male ; Humans ; *Breast Neoplasms ; Retrospective Studies ; Prostate ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; *Microbiota/genetics ; *Prostatic Neoplasms ; *Colonic Neoplasms ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome has been proposed as a potentially useful biomarker for several cancers. To examine this, we made use of salivary samples from the Atlantic Partnership for Tomorrow's Health (PATH) project and Alberta's Tomorrow Project (ATP). Sample selection was divided into both a retrospective and prospective case control design examining prostate, breast, and colon cancer. In total 89 retrospective and 260 prospective cancer cases were matched to non-cancer controls and saliva samples were sequenced using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We found no significant differences in alpha diversity. All beta diversity measures were insignificant except for unweighted UniFrac profiles in retrospective breast cancer cases and weighted UniFrac, Bray-Curtis and Robust Atchinson's distances in colon cancer after testing with age and sex adjusted MiRKAT models. Differential abundance (DA) analysis showed several taxa that were associated with previous cancer in all three groupings. Only one genus (Clostridia UCG-014) in breast cancer and one ASV (Fusobacterium periodonticum) in colon cancer was identified by more than one DA tool. In prospective cases three ASVs were associated with colon cancer, one ASV with breast cancer, and one ASV with prostate cancer. Random Forest classification showed low levels of signal in both study designs in breast and prostate cancer. Contrastingly, colon cancer did show signal in our retrospective analysis (AUC: 0.737) and in one of two prospective cohorts (AUC: 0.717). Our results indicate that it is unlikely that reliable microbial oral biomarkers for breast and prostate cancer exist.. However, further research into the oral microbiome and colon cancer could be fruitful.},
}

Male
Humans
*Breast Neoplasms
Retrospective Studies
Prostate
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics
*Microbiota/genetics
*Prostatic Neoplasms
*Colonic Neoplasms

@article {pmid37122947,
year = {2023},
author = {Sinkko, H and Lehtimäki, J and Lohi, H and Ruokolainen, L and Hielm-Björkman, A},
title = {Distinct healthy and atopic canine gut microbiota is influenced by diet and antibiotics.},
journal = {Royal Society open science},
volume = {10},
number = {4},
pages = {221104},
pmid = {37122947},
issn = {2054-5703},
abstract = {The rising trend in non-communicable chronic inflammatory diseases coincides with changes in Western lifestyle. While changes in the human microbiota may play a central role in the development of chronic diseases, estimating the contribution of associated lifestyle factors remains challenging. We studied the influence of lifestyle-diet, antibiotic use, and residential environment with housing and family-on the gut microbiota of healthy and owner-reported atopic pet dogs, searching for associations between the lifestyle factors, atopy and microbiota. The results showed that atopic and healthy dogs had contrasting gut microbial composition. The gut microbiota also differed between two breeds, Labrador Retriever and Finnish Lapphund, selected for our study. Among all lifestyle factors studied, diet was most significantly associated with gut microbiota but only weakly with atopic symptoms. Thus, diet- and atopy-associated changes in the microbiota were not interrelated. Instead, the severity of symptoms was positively associated with the usage of antibiotics, which in turn was associated with the microbiota composition. Urban lifestyle was significantly associated with the increased prevalence of allergies but not with the gut microbiota. Our results from pet dogs supported previous evidence from humans, demonstrating that antibiotics, gut microbiota and atopic manifestation are interrelated. This congruence suggests that canine atopy might be a promising model for understanding the aetiology of human allergy.},
}

@article {pmid37122075,
year = {2023},
author = {Simpson, JB and Sekela, JJ and Carry, BS and Beaty, V and Patel, S and Redinbo, MR},
title = {Diverse but desolate landscape of gut microbial azoreductases: A rationale for idiopathic IBD drug response.},
journal = {Gut microbes},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {2203963},
pmid = {37122075},
issn = {1949-0984},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; *Prodrugs ; *Amlodipine Besylate, Olmesartan Medoxomil Drug Combination ; *Crohn Disease ; *Colitis, Ulcerative ; Mesalamine/therapeutic use ; *Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/drug therapy ; },
abstract = {Prodrugs reliant on microbial activation are widely used but exhibit a range of efficacies that remain poorly understood. The anti-inflammatory compound 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA), which is packaged in a variety of azo-linked prodrugs provided to most Ulcerative Colitis (UC) patients, shows confounding inter-individual variabilities in response. Such prodrugs must be activated by azo-bond reduction to form 5-ASA, a process that has been attributed to both enzymatic and non-enzymatic catalysis. Gut microbial azoreductases (AzoRs) are the first catalysts shown to activate azo-linked drugs and to metabolize toxic azo-chemicals. Here, we chart the scope of the structural and functional diversity of AzoRs in health and in patients with the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) UC and Crohn's Disease (CD). Using structural metagenomics, we define the landscape of gut microbial AzoRs in 413 healthy donor and 1059 IBD patient fecal samples. Firmicutes encode a significantly higher number of unique AzoRs compared to other phyla. However, structural and biochemical analyses of distinct AzoRs from the human microbiome reveal significant differences between prevalent orthologs in the processing of toxic azo-dyes, and their generally poor activation of IBD prodrugs. Furthermore, while individuals with IBD show higher abundances of AzoR-encoding gut microbial taxa than healthy controls, the overall abundance of AzoR-encoding microbes is markedly low in both disease and health. Together, these results establish that gut microbial AzoRs are functionally diverse but sparse in both health and disease, factors that may contribute to non-optimal processing of azo-linked prodrugs and idiopathic IBD drug responses.},
}

Humans
*Gastrointestinal Microbiome
*Prodrugs
*Amlodipine Besylate, Olmesartan Medoxomil Drug Combination
*Crohn Disease
*Colitis, Ulcerative
Mesalamine/therapeutic use
*Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/drug therapy

@article {pmid37120981,
year = {2023},
author = {De Alcaraz-Fossoul, J and Wang, Y and Liu, R and Mancenido, M and Marshall, PA and Núñez, C and Broatch, J and Ferry, L},
title = {Microbes in fingerprints: A source for dating crime evidence?.},
journal = {Forensic science international. Genetics},
volume = {65},
number = {},
pages = {102883},
doi = {10.1016/j.fsigen.2023.102883},
pmid = {37120981},
issn = {1878-0326},
abstract = {Interest in the human microbiome has grown in recent years because of increasing applications to biomedicine and forensic science. However, the potential for dating evidence at a crime scene based upon time-dependent changes in microbial signatures has not been established, despite a relatively straightforward scientific process for isolating the microbiome. We hypothesize that modifications in microbial diversity, abundance, and succession can provide estimates of the time a surface was touched for investigative purposes. In this proof-of-concept research, the sequencing and analysis of the 16 S rRNA gene from microbes present in fresh and aged latent fingerprints deposited by three donors with pre- and post-washed hands is reported. The stability of major microbial phyla is confirmed while the dynamics of less abundant groups is described up to 21 days post-deposition. Most importantly, a phylum is suggested as the source for possible biological markers to date fingerprints: Deinococcus-Thermus.},
}

@article {pmid37119938,
year = {2023},
author = {Luqman, A},
title = {The orchestra of human bacteriome by hormones.},
journal = {Microbial pathogenesis},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {106125},
doi = {10.1016/j.micpath.2023.106125},
pmid = {37119938},
issn = {1096-1208},
abstract = {Human microbiome interact reciprocally with the host. Recent findings showed the capability of microorganisms to response towards host signaling molecules, such as hormones. Studies confirmed the complex response of bacteria in response to hormones exposure. These hormones impact many aspects on bacteria, such as the growth, metabolism, and virulence. The effects of each hormone seem to be species-specific. The most studied hormones are cathecolamines also known as stress hormones that consists of epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine. These hormones affect the growth of bacteria either inhibit or enhance by acting like a siderophore. Epinephrine and norepinephrine have also been reported to activate QseBC, a quorum sensing in Gram-negative bacteria and eventually enhances the virulence of pathogens. Other hormones were also reported to play a role in shaping human microbiome composition and affect their behavior. Considering the complex response of bacteria on hormones, it highlights the necessity to take the impact of hormones on bacteria into account in studying human health in relation to human microbiome.},
}

@article {pmid37116481,
year = {2023},
author = {Manara, S and Selma-Royo, M and Huang, KD and Asnicar, F and Armanini, F and Blanco-Miguez, A and Cumbo, F and Golzato, D and Manghi, P and Pinto, F and Valles-Colomer, M and Amoroso, L and Corrias, MV and Ponzoni, M and Raffaetà, R and Cabrera-Rubio, R and Olcina, M and Pasolli, E and Collado, MC and Segata, N},
title = {Maternal and food microbial sources shape the infant microbiome of a rural Ethiopian population.},
journal = {Current biology : CB},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2023.04.011},
pmid = {37116481},
issn = {1879-0445},
abstract = {The human microbiome seeding starts at birth, when pioneer microbes are acquired mainly from the mother. Mode of delivery, antibiotic prophylaxis, and feeding method have been studied as modulators of mother-to-infant microbiome transmission, but other key influencing factors like modern westernized lifestyles with high hygienization, high-calorie diets, and urban settings, compared with non-westernized lifestyles have not been investigated yet. In this study, we explored the mother-infant sharing of characterized and uncharacterized microbiome members via strain-resolved metagenomics in a cohort of Ethiopian mothers and infants, and we compared them with four other cohorts with different lifestyles. The westernized and non-westernized newborns' microbiomes composition overlapped during the first months of life more than later in life, likely reflecting similar initial breast-milk-based diets. Ethiopian and other non-westernized infants shared a smaller fraction of the microbiome with their mothers than did most westernized populations, despite showing a higher microbiome diversity, and uncharacterized species represented a substantial fraction of those shared in the Ethiopian cohort. Moreover, we identified uncharacterized species belonging to the Selenomonadaceae and Prevotellaceae families specifically present and shared only in the Ethiopian cohort, and we showed that a locally produced fermented food, injera, can contribute to the higher diversity observed in the Ethiopian infants' gut with bacteria that are not part of the human microbiome but are acquired through fermented food consumption. Taken together, these findings highlight the fact that lifestyle can impact the gut microbiome composition not only through differences in diet, drug consumption, and environmental factors but also through its effect on mother-infant strain-sharing patterns.},
}

@article {pmid37110440,
year = {2023},
author = {Efremova, I and Maslennikov, R and Alieva, A and Poluektova, E and Ivashkin, V},
title = {Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth Is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Cirrhosis.},
journal = {Microorganisms},
volume = {11},
number = {4},
pages = {},
pmid = {37110440},
issn = {2076-2607},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is associated with numerous manifestations of cirrhosis. To determine whether the presence of SIBO affects the prognosis in cirrhosis was the aim of the study.

METHODS: This prospective cohort study included 50 patients. All participants underwent a lactulose hydrogen breath test for SIBO. The follow-up period was 4 years.

RESULTS: SIBO was detected in 26 (52.0%) patients: in 10 (52.6%) patients with compensated cirrhosis and in 16 (51.6%) ones with decompensated cirrhosis. Twelve (46.2%) patients with SIBO and four (16.7%) patients without SIBO died within 4 years (p = 0.009). Among patients with decompensated cirrhosis, 8 (50.0%) patients with SIBO and 3 (20.0%) patients without SIBO died (p = 0.027). Among patients with compensated cirrhosis, four (40.0%) patients with SIBO and one (11.1%) patient without SIBO died (p = 0.045). Among patients with SIBO, there was no difference in mortality between patients with compensated and decompensated cirrhosis (p = 0.209). It was the same for patients without SIBO (p = 0.215). SIBO affects the prognosis only in the first year of follow-up in decompensated cirrhosis, and only in subsequent years in compensated cirrhosis. Presence of SIBO (p = 0.028; HR = 4.2(1.2-14.9)) and serum albumin level (p = 0.027) were significant independent risk factors for death in cirrhosis.

CONCLUSIONS: SIBO is associated with poor prognosis in cirrhosis.},
}

@article {pmid37108423,
year = {2023},
author = {Kunika, and Frey, N and Rangrez, AY},
title = {Exploring the Involvement of Gut Microbiota in Cancer Therapy-Induced Cardiotoxicity.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {24},
number = {8},
pages = {},
pmid = {37108423},
issn = {1422-0067},
abstract = {Trillions of microbes in the human intestinal tract, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa, are collectively referred to as the gut microbiome. Recent technological developments have led to a significant increase in our understanding of the human microbiome. It has been discovered that the microbiome affects both health and the progression of diseases, including cancer and heart disease. Several studies have indicated that the gut microbiota may serve as a potential target in cancer therapy modulation, by enhancing the effectiveness of chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy. Moreover, altered microbiome composition has been linked to the long-term effects of cancer therapy; for example, the deleterious effects of chemotherapy on microbial diversity can, in turn, lead to acute dysbiosis and serious gastrointestinal toxicity. Specifically, the relationship between the microbiome and cardiac diseases in cancer patients following therapy is poorly understood. In this article, we provide a summary of the role of the microbiome in cancer treatment, while also speculating on a potential connection between treatment-related microbial changes and cardiotoxicity. Through a brief review of the literature, we further explore which bacterial families or genera were differentially affected in cancer treatment and cardiac disease. A deeper understanding of the link between the gut microbiome and cardiotoxicity caused by cancer treatment may help lower the risk of this critical and potentially fatal side effect.},
}

@article {pmid37107220,
year = {2023},
author = {Vacca, M and Pinto, D and Annunziato, A and Ressa, A and Calasso, M and Pontonio, E and Celano, G and De Angelis, M},
title = {Gluten-Free Bread Enriched with Artichoke Leaf Extract In Vitro Exerted Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Properties.},
journal = {Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland)},
volume = {12},
number = {4},
pages = {},
pmid = {37107220},
issn = {2076-3921},
abstract = {Due to its high nutritional value and broad beneficial effects, the artichoke plant (Cynara cardunculus L.) is an excellent healthy food candidate. Additionally, the artichoke by-products are usually discarded even though they still contain a huge concentration of dietary fibers, phenolic acids, and other micronutrients. The present work aimed to characterize a laboratory-made gluten-free bread (B) using rice flour supplemented with a powdered extract from artichoke leaves (AEs). The AE, accounting for the 5% of titratable chlorogenic acid, was added to the experimental gluten-free bread. Accounting for different combinations, four different bread batches were prepared. To evaluate the differences, a gluten-free type-II sourdough (tII-SD) was added in two doughs (SB and SB-AE), while the related controls (YB and YB-AE) did not contain the tII-SD. Profiling the digested bread samples, SB showed the lowest glycemic index, while SB-AE showed the highest antioxidant properties. The digested samples were also fermented in fecal batches containing viable cells from fecal microbiota samples obtained from healthy donors. Based on plate counts, no clear tendencies emerged concerning the analyzed microbial patterns; by contrast, when profiling volatile organic compounds, significant differences were observed in SB-AE, exhibiting the highest scores of hydrocinnamic and cyclohexanecarboxylic acids. The fecal fermented supernatants were recovered and assayed for healthy properties on human keratinocyte cell lines against oxidative stress and for effectiveness in modulating the expression of proinflammatory cytokines in Caco-2 cells. While the first assay emphasized the contribution of AE to protect against stressor agents, the latter enlightened how the combination of SB with AE decreased the cellular TNF-α and IL1-β expression. In conclusion, this preliminary study suggests that the combination of AE with sourdough biotechnology could be a promising tool to increase the nutritional and healthy features of gluten-free bread.},
}

@article {pmid37106510,
year = {2023},
author = {Luo, X and Li, H and Fan, X and Wu, X and Zhou, R and Lei, Y and Xue, D and Yang, F and Xu, Y and Wang, K},
title = {The Gut Microbiota - Brain Axis: Potential Mechanism of Drug Addiction.},
journal = {Current topics in medicinal chemistry},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.2174/1568026623666230418114133},
pmid = {37106510},
issn = {1873-4294},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: As a chronic encephalopathy, drug addiction is responsible for millions of deaths per year around the world. The gut microbiome is a crucial component of the human microbiome. Through dynamic bidirectional communication along the 'gut-brain axis,' gut bacteria cooperate with their hosts to regulate the development and function of the immune, metabolic, and nervous systems.

METHOD: These processes may affect human health because some brain diseases are related to the composition of gut bacteria, and disruptions in microbial communities have been implicated in neurological disorders.

RESULT: We review the compositional and functional diversity of the gut microbiome in drug addiction. We discuss intricate and crucial connections between the gut microbiota and the brain involving multiple biological systems and possible contributions by the gut microbiota to neurological disorders.

CONCLUSION: Finally, the treatment of probiotics and fecal transplantation was summarized. This was done to further understand the role of intestinal microecology in the pathogenesis of drug addiction and to explore new methods for the treatment of drug addiction.},
}

@article {pmid37102387,
year = {2023},
author = {Lukkarinen, M and Kirjavainen, PV and Backman, K and Gonzales-Inca, C and Hickman, B and Kallio, S and Karlsson, H and Karlsson, L and Keski-Nisula, L and Korhonen, LS and Korpela, K and Kuitunen, M and Kukkonen, AK and Käyhkö, N and Lagström, H and Lukkarinen, H and Peltola, V and Pentti, J and Salonen, A and Savilahti, E and Tuoresmäki, P and Täubel, M and Vahtera, J and de Vos, WM and Pekkanen, J and Karvonen, AM},
title = {Early-life environment and the risk of eczema at 2 years-Meta-analyses of six Finnish birth cohorts.},
journal = {Pediatric allergy and immunology : official publication of the European Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology},
volume = {34},
number = {4},
pages = {e13945},
doi = {10.1111/pai.13945},
pmid = {37102387},
issn = {1399-3038},
mesh = {Child ; Infant, Newborn ; Female ; Humans ; Child, Preschool ; Birth Cohort ; Finland/epidemiology ; *Eczema/epidemiology ; *Hypersensitivity/epidemiology ; Seasons ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Urban-related nature exposures are suggested to contribute to the rising prevalence of allergic diseases despite little supporting evidence. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of 12 land cover classes and two greenness indices around homes at birth on the development of doctor-diagnosed eczema by the age of 2 years, and the influence of birth season.

METHODS: Data from 5085 children were obtained from six Finnish birth cohorts. Exposures were provided by the Coordination of Information on the Environment in three predefined grid sizes. Adjusted logistic regression was run in each cohort, and pooled effects across cohorts were estimated using fixed or random effect meta-analyses.

RESULTS: In meta-analyses, neither greenness indices (NDVI or VCDI, 250 m × 250 m grid size) nor residential or industrial/commercial areas were associated with eczema by age of 2 years. Coniferous forest (adjusted odds ratio 1.19; 95% confidence interval 1.01-1.39 for the middle and 1.16; 0.98-1.28 for the highest vs. lowest tertile) and mixed forest (1.21; 1.02-1.42 middle vs. lowest tertile) were associated with elevated eczema risk. Higher coverage with agricultural areas tended to associate with elevated eczema risk (1.20; 0.98-1.48 vs. none). In contrast, transport infrastructure was inversely associated with eczema (0.77; 0.65-0.91 highest vs. lowest tertile).

CONCLUSION: Greenness around the home during early childhood does not seem to protect from eczema. In contrast, nearby coniferous and mixed forests may increase eczema risk, as well as being born in spring close to forest or high-green areas.},
}

Child
Infant, Newborn
Female
Humans
Child, Preschool
Birth Cohort
Finland/epidemiology
*Eczema/epidemiology
*Hypersensitivity/epidemiology
Seasons

@article {pmid37101246,
year = {2023},
author = {Zhang, D and Zhang, J and Kalimuthu, S and Liu, J and Song, ZM and He, BB and Cai, P and Zhong, Z and Feng, C and Neelakantan, P and Li, YX},
title = {A systematically biosynthetic investigation of lactic acid bacteria reveals diverse antagonistic bacteriocins that potentially shape the human microbiome.},
journal = {Microbiome},
volume = {11},
number = {1},
pages = {91},
pmid = {37101246},
issn = {2049-2618},
mesh = {Female ; Humans ; *Bacteriocins/genetics ; *Lactobacillales/genetics ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Metagenome ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) produce various bioactive secondary metabolites (SMs), which endow LAB with a protective role for the host. However, the biosynthetic potentials of LAB-derived SMs remain elusive, particularly in their diversity, abundance, and distribution in the human microbiome. Thus, it is still unknown to what extent LAB-derived SMs are involved in microbiome homeostasis.

RESULTS: Here, we systematically investigate the biosynthetic potential of LAB from 31,977 LAB genomes, identifying 130,051 secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) of 2,849 gene cluster families (GCFs). Most of these GCFs are species-specific or even strain-specific and uncharacterized yet. Analyzing 748 human-associated metagenomes, we gain an insight into the profile of LAB BGCs, which are highly diverse and niche-specific in the human microbiome. We discover that most LAB BGCs may encode bacteriocins with pervasive antagonistic activities predicted by machine learning models, potentially playing protective roles in the human microbiome. Class II bacteriocins, one of the most abundant and diverse LAB SMs, are particularly enriched and predominant in the vaginal microbiome. We utilized metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analyses to guide our discovery of functional class II bacteriocins. Our findings suggest that these antibacterial bacteriocins have the potential to regulate microbial communities in the vagina, thereby contributing to the maintenance of microbiome homeostasis.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study systematically investigates LAB biosynthetic potential and their profiles in the human microbiome, linking them to the antagonistic contributions to microbiome homeostasis via omics analysis. These discoveries of the diverse and prevalent antagonistic SMs are expected to stimulate the mechanism study of LAB's protective roles for the microbiome and host, highlighting the potential of LAB and their bacteriocins as therapeutic alternatives. Video Abstract.},
}

Female
Humans
*Bacteriocins/genetics
*Lactobacillales/genetics
*Microbiota/genetics
Metagenome
Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology

@article {pmid37100345,
year = {2023},
author = {Shen, S and Sun, T and Ding, X and Gu, X and Wang, Y and Ma, X and Li, Z and Gao, H and Ge, S and Feng, Q},
title = {The exoprotein Gbp of Fusobacterium nucleatum promotes THP-1 cell lipid deposition by binding to CypA and activating PI3K-AKT/MAPK/NF-κB pathways.},
journal = {Journal of advanced research},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.jare.2023.04.007},
pmid = {37100345},
issn = {2090-1224},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Growing evidence has shown the correlation between periodontitis and atherosclerosis, while our knowledge on the pathogenesis of periodontitis-promoting atherosclerosis is far from sufficient.

OBJECTIVES: Illuminate the pathogenic effects of Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum) on intracellular lipid deposition in THP-1-derived macrophages and elucidate the underlying pathogenic mechanism of how F. nucleatum promoting atherosclerosis.

METHODS AND RESULTS: F. nucleatum was frequently detected in different kinds of atherosclerotic plaques and its abundance was positively correlated with the proportion of macrophages. In vitro assays showed F. nucleatum could adhere to and invade THP-1 cells, and survive continuously in macrophages for 24 h. F. nucleatum stimulation alone could significantly promote cellular inflammation, lipid uptake and inhibit lipid outflow. The dynamic gene expression of THP-1 cells demonstrated that F. nucleatum could time-serially induce the over-expression of multiple inflammatory related genes and activate NF-κB, MAPK and PI3K-AKT signaling pathways. The exoprotein of F. nucleatum, D-galactose-binding protein (Gbp), acted as one of the main pathogenic proteins to interact with the Cyclophilin A (CypA) of THP-1 cells and induced the activation of the NF- κB, MAPK and PI3K-AKT signaling pathways. Furthermore, use of six candidate drugs targeting to the key proteins in NF- κB, MAPK and PI3K-AKT pathways could dramatically decrease F. nucleatum induced inflammation and lipid deposition in THP-1 cells.

CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that the periodontal pathogen F. nucleatum can activate macrophage PI3K-AKT/MAPK/NF-κB signal pathways, promotes inflammation, enhances cholesterol uptake, reduces lipid excretion, and promotes lipid deposition, which may be one of its main strategies promoting the development of atherosclerosis.},
}

@article {pmid37099803,
year = {2023},
author = {Anu, K and Marianna, R and Sakari, JT and Pakkanen Sari, H and Jukka-Pekka, P and Anu, P and Mari, E and Tamim, K and Peter, K and Kati, M and Heli, S and Anna, L and Jan, H and Agneta, L and Nils, C and Ann-Mari, S},
title = {Safety and immunogenicity of ETVAX®, an oral inactivated vaccine against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli diarrhoea: a double-blinded, randomised, placebo-controlled trial among Finnish travellers to Benin, West-Africa.},
journal = {Journal of travel medicine},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/jtm/taad045},
pmid = {37099803},
issn = {1708-8305},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: No licensed human vaccines are available against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), a major diarrhoeal pathogen affecting children in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) and foreign travellers alike. ETVAX®, a multivalent oral whole-cell vaccine containing four inactivated ETEC strains and the heat-labile enterotoxin B subunit (LTB), has proved promising in Phase 1 and Phase 1/Phase 2 studies.

METHODS: We conducted a Phase 2b double-blinded, randomised, placebo-controlled trial among Finnish travellers to Benin, West-Africa. This report presents study design and safety and immunogenicity data.Volunteers aged 18-65 years were randomised 1:1 to receive ETVAX® or placebo. They visited Benin for 12 days, provided stool and blood samples, and completed adverse event (AE) forms.IgA and IgG antibodies to LTB and O78 lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were measured by electrochemiluminescence.

RESULTS: The AEs did not differ significantly between vaccine (n = 374) and placebo (n = 375) recipients. Of the solicited AEs, loose stools/diarrhoea (26.7%/25.9%) and stomach ache (23.0%/20.0%) were reported most commonly. Of all possibly/probably vaccine-related AEs, the most frequent were gastrointestinal symptoms (54.0%/48.8%) and nervous system disorders (20.3%/25.1%). Serious AEs (SAEs) were recorded for 4.3%/5.6%, all unlikely to be vaccine-related.Among the ETVAX® recipients, LTB-specific IgA antibodies increased 22-fold. For the 370/372 vaccine/placebo recipients, the frequency of ≥2-fold increases against LTB was 81%/2.4%, and against O78 LPS 69%/2.7%. The majority of ETVAX® recipients (93%) responded to either LTB or O78.

CONCLUSIONS: This Phase 2b trial is the largest on ETVAX® undertaken among travellers to date. ETVAX® showed an excellent safety profile and proved strongly immunogenic, which encourages further development of this vaccine.},
}

@article {pmid37099800,
year = {2023},
author = {Gou, W and Miao, Z and Deng, K and Zheng, JS},
title = {Nutri-microbiome epidemiology, an emerging field to disentangle the interplay between nutrition and microbiome for human health.},
journal = {Protein & cell},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/procel/pwad023},
pmid = {37099800},
issn = {1674-8018},
abstract = {Diet and nutrition have a substantial impact on the human microbiome, and interact with the microbiome, especially gut microbiome, to modulate various diseases and health status. Microbiome research has also guided the nutrition field to a more integrative direction, becoming an essential component of the rising area of precision nutrition. In this review, we provide a broad insight into the interplay among diet, nutrition, microbiome and microbial metabolites for their roles in the human health. Among the microbiome epidemiological studies regarding the associations of diet and nutrition with microbiome and its derived metabolites, we summarize those most reliable findings, and highlight evidence for the relationships between diet and disease-associated microbiome and its functional readout. Then, the latest advances of the microbiome-based precision nutrition research and multi-disciplinary integration are described. Finally, we discuss several outstanding challenges and opportunities in the field of nutri-microbiome epidemiology.},
}

@article {pmid37099704,
year = {2023},
author = {Choi, JM and Ji, M and Watson, LT and Zhang, L},
title = {DeepMicroGen: a generative adversarial network based method for longitudinal microbiome data imputation.},
journal = {Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/bioinformatics/btad286},
pmid = {37099704},
issn = {1367-4811},
abstract = {MOTIVATION: The human microbiome which is linked to various diseases by growing evidence, has a profound impact on human health. Since changes in the composition of the microbiome across time are associated with disease and clinical outcomes, microbiome analysis should be performed in a longitudinal study. However, due to limited sample sizes and differing numbers of timepoints for different subjects, a significant amount of data cannot be utilized, directly affecting the quality of analysis results. Deep generative models have been proposed to address this lack of data issue. Specifically, a generative adversarial network (GAN) has been successfully utilized for data augmentation to improve prediction tasks. Recent studies have also shown improved performance of GAN-based models for missing value imputation in a multivariate time series dataset compared to traditional imputation methods.

RESULTS: This work proposes DeepMicroGen, a bidirectional recurrent neural network based GAN model, trained on the temporal relationship between the observations, to impute the missing microbiome samples in longitudinal studies. DeepMicroGen outperforms standard baseline imputation methods, showing the lowest mean absolute error for both simulated and real datasets. Finally, the proposed model improved the predicted clinical outcome for allergies, by providing imputation for an incomplete longitudinal dataset used to train the classifier.

AVAILABILITY: DeepMicroGen is publicly available at https://github.com/joungmin-choi/DeepMicroGen.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.},
}

@article {pmid37099694,
year = {2023},
author = {Li, B and Wang, T and Qian, M and Wang, S},
title = {MKMR: a multi-kernel machine regression model to predict health outcomes using human microbiome data.},
journal = {Briefings in bioinformatics},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/bib/bbad158},
pmid = {37099694},
issn = {1477-4054},
abstract = {Studies have found that human microbiome is associated with and predictive of human health and diseases. Many statistical methods developed for microbiome data focus on different distance metrics that can capture various information in microbiomes. Prediction models were also developed for microbiome data, including deep learning methods with convolutional neural networks that consider both taxa abundance profiles and taxonomic relationships among microbial taxa from a phylogenetic tree. Studies have also suggested that a health outcome could associate with multiple forms of microbiome profiles. In addition to the abundance of some taxa that are associated with a health outcome, the presence/absence of some taxa is also associated with and predictive of the same health outcome. Moreover, associated taxa may be close to each other on a phylogenetic tree or spread apart on a phylogenetic tree. No prediction models currently exist that use multiple forms of microbiome-outcome associations. To address this, we propose a multi-kernel machine regression (MKMR) method that is able to capture various types of microbiome signals when doing predictions. MKMR utilizes multiple forms of microbiome signals through multiple kernels being transformed from multiple distance metrics for microbiomes and learn an optimal conic combination of these kernels, with kernel weights helping us understand contributions of individual microbiome signal types. Simulation studies suggest a much-improved prediction performance over competing methods with mixture of microbiome signals. Real data applicants to predict multiple health outcomes using throat and gut microbiome data also suggest a better prediction of MKMR than that of competing methods.},
}

@article {pmid37097879,
year = {2023},
author = {Stewart, CJ},
title = {2022 Fleming Prize Lecture: diet-microbe-host interaction in early life.},
journal = {Journal of medical microbiology},
volume = {72},
number = {4},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1099/jmm.0.001662},
pmid = {37097879},
issn = {1473-5644},
abstract = {The last decade has witnessed a meteoric rise in research focused on characterizing the human microbiome and identifying associations with disease risk. The advent of sequencing technology has all but eradicated gel-based fingerprinting approaches for studying microbial ecology, while at the same time traditional microbiological culture is undergoing a renaissance. Although multiplexed high-throughput sequencing is relatively new, the discoveries leading to this are nearly 50 years old, coinciding with the inaugural Microbiology Society Fleming Prize lecture. It was an honour to give the 2022 Fleming Prize lecture and this review will cover the topics from that lecture. The focus will be on the bacterial community in early life, beginning with term infants before moving on to infants delivered prematurely. The review will discuss recent work showing how human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), an abundant but non-nutritious component of breast milk, can modulate infant microbiome and promote the growth of Bifidobacterium spp. This has important connotations for preterm infants at risk of necrotizing enterocolitis, a devastating intestinal disease representing the leading cause of death and long-term morbidity in this population. With appropriate mechanistic studies, it may be possible to harness the power of breast milk bioactive factors and infant gut microbiome to improve short- and long-term health in infants.},
}

@article {pmid37086551,
year = {2023},
author = {Dmitrieva, K and Maslennikov, R and Vasilieva, E and Aliev, S and Bakhitov, V and Marcinkevich, V and Levshina, A and Kozlov, E and Ivashkin, V and Poluektova, E},
title = {Impact of vaccination against the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) with Sputnik V on mortality during the delta variant surge.},
journal = {Journal of infection and public health},
volume = {16},
number = {6},
pages = {922-927},
pmid = {37086551},
issn = {1876-035X},
abstract = {OBJECTIVES: The aim is to study impact of vaccination against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with Sputnik V on mortality during the period of predominance of the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2.

METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of individuals with state health insurance at the Moscow Ambulatory Center. The cohorts included 41,444 persons vaccinated with Sputnik V, 15,566 survivors of COVID-19, and 71,377 non-immune persons. The deaths of patients that occurred from June 1, 2021, to August 31, 2021, were analyzed.

RESULTS: Overall (0.39 % vs. 1.92 %; p < 0.001), COVID-19-related (0.06 % vs. 0.83 %; p < 0.001), and non-COVID mortality (0.33 % vs. 1.09 %; p < 0.001) was lower among vaccinated individuals than among non-immune individuals. The efficacy of vaccination against death from COVID-19 was 96 % [95 % CI 91-98 %] in the general population, 100 % among those aged 18-50 years, 97 % [95 % CI 76-100 %] among those aged 51-70 years, 98 % [95 % CI 90-100 %] among those aged 71-85 years, and 88 % [95 % CI 49-97 %] among those aged > 85 years.

CONCLUSION: COVID-19 vaccination with Sputnik V is associated with a decrease in overall and COVID-19-related mortality and is not with increased non-COVID mortality.},
}

@article {pmid37085428,
year = {2023},
author = {Jin, C and Qin, L and Liu, Z and Li, X and Gao, X and Cao, Y and Zhao, S and Wang, J and Han, T and Yan, L and Song, J and Zhang, F and Liu, F and Zhang, Y and Huang, Y and Song, Y and Liu, Y and Yao, Z and Chen, H and Zhang, Z and Zhao, S and Feng, Y and Zhang, YN and Qian, Y and Sun, T and Feng, Q and Zhao, H},
title = {Comparative analysis of the vaginal microbiome of healthy and polycystic ovary syndrome women: a large cross-sectional study.},
journal = {Reproductive biomedicine online},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1016/j.rbmo.2023.02.002},
pmid = {37085428},
issn = {1472-6491},
abstract = {RESEARCH QUESTION: What are the different features of the vaginal microbiome (VMB) between patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and healthy women?

DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted at a single academic university-affiliated centre. A total of 1446 participants were recruited (PCOS group, n =713, control group, n = 733). Vaginal swabs were analysed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The diversity and composition of the microbiome were compared between the PCOS group and the control group. Microbial interaction networks and functional prediction were investigated.

RESULTS: The PCOS group had a higher alpha diversity than the control group (Shannon P = 0.03, Simpson P = 0.02), and higher intra-group variability was observed in PCOS group (P < 2.2E-16). At the genus level, the proportion of Lactobacillus decreased (85.1% versus 89.3%, false discovery rate [FDR] = 0.02), whereas the proportion of Gardnerella vaginalis and Ureaplasma increased in the PCOS group (5.1% versus 3.3%, FDR = 0.006; 1.2% versus 0.6%, FDR = 0.002, respectively). Lactobacillus acidophilus, Prevotella buccalis and G. vaginalis were identified as the main differential species. L. acidophilus was positively correlated with serum levels of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), and triglyceride (P = 2.01E-05, P = 0.004, respectively). P. buccalis was negatively correlated with serum levels of AMH and testosterone (P = 0.002, P = 0.003, respectively). G. vaginalis was positively correlated with serum levels of AMH, oestradiol and progesterone (P = 0.004, P = 0.005, P = 0.03, respectively). The VMB interaction network indicated that Lactobacillus crispus, Prevotella timonensis, and P. buccalis could be key drivers in the PCOS group. Overall, 55 predicted genes were found to be differentially abundant between PCOS and the control (FDRs < 0.25).

CONCLUSIONS: The PCOS group had a higher diversity of vaginal microbiome and showed an enhanced level of heterogeneity. The proportion of Lactobacillus in the PCOS group decreased, whereas the proportions of Gardnerella and Ureaplasma increased. These results warrant further research that can validate the correlation between PCOS and VMB.},
}

@article {pmid37081054,
year = {2023},
author = {Hoisington, AJ and Stamper, CE and Bates, KL and Stanislawski, MA and Flux, MC and Postolache, TT and Lowry, CA and Brenner, LA},
title = {Human microbiome transfer in the built environment differs based on occupants, objects, and buildings.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {13},
number = {1},
pages = {6446},
pmid = {37081054},
issn = {2045-2322},
abstract = {Compared to microbiomes on other skin sites, the bacterial microbiome of the human hand has been found to have greater variability across time. To increase understanding regarding the longitudinal transfer of the hand microbiome to objects in the built environment, and vice versa, 22 participants provided skin microbiome samples from their dominant hands, as well as from frequently and infrequently touched objects in their office environments. Additional longitudinal samples from home environments were obtained from a subset of 11 participants. We observed stability of the microbiomes of both the hand and built environments within the office and home settings; however, differences in the microbial communities were detected across the two built environments. Occupants' frequency of touching an object correlated to that object having a higher relative abundance of human microbes, yet the percent of shared microbes was variable by participants. Finally, objects that were horizontal surfaces in the built environment had higher microbial diversity as compared to objects and the occupants' hands. This study adds to the existing knowledge of microbiomes of the built environment, enables more detailed studies of indoor microbial transfer, and contributes to future models and building interventions to reduce negative outcomes and improve health and well-being.},
}

@article {pmid37080202,
year = {2023},
author = {Bedree, JK and Kerns, K and Chen, T and Lima, BP and Liu, G and Ha, P and Shi, J and Pan, HC and Kim, JK and Tran, L and Minot, SS and Hendrickson, EL and Lamont, EI and Schulte, F and Hardt, M and Stephens, D and Patel, M and Kokaras, A and Stodieck, L and Shirazi-Fard, Y and Wu, B and Kwak, JH and Ting, K and Soo, C and McLean, JS and He, X and Shi, W},
title = {Specific host metabolite and gut microbiome alterations are associated with bone loss during spaceflight.},
journal = {Cell reports},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {112299},
doi = {10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112299},
pmid = {37080202},
issn = {2211-1247},
abstract = {Understanding the axis of the human microbiome and physiological homeostasis is an essential task in managing deep-space-travel-associated health risks. The NASA-led Rodent Research 5 mission enabled an ancillary investigation of the gut microbiome, varying exposure to microgravity (flight) relative to ground controls in the context of previously shown bone mineral density (BMD) loss that was observed in these flight groups. We demonstrate elevated abundance of Lactobacillus murinus and Dorea sp. during microgravity exposure relative to ground control through whole-genome sequencing and 16S rRNA analyses. Specific functionally assigned gene clusters of L. murinus and Dorea sp. capable of producing metabolites, lactic acid, leucine/isoleucine, and glutathione are enriched. These metabolites are elevated in the microgravity-exposed host serum as shown by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) metabolomic analysis. Along with BMD loss, ELISA reveals increases in osteocalcin and reductions in tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b signifying additional loss of bone homeostasis in flight.},
}

@article {pmid37077531,
year = {2023},
author = {Liu, P and Lu, Y and Li, R and Chen, X},
title = {Use of probiotic lactobacilli in the treatment of vaginal infections: In vitro and in vivo investigations.},
journal = {Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology},
volume = {13},
number = {},
pages = {1153894},
pmid = {37077531},
issn = {2235-2988},
abstract = {The vaginal microbiome is a distinct component of the human microbiome that is colonized by a wide variety of microorganisms. Lactobacilli are the most frequently identified microorganisms in the healthy human vagina. These Gram-positive bacilli can acidify the vaginal microenvironment, inhibit the proliferation of other pathogenic microorganisms, and promote the maintenance of a eubiotic vaginal microbiome. However, a vaginal flora with a reduced proportion or abundance of lactobacilli is associated with various vaginal infections that have been linked to serious health consequences such as infertility, preterm birth, pelvic inflammatory disease, premature rupture of membranes, and miscarriage. Due to their "Generally Recognized as Safe" classification and critical role in vaginal health, probiotic lactobacilli have been widely used as an alternative or adjunct to traditional antibiotic therapy for the treatment of vaginal infections and restoration of the vaginal microbiome. This review focuses on the significant role of probiotic lactobacilli in the vaginal microenvironment and discusses the use of probiotic lactobacilli in the treatment of female vaginal infections in vitro and in vivo.},
}

@article {pmid37074210,
year = {2023},
author = {Zhang, YG and Xia, Y and Zhang, J and Deb, S and Garrett, S and Sun, J},
title = {Intestinal vitamin D receptor protects against extraintestinal breast cancer tumorigenesis.},
journal = {Gut microbes},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {2202593},
doi = {10.1080/19490976.2023.2202593},
pmid = {37074210},
issn = {1949-0984},
abstract = {The microbiota plays critical roles in regulating the function and health of the intestine and extraintestinal organs. A fundamental question is whether an intestinal-microbiome-breast axis exists during the development of breast cancer. If so, what are the roles of host factors? Vitamin D receptor (VDR) involves host factors and the human microbiome. Vdr gene variation shapes the human microbiome, and VDR deficiency leads to dysbiosis. We hypothesized that intestinal VDR protects hosts against tumorigenesis in the breast. We examined a 7,12-dimethylbenzanthracene (DMBA)-induced breast cancer model in intestinal epithelial VDR knockout (VDR[ΔIEC]) mice with dysbiosis. We reported that VDR[ΔIEC] mice with dysbiosis are more susceptible to breast cancer induced by DMBA. Intestinal and breast microbiota analysis showed that VDR deficiency leads to a bacterial profile shift from normal to susceptible to carcinogenesis. We found enhanced bacterial staining within breast tumors. At the molecular and cellular levels, we identified the mechanisms by which intestinal epithelial VDR deficiency led to increased gut permeability, disrupted tight junctions, microbial translocation, and enhanced inflammation, thus increasing tumor size and number in the breast. Furthermore, treatment with the beneficial bacterial metabolite butyrate or the probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum reduced breast tumors, enhanced tight junctions, inhibited inflammation, increased butyryl-CoA transferase, and decreased levels of breast Streptococcus bacteria in VDR[ΔIEC] mice. The gut microbiome contributes to the pathogenesis of diseases not only in the intestine but also in the breast. Our study provides insights into the mechanism by which intestinal VDR dysfunction and gut dysbiosis lead to a high risk of extraintestinal tumorigenesis. Gut-tumor-microbiome interactions represent a new target in the prevention and treatment of breast cancer.},
}

@article {pmid37070603,
year = {2023},
author = {Segota, I and Watrous, JD and Kantz, ED and Nallamshetty, S and Tiwari, S and Cheng, S and Jain, M and Long, T},
title = {Reconstructing the landscape of gut microbial species across 29,000 diverse individuals.},
journal = {Nucleic acids research},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/nar/gkad249},
pmid = {37070603},
issn = {1362-4962},
support = {R01ES027595/NH/NIH HHS/United States ; COVID-19-8900-12/CX/CSRD VA/United States ; },
abstract = {The human gut microbiome has been linked to health and disease. Investigation of the human microbiome has largely employed 16S amplicon sequencing, with limited ability to distinguish microbes at the species level. Herein, we describe the development of Reference-based Exact Mapping (RExMap) of microbial amplicon variants that enables mapping of microbial species from standard 16S sequencing data. RExMap analysis of 16S data captures ∼75% of microbial species identified by whole-genome shotgun sequencing, despite hundreds-fold less sequencing depth. RExMap re-analysis of existing 16S data from 29,349 individuals across 16 regions from around the world reveals a detailed landscape of gut microbial species across populations and geography. Moreover, RExMap identifies a core set of fifteen gut microbes shared by humans. Core microbes are established soon after birth and closely associate with BMI across multiple independent studies. RExMap and the human microbiome dataset are presented as resources with which to explore the role of the human microbiome.},
}

@article {pmid37065164,
year = {2023},
author = {Wan, X and Takala, TM and Huynh, VA and Ahonen, SL and Paulin, L and Björkroth, J and Sironen, T and Kant, R and Saris, P},
title = {Comparative genomics of 40 Weissella paramesenteroides strains.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {14},
number = {},
pages = {1128028},
pmid = {37065164},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {Weissella strains are often detected in spontaneously fermented foods. Because of their abilities to produce lactic acid and functional exopolysaccharides as well as their probiotic traits, Weissella spp. improve not only the sensorial properties but also nutritional values of the fermented food products. However, some Weissella species have been associated with human and animal diseases. In the era of vast genomic sequencing, new genomic/genome data are becoming available to the public on daily pace. Detailed genomic analyses are due to provide a full understanding of individual Weissella species. In this study, the genomes of six Weissella paramesenteroides strains were de novo sequenced. The genomes of 42 W. paramesenteroides strains were compared to discover their metabolic and functional potentials in food fermentation. Comparative genomics and metabolic pathway reconstructions revealed that W. paramesenteroides is a compact group of heterofermentative bacteria with good capacity of producing secondary metabolites and vitamin Bs. Since the strains rarely harbored plasmid DNA, they did not commonly possess the genes associated with bacteriocin production. All 42 strains were shown to bear vanT gene from the glycopeptide resistance gene cluster vanG. Yet none of the strains carried virulence genes.},
}

@article {pmid37065142,
year = {2023},
author = {Wang, X and Chen, D and Du, J and Cheng, K and Fang, C and Liao, X and Liu, Y and Sun, J and Lian, X and Ren, H},
title = {Occupational exposure in swine farm defines human skin and nasal microbiota.},
journal = {Frontiers in microbiology},
volume = {14},
number = {},
pages = {1117866},
pmid = {37065142},
issn = {1664-302X},
abstract = {Anthropogenic environments take an active part in shaping the human microbiome. Herein, we studied skin and nasal microbiota dynamics in response to the exposure in confined and controlled swine farms to decipher the impact of occupational exposure on microbiome formation. The microbiota of volunteers was longitudinally profiled in a 9-months survey, in which the volunteers underwent occupational exposure during 3-month internships in swine farms. By high-throughput sequencing, we showed that occupational exposure compositionally and functionally reshaped the volunteers' skin and nasal microbiota. The exposure in farm A reduced the microbial diversity of skin and nasal microbiota, whereas the microbiota of skin and nose increased after exposure in farm B. The exposure in different farms resulted in compositionally different microbial patterns, as the abundance of Actinobacteria sharply increased at expense of Firmicutes after exposure in farm A, yet Proteobacteria became the most predominant in the volunteers in farm B. The remodeled microbiota composition due to exposure in farm A appeared to stall and persist, whereas the microbiota of volunteers in farm B showed better resilience to revert to the pre-exposure state within 9 months after the exposure. Several metabolic pathways, for example, the styrene, aminobenzoate, and N-glycan biosynthesis, were significantly altered through our PICRUSt analysis, and notably, the function of beta-lactam resistance was predicted to enrich after exposure in farm A yet decrease in farm B. We proposed that the differently modified microbiota patterns might be coordinated by microbial and non-microbial factors in different swine farms, which were always environment-specific. This study highlights the active role of occupational exposure in defining the skin and nasal microbiota and sheds light on the dynamics of microbial patterns in response to environmental conversion.},
}

@article {pmid37058540,
year = {2023},
author = {Qi, H and Li, Y and Liu, X and Jiang, Y and Li, Z and Xu, X and Zhang, H and Hu, X},
title = {Tim-3 regulates the immunosuppressive function of decidual MDSCs via the Fyn-STAT3-C/EBPβ pathway during Toxoplasma gondii infection.},
journal = {PLoS pathogens},
volume = {19},
number = {4},
pages = {e1011329},
doi = {10.1371/journal.ppat.1011329},
pmid = {37058540},
issn = {1553-7374},
abstract = {Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) play a key role in maintaining maternal-fetal tolerance for a successful pregnancy, but the role of MDSCs in abnormal pregnancy caused by Toxoplasma gondii infection is unknown. Herein, we revealed a distinct mechanism by which T-cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain containing protein-3 (Tim-3), an immune checkpoint receptor that balances maternal-fetal tolerance during pregnancy, contributes to the immunosuppressive function of MDSCs during T. gondii infection. The expression of Tim-3 in decidual MDSCs was significantly downregulated following T. gondii infection. The proportion of monocytic MDSCs population, the inhibitory effect of MDSCs on T-cell proliferation, the levels of STAT3 phosphorylation, and the expression of functional molecules (Arg-1 and IL-10) in MDSCs were all decreased in T. gondii-infected pregnant Tim-3 gene knockout (Tim-3KO) mice compared with infected pregnant WT mice. After treatment with Tim-3-neutralizing Ab in vitro, the expression levels of Arg-1, IL-10, C/EBPβ, and p-STAT3 were decreased, the interaction between Fyn and Tim-3 or between Fyn and STAT3 was weakened, and the binding ability of C/EBPβ to the promoters of ARG1 and IL10 was decreased in human decidual MDSCs with T. gondii infection, while opposite results were observed following treatment with galectin-9 (a ligand for Tim-3). Inhibitors of Fyn and STAT3 also downregulated the expression of Arg-1 and IL-10 in decidual MDSCs and exacerbated adverse pregnancy outcomes caused by T. gondii infection in mice. Therefore, our studies discovered that the decrease of Tim-3 after T. gondii infection could downregulate the functional molecules of Arg-1 and IL-10 expression in decidual MDSCs through the Fyn-STAT3-C/EBPβ signaling pathway and weaken their immunosuppressive function, which eventually contribute to the development of adverse pregnancy outcomes.},
}

@article {pmid37054680,
year = {2023},
author = {Shen, J and Zhang, J and Mo, L and Li, Y and Li, Y and Li, C and Kuang, X and Tao, Z and Qu, Z and Wu, L and Chen, J and Liu, S and Zeng, L and He, Z and Chen, Z and Deng, Y and Zhang, T and Li, B and Dai, L and Ma, Y},
title = {Large-scale phage cultivation for commensal human gut bacteria.},
journal = {Cell host & microbe},
volume = {31},
number = {4},
pages = {665-677.e7},
doi = {10.1016/j.chom.2023.03.013},
pmid = {37054680},
issn = {1934-6069},
mesh = {Humans ; *Bacteriophages ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; Bacteria/genetics ; *Microbiota ; Symbiosis ; },
abstract = {Phages are highly abundant in the human gut, yet most of them remain uncultured. Here, we present a gut phage isolate collection (GPIC) containing 209 phages for 42 commensal human gut bacterial species. Genome analysis of the phages identified 34 undescribed genera. We discovered 22 phages from the Salasmaviridae family that have small genomes (∼10-20 kbp) and infect Gram-positive bacteria. Two phages from a candidate family, Paboviridae, with high prevalence in the human gut were also identified. Infection assays showed that Bacteroides and Parabacteroides phages are specific to a bacterial species, and strains of the same species also exhibit substantial variations in phage susceptibility. A cocktail of 8 phages with a broad host range for Bacteroides fragilis strains effectively reduced their abundance in complex host-derived communities in vitro. Our study expands the diversity of cultured human gut bacterial phages and provides a valuable resource for human microbiome engineering.},
}

Humans
*Bacteriophages
*Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics
Bacteria/genetics
*Microbiota
Symbiosis

@article {pmid37047594,
year = {2023},
author = {Laterza, L and Putignani, L and Settanni, CR and Petito, V and Varca, S and De Maio, F and Macari, G and Guarrasi, V and Gremese, E and Tolusso, B and Wlderk, G and Pirro, MA and Fanali, C and Scaldaferri, F and Turchini, L and Amatucci, V and Sanguinetti, M and Gasbarrini, A},
title = {Ecology and Machine Learning-Based Classification Models of Gut Microbiota and Inflammatory Markers May Evaluate the Effects of Probiotic Supplementation in Patients Recently Recovered from COVID-19.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {24},
number = {7},
pages = {},
pmid = {37047594},
issn = {1422-0067},
mesh = {Humans ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; Citrulline ; *COVID-19 ; *Probiotics/therapeutic use/pharmacology ; Cytokines ; Bifidobacterium ; Machine Learning ; },
abstract = {Gut microbiota (GM) modulation can be investigated as possible solution to enhance recovery after COVID-19. An open-label, single-center, single-arm, pilot, interventional study was performed by enrolling twenty patients recently recovered from COVID-19 to investigate the role of a mixed probiotic, containing Lactobacilli, Bifidobacteria and Streptococcus thermophilus, on gastrointestinal symptoms, local and systemic inflammation, intestinal barrier integrity and GM profile. Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale, cytokines, inflammatory, gut permeability, and integrity markers were evaluated before (T0) and after 8 weeks (T1) of probiotic supplementation. GM profiling was based on 16S-rRNA targeted-metagenomics and QIIME 2.0, LEfSe and PICRUSt computational algorithms. Multiple machine learning (ML) models were trained to classify GM at T0 and T1. A statistically significant reduction of IL-6 (p < 0.001), TNF-α (p < 0.001) and IL-12RA (p < 0.02), citrulline (p value < 0.001) was reported at T1. GM global distribution and microbial biomarkers strictly reflected probiotic composition, with a general increase in Bifidobacteria at T1. Twelve unique KEGG orthologs were associated only to T0, including tetracycline resistance cassettes. ML classified the GM at T1 with 100% score at phylum level. Bifidobacteriaceae and Bifidobacterium spp. inversely correlated to reduction of citrulline and inflammatory cytokines. Probiotic supplementation during post-COVID-19 may trigger anti-inflammatory effects though Bifidobacteria and related-metabolism enhancement.},
}

Humans
*Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics
Citrulline
*COVID-19
*Probiotics/therapeutic use/pharmacology
Cytokines
Bifidobacterium
Machine Learning

@article {pmid37046097,
year = {2023},
author = {Metwaly, A and Haller, D},
title = {Elucidating the transmission landscape of the human microbiome.},
journal = {Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {37046097},
issn = {1759-5053},
}

@article {pmid37042769,
year = {2023},
author = {Ma, X and Sun, T and Zhou, J and Zhi, M and Shen, S and Wang, Y and Gu, X and Li, Z and Gao, H and Wang, P and Feng, Q},
title = {Pangenomic Study of Fusobacterium nucleatum Reveals the Distribution of Pathogenic Genes and Functional Clusters at the Subspecies and Strain Levels.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0518422},
doi = {10.1128/spectrum.05184-22},
pmid = {37042769},
issn = {2165-0497},
abstract = {Fusobacterium nucleatum is a prevalent periodontal pathogen and is associated with many systemic diseases. Our knowledge of the genomic characteristics and pathogenic effectors of different F. nucleatum strains is limited. In this study, we completed the whole genome assembly of the 4 F. nucleatum strains and carried out a comprehensive pangenomic study of 30 strains with their complete genome sequences. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the F. nucleatum strains are mainly divided into 4 subspecies, while 1 of the sequenced strains was classified into a new subspecies. Gene composition analysis revealed that a total of 517 "core/soft-core genes" with housekeeping functions widely distributed in almost all the strains. Each subspecies had a unique gene cluster shared by strains within the subspecies. Analysis of the virulence factors revealed that many virulence factors were widely distributed across all the strains, with some present in multiple copies. Some virulence genes showed no consistent occurrence rule at the subspecies level and were specifically distributed in certain strains. The genomic islands mainly revealed strain-specific characteristics instead of subspecies level consistency, while CRISPR types and secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters were identically distributed in F. nucleatum strains from the same subspecies. The variation in amino acid sites in the adhesion protein FadA did not affect the monomer and dimer 3D structures, but it may affect the binding surface and the stability of binding to host receptors. This study provides a basis for the pathogenic study of F. nucleatum at the subspecies and strain levels. IMPORTANCE We used F. nucleatum as an example to analyze the genomic characteristics of oral pathogens at the species, subspecies, and strain levels and elucidate the similarities and differences in functional genes and virulence factors among different subspecies/strains of the same oral pathogen. We believe that the unique biological characteristics of each subspecies/strain can be attributed to the differences in functional gene clusters or the presence/absence of certain virulence genes. This study showed that F. nucleatum strains from the same subspecies had similar functional gene compositions, CRISPR types, and secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters, while pathogenic genes, such as virulence genes, antibiotic resistance genes, and GIs, had more strain level specificity. The findings of this study suggest that, for microbial pathogenicity studies, we should carefully consider the subspecies/strains being used, as different strains may vary greatly.},
}

@article {pmid37040017,
year = {2023},
author = {Vitetta, L},
title = {Letter on "Role of gut microbiome in immune regulation and immune checkpoint therapy of colorectal cancer".},
journal = {Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England)},
volume = {40},
number = {5},
pages = {143},
pmid = {37040017},
issn = {1559-131X},
abstract = {Investigations that decipher the human microbiome have reformed the way medicine is focusing on bacteria. An interesting research review recently published in the journal of Digestive Diseases and Sciences conceivably linked adjunctive commensal intestinal bacteria with the capacity to modulate the immune microenvironment towards immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICIs) efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. Evidence has emerged that the intestinal microbiome can modulate outcomes to ICIs therapies via two major mechanisms, namely mechanisms that are antigen-specific (i.e., epitopes are shared between microbial and tumour antigens that can enhance or reduce anti-tumour immune responses) and those mechanisms that are antigen-independent (i.e., modulation of responses to ICIs by engaging innate and/or adaptive immune cells).},
}

@article {pmid37039671,
year = {2023},
author = {Gu, W and Koh, H and Jang, H and Lee, B and Kang, B},
title = {MiSurv: an Integrative Web Cloud Platform for User-Friendly Microbiome Data Analysis with Survival Responses.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0505922},
doi = {10.1128/spectrum.05059-22},
pmid = {37039671},
issn = {2165-0497},
abstract = {Investigators have studied the treatment effects on human health or disease, the treatment effects on human microbiome, and the roles of the microbiome on human health or disease. Especially, in a clinical trial, investigators commonly trace disease status over a lengthy period to survey the sequential disease progression for different treatment groups (e.g., treatment versus placebo, new treatment versus old treatment). Hence, disease responses are often available in the form of survival (i.e., time-to-event) responses stratified by treatment groups. While the recent web cloud platforms have enabled user-friendly microbiome data processing and analytics, there is currently no web cloud platform to analyze microbiome data with survival responses. Therefore, we introduce here an integrative web cloud platform, called MiSurv, for comprehensive microbiome data analysis with survival responses. IMPORTANCE MiSurv consists of a data processing module and its following four data analytic modules: (i) Module 1: Comparative survival analysis between treatment groups, (ii) Module 2: Comparative analysis in microbial composition between treatment groups, (iii) Module 3: Association testing between microbial composition and survival responses, (iv) Module 4: Prediction modeling using microbial taxa on survival responses. We demonstrate its use through an example trial on the effects of antibiotic use on the survival rate against type 1 diabetes (T1D) onset and gut microbiome composition, respectively, and the effects of the gut microbiome on the survival rate against T1D onset. MiSurv is freely available on our web server (http://misurv.micloud.kr) or can alternatively run on the user's local computer (https://github.com/wg99526/MiSurvGit).},
}

@article {pmid37034781,
year = {2023},
author = {Boodaghidizaji, M and Jungles, T and Chen, T and Zhang, B and Landay, A and Keshavarzian, A and Hamaker, B and Ardekani, A},
title = {Machine learning based gut microbiota pattern and response to fiber as a diagnostic tool for chronic inflammatory diseases.},
journal = {bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1101/2023.03.27.534466},
pmid = {37034781},
abstract = {Gut microbiota has been implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple gastrointestinal (GI) and systemic metabolic and inflammatory disorders where disrupted gut microbiota composition and function (dysbiosis) has been found in multiple studies. Thus, human microbiome data has a potential to be a great source of information for the diagnosis and disease characteristics (phenotypes, disease course, therapeutic response) of diseases with dysbiotic microbiota community. However, multiple attempts to leverage gut microbiota taxonomic data for diagnostic and disease characterization have failed due to significant inter-individual variability of microbiota community and overlap of disrupted microbiota communities among multiple diseases. One potential approach is to look at the microbiota community pattern and response to microbiota modifiers like dietary fiber in different disease states. This approach is now feasible by availability of machine learning that is able to identify hidden patterns in the human microbiome and predict diseases. Accordingly, the aim of our study was to test the hypothesis that application of machine learning algorithms can distinguish stool microbiota pattern and microbiota response to fiber between diseases where overlapping dysbiotic microbiota have been previously reported. Here, we have applied machine learning algorithms to distinguish between Parkinson's disease, Crohn's disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), human immune deficiency virus (HIV), and healthy control (HC) subjects in the presence and absence of fiber treatments. We have shown that machine learning algorithms can classify diseases with accuracy as high as 95%. Furthermore, machine learning methods applied to the microbiome data to predict UC vs CD led to prediction accuracy as high as 90%.},
}

@article {pmid37032359,
year = {2023},
author = {Spatz, M and Da Costa, G and Ventin-Holmberg, R and Planchais, J and Michaudel, C and Wang, Y and Danne, C and Lapiere, A and Michel, ML and Kolho, KL and Langella, P and Sokol, H and Richard, ML},
title = {Antibiotic treatment using amoxicillin-clavulanic acid impairs gut mycobiota development through modification of the bacterial ecosystem.},
journal = {Microbiome},
volume = {11},
number = {1},
pages = {73},
pmid = {37032359},
issn = {2049-2618},
mesh = {Humans ; Mice ; Animals ; *Amoxicillin-Potassium Clavulanate Combination/pharmacology ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; Gastrointestinal Tract/microbiology ; *Microbiota ; Fungi ; Bacteria/genetics ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Effects of antibiotics on gut bacteria have been widely studied, but very little is known about the consequences of such treatments on the fungal microbiota (mycobiota). It is commonly believed that fungal load increases in the gastrointestinal tract following antibiotic treatment, but better characterization is clearly needed of how antibiotics directly or indirectly affect the mycobiota and thus the entire microbiota.

DESIGN: We used samples from humans (infant cohort) and mice (conventional and human microbiota-associated mice) to study the consequences of antibiotic treatment (amoxicillin-clavulanic acid) on the intestinal microbiota. Bacterial and fungal communities were subjected to qPCR or 16S and ITS2 amplicon-based sequencing for microbiota analysis. In vitro assays further characterized bacterial-fungal interactions, with mixed cultures between specific bacteria and fungi.

RESULTS: Amoxicillin-clavulanic acid treatment triggered a decrease in the total fungal population in mouse feces, while other antibiotics had opposite effects on the fungal load. This decrease is accompanied by a total remodelling of the fungal population with the enrichment in Aspergillus, Cladosporium, and Valsa genera. In the presence of amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, microbiota analysis showed a remodeling of bacterial microbiota with an increase in specific bacteria belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae. Using in vitro assays, we isolated different Enterobacteriaceae species and explored their effect on different fungal strains. We showed that Enterobacter hormaechei was able to reduce the fungal population in vitro and in vivo through yet unknown mechanisms.

CONCLUSIONS: Bacteria and fungi have strong interactions within the microbiota; hence, the perturbation initiated by an antibiotic treatment targeting the bacterial community can have complex consequences and can induce opposite alterations of the mycobiota. Interestingly, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid treatment has a deleterious effect on the fungal community, which may have been partially due to the overgrowth of specific bacterial strains with inhibiting or competing effects on fungi. This study provides new insights into the interactions between fungi and bacteria of the intestinal microbiota and might offer new strategies to modulate gut microbiota equilibrium. Video Abstract.},
}

Humans
Mice
Animals
*Amoxicillin-Potassium Clavulanate Combination/pharmacology
Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology
Gastrointestinal Tract/microbiology
*Microbiota
Fungi
Bacteria/genetics

@article {pmid37032329,
year = {2023},
author = {Bazant, W and Blevins, AS and Crouch, K and Beiting, DP},
title = {Improved eukaryotic detection compatible with large-scale automated analysis of metagenomes.},
journal = {Microbiome},
volume = {11},
number = {1},
pages = {72},
pmid = {37032329},
issn = {2049-2618},
support = {INV-016988/GATES/Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/United States ; INV-016988/GATES/Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/United States ; INV-016988/GATES/Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/United States ; INV-016988/GATES/Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/United States ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Eukaryotes such as fungi and protists frequently accompany bacteria and archaea in microbial communities. Unfortunately, their presence is difficult to study with "shotgun" metagenomic sequencing since prokaryotic signals dominate in most environments. Recent methods for eukaryotic detection use eukaryote-specific marker genes, but they do not incorporate strategies to handle the presence of eukaryotes that are not represented in the reference marker gene set, and they are not compatible with web-based tools for downstream analysis.

RESULTS: Here, we present CORRAL (for Clustering Of Related Reference ALignments), a tool for the identification of eukaryotes in shotgun metagenomic data based on alignments to eukaryote-specific marker genes and Markov clustering. Using a combination of simulated datasets, mock community standards, and large publicly available human microbiome studies, we demonstrate that our method is not only sensitive and accurate but is also capable of inferring the presence of eukaryotes not included in the marker gene reference, such as novel strains. Finally, we deploy CORRAL on our MicrobiomeDB.org resource, producing an atlas of eukaryotes present in various environments of the human body and linking their presence to study covariates.

CONCLUSIONS: CORRAL allows eukaryotic detection to be automated and carried out at scale. Implementation of CORRAL in MicrobiomeDB.org creates a running atlas of microbial eukaryotes in metagenomic studies. Since our approach is independent of the reference used, it may be applicable to other contexts where shotgun metagenomic reads are matched against redundant but non-exhaustive databases, such as the identification of bacterial virulence genes or taxonomic classification of viral reads. Video Abstract.},
}

@article {pmid37022232,
year = {2023},
author = {Zimmerman, S and Tierney, BT and Patel, CJ and Kostic, AD},
title = {Quantifying Shared and Unique Gene Content across 17 Microbial Ecosystems.},
journal = {mSystems},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0011823},
doi = {10.1128/msystems.00118-23},
pmid = {37022232},
issn = {2379-5077},
abstract = {Measuring microbial diversity is traditionally based on microbe taxonomy. Here, in contrast, we aimed to quantify heterogeneity in microbial gene content across 14,183 metagenomic samples spanning 17 ecologies, including 6 human associated, 7 nonhuman host associated, and 4 in other nonhuman host environments. In total, we identified 117,629,181 nonredundant genes. The vast majority of genes (66%) occurred in only one sample (i.e., "singletons"). In contrast, we found 1,864 sequences present in every metagenome, but not necessarily every bacterial genome. Additionally, we report data sets of other ecology-associated genes (e.g., abundant in only gut ecosystems) and simultaneously demonstrated that prior microbiome gene catalogs are both incomplete and inaccurately cluster microbial genetic life (e.g., at gene sequence identities that are too restrictive). We provide our results and the sets of environmentally differentiating genes described above at http://www.microbial-genes.bio. IMPORTANCE The amount of shared genetic elements has not been quantified between the human microbiome and other host- and non-host-associated microbiomes. Here, we made a gene catalog of 17 different microbial ecosystems and compared them. We show that most species shared between environment and human gut microbiomes are pathogens and that prior gene catalogs described as "nearly complete" are far from it. Additionally, over two-thirds of all genes only appear in a single sample, and only 1,864 genes (0.001%) are found in all types of metagenomes. These results highlight the large diversity between metagenomes and reveal a new, rare class of genes, those found in every type of metagenome, but not every microbial genome.},
}

@article {pmid37022154,
year = {2023},
author = {Mahmud, MR and Jian, C and Uddin, MK and Huhtinen, M and Salonen, A and Peltoniemi, O and Venhoranta, H and Oliviero, C},
title = {Impact of Intestinal Microbiota on Growth Performance of Suckling and Weaned Piglets.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0374422},
doi = {10.1128/spectrum.03744-22},
pmid = {37022154},
issn = {2165-0497},
abstract = {Small-scale studies investigating the relationship between pigs' intestinal microbiota and growth performance have generated inconsistent results. We hypothesized that on farms under favorable environmental conditions (e.g., promoting sow nest-building behavior, high colostrum production, low incidence of diseases and minimal use of antimicrobials), the piglet gut microbiota may develop toward a population that promotes growth and reduces pathogenic bacteria. Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we sampled and profiled the fecal microbiota from 170 individual piglets throughout suckling and postweaning periods (in total 670 samples) to track gut microbiota development and its potential association with growth. During the suckling period, the dominant genera were Lactobacillus and Bacteroides, the latter being gradually replaced by Clostridium sensu scricto 1 as piglets aged. The gut microbiota during the nursery stage, not the suckling period, predicted the average daily growth (ADG) of piglets. The relative abundances of SCFA-producing genera, in particular Faecalibacterium, Megasphaera, Mitsuokella, and Subdoligranulum, significantly correlated with high ADG of weaned piglets. In addition, the succession of the gut microbiota in high-ADG piglets occurred faster and stabilized sooner upon weaning, whereas the gut microbiota of low-ADG piglets continued to mature after weaning. Overall, our findings suggest that weaning is the major driver of gut microbiota variation in piglets with different levels of overall growth performance. This calls for further research to verify if promotion of specific gut microbiota, identified here at weaning transition, is beneficial for piglet growth. IMPORTANCE The relationship between pigs' intestinal microbiota and growth performance is of great importance for improving piglets' health and reducing antimicrobial use. We found that gut microbiota variation is significantly associated with growth during weaning and the early nursery period. Importantly, transitions toward a mature gut microbiota enriched with fiber-degrading bacteria mostly complete upon weaning in piglets with better growth. Postponing the weaning age may therefore favor the development of fiber degrading gut bacteria, conferring the necessary capacity to digest and harvest solid postweaning feed. The bacterial taxa associated with piglet growth identified herein hold potential to improve piglet growth and health.},
}

@article {pmid37019665,
year = {2023},
author = {Ka, Y and Ito, R and Nozu, R and Tomiyama, K and Ueno, M and Ogura, T and Takahashi, R},
title = {Establishment of a human microbiome- and immune system-reconstituted dual-humanized mouse model.},
journal = {Experimental animals},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1538/expanim.23-0025},
pmid = {37019665},
issn = {1881-7122},
abstract = {Humanized mice are widely used to study the human immune system in vivo and investigate therapeutic targets for various human diseases. Immunodeficient NOD/Shi-scid-IL2rγ[null] (NOG) mice transferred with human hematopoietic stem cells are a useful model for studying human immune systems and analyzing engrafted human immune cells. The gut microbiota plays a significant role in the development and function of immune cells and the maintenance of immune homeostasis; however, there is currently no available animal model that has been reconstituted with human gut microbiota and immune systems in vivo. In this study, we established a new model of CD34[+] cell-transferred humanized germ-free NOG mice using an aseptic method. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that the germ-free humanized mice exhibited a lower level of human CD3[+] T cells than the SPF humanized mice. Additionally, we found that the human CD3[+] T cells slightly increased after transplanting human gut microbiota into the germ-free humanized mice, suggesting that the human microbiota supports T cell proliferation or maintenance in humanized mice colonized by the gut microbiota. Consequently, the dual-humanized mice may be useful for investigating the physiological role of the gut microbiota in human immunity in vivo and for application as a new humanized mouse model in cancer immunology.},
}

@article {pmid37010974,
year = {2023},
author = {Reynolds, T and Noorbakhsh, S and Smith, R},
title = {Microbiome Contributions to Health.},
journal = {Surgical infections},
volume = {24},
number = {3},
pages = {213-219},
pmid = {37010974},
issn = {1557-8674},
mesh = {Humans ; *Microbiota ; Gastrointestinal Tract/microbiology ; Lung ; Bacteria ; },
abstract = {The human microbiome is vast and is present in spaces previously thought to be sterile such as the lungs. A healthy microbiome is diverse and functions in an adaptive way to support local as well as organism health and function. Furthermore, a normal microbiome is essential for normal immune system development rendering the array of microbes that live in and on the human body key components of homeostasis. A wide array of clinical conditions and interventions including anesthesia, analgesia, and surgical intervention may derange the human microbiome in a maladaptive fashion with bacterial responses spanning decreased diversity to transformation to a pathogenic phenotype. Herein, we explore the normal microbiome of the skin, gastrointestinal tract, and the lungs as prototype sites to describe the influence of the microbiomes in each of those locations on health, and how care may derange those relations.},
}

Humans
*Microbiota
Gastrointestinal Tract/microbiology
Lung
Bacteria

@article {pmid37010972,
year = {2023},
author = {Leonard, JM and Toro, DD},
title = {Defining the Microbiome Components (Bacteria, Viruses, Fungi) and Microbiome Geodiversity.},
journal = {Surgical infections},
volume = {24},
number = {3},
pages = {208-212},
pmid = {37010972},
issn = {1557-8674},
mesh = {Humans ; Bacteria ; *Microbiota/genetics ; Fungi ; *Viruses ; },
abstract = {The recognition that a resident community of microbes contributes substantially to human health and disease is one of the emerging great discoveries in modern medicine. This collection of bacteria, archaea, fungi, viruses, and eukaryotes are referred to as microbiota, which together with the individual tissues they inhabit is defined as our individual microbiome. Recent advances in modern DNA sequencing technologies permit the identification, description, and characterization of these microbial communities as well as their variations within and between individuals and groups. This complex understanding of the human microbiome is supported by a rapidly expanding field of inquiry and offers the potential to significantly impact the treatment of a wide variety of disease states. This review explores the recent findings associated with the various components of the human microbiome, and the geodiversity of microbial communities between different tissue types, individuals, and clinical conditions.},
}

Humans
Bacteria
*Microbiota/genetics
Fungi
*Viruses

@article {pmid37010971,
year = {2023},
author = {Godley, FA and Shogan, BD and Hyman, NH},
title = {Role of the Microbiome in Malignancy.},
journal = {Surgical infections},
volume = {24},
number = {3},
pages = {271-275},
doi = {10.1089/sur.2023.028},
pmid = {37010971},
issn = {1557-8674},
abstract = {The conceptual underpinning of carcinogenesis has been strongly influenced by an expanded understanding of the human microbiome. Malignancy risks in diverse organs have been uniquely tied to aspects of the resident microbiota in different organs and systems including the colon, lungs, pancreas, ovaries, uterine cervix, and stomach; other organs are increasingly linked to maladaptive aspects of the microbiome as well. In this way, the maladaptive microbiome may be termed an oncobiome. Microbe-driven inflammation, anti-inflammation, and mucosal protection failure, as well as diet-induced microbiome derangement are all mechanisms that influence malignancy risk. Therefore, they also offer potential avenues of diagnostic and therapeutic intervention to modify malignancy risk, and to perhaps interrupt progression toward cancer in different sites. Each of these mechanisms will be explored using colorectal malignancy as a prototype condition to demonstrate the microbiome's role in carcinogenesis.},
}

@article {pmid37010968,
year = {2023},
author = {Leonard, JM and Pascual, JL and Kaplan, LJ},
title = {Dysbiome and Its Role in Surgically Relevant Medical Disease.},
journal = {Surgical infections},
volume = {24},
number = {3},
pages = {226-231},
doi = {10.1089/sur.2023.019},
pmid = {37010968},
issn = {1557-8674},
abstract = {Several surgically relevant conditions are directly or indirectly influenced by the human microbiome. Different microbiomes may be found within, or along, specific organs and intra-organ variation is common. Such variations include those found along the course of the gastrointestinal tract as well as those on different regions of the skin. A variety of physiologic stressors and care interventions may derange the native microbiome. A deranged microbiome is termed a dysbiome and is characterized by decreased diversity and an increase in the proportion of potentially pathogenic organisms; the elaboration of virulence factors coupled with clinical consequences defines a pathobiome. Specific conditions such as Clostridium difficile colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, and diabetes mellitus are tightly linked to a dysbiome or pathobiome. Additionally, massive transfusion after injury appears to derange the gastrointestinal microbiome as well. This review explores what is known about these surgically relevant clinical conditions to chart how non-surgical interventions may support surgical undertakings or potentially reduce the need for operation.},
}

@article {pmid37010965,
year = {2023},
author = {Creel, JP and Maves, RC},
title = {The Microbiome and Antimicrobial Stewardship in Surgical Patients.},
journal = {Surgical infections},
volume = {24},
number = {3},
pages = {220-225},
doi = {10.1089/sur.2022.422},
pmid = {37010965},
issn = {1557-8674},
abstract = {Abstract The human microbiome plays a critical role in health and disease. The microbiota of the human body undergoes disruptions in critical illness, in part due to alterations in physiology but also as the result of medical interventions, most notably antimicrobial drug administration. These alterations may lead to a significant dysbiosis, with increased risks of multi-drug-resistant organism-based secondary infections, Clostridioides difficile promotion, and other infection-related complications. Antimicrobial stewardship is a process that seeks to optimize antimicrobial drug prescription, with recent evidence emphasizing shorter courses of therapy, earlier transitions from empiric to pathogen-specific regimens, and enhanced diagnostic testing. Through a combination of prudent stewardship and wise use of diagnostic testing, clinicians can improve outcomes, reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance, and help improve the integrity of the microbiome.},
}

@article {pmid37005490,
year = {2023},
author = {Goenka, A and Khan, F and Verma, B and Sinha, P and Dmello, CC and Jogalekar, MP and Gangadaran, P and Ahn, BC},
title = {Tumor microenvironment signaling and therapeutics in cancer progression.},
journal = {Cancer communications (London, England)},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1002/cac2.12416},
pmid = {37005490},
issn = {2523-3548},
abstract = {Tumor development and metastasis are facilitated by the complex interactions between cancer cells and their microenvironment, which comprises stromal cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) components, among other factors. Stromal cells can adopt new phenotypes to promote tumor cell invasion. A deep understanding of the signaling pathways involved in cell-to-cell and cell-to-ECM interactions is needed to design effective intervention strategies that might interrupt these interactions. In this review, we describe the tumor microenvironment (TME) components and associated therapeutics. We discuss the clinical advances in the prevalent and newly discovered signaling pathways in the TME, the immune checkpoints and immunosuppressive chemokines, and currently used inhibitors targeting these pathways. These include both intrinsic and non-autonomous tumor cell signaling pathways in the TME: protein kinase C (PKC) signaling, Notch, and transforming growth factor (TGF-β) signaling, Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) stress response, lactate signaling, Metabolic reprogramming, cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS)-stimulator of interferon genes (STING) and Siglec signaling pathways. We also discuss the recent advances in Programmed Cell Death Protein 1 (PD-1), Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Associated Protein 4 (CTLA4), T-cell immunoglobulin mucin-3 (TIM-3) and Lymphocyte Activating Gene 3 (LAG3) immune checkpoint inhibitors along with the C-C chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4)- C-C class chemokines 22 (CCL22)/ and 17 (CCL17), C-C chemokine receptor type 2 (CCR2)- chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2), C-C chemokine receptor type 5 (CCR5)- chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 3 (CCL3) chemokine signaling axis in the TME. In addition, this review provides a holistic understanding of the TME as we discuss the three-dimensional and microfluidic models of the TME, which are believed to recapitulate the original characteristics of the patient tumor and hence may be used as a platform to study new mechanisms and screen for various anti-cancer therapies. We further discuss the systemic influences of gut microbiota in TME reprogramming and treatment response. Overall, this review provides a comprehensive analysis of the diverse and most critical signaling pathways in the TME, highlighting the associated newest and critical preclinical and clinical studies along with their underlying biology. We highlight the importance of the most recent technologies of microfluidics and lab-on-chip models for TME research and also present an overview of extrinsic factors, such as the inhabitant human microbiome, which have the potential to modulate TME biology and drug responses.},
}

@article {pmid37003965,
year = {2023},
author = {Syama, K and Jothi, JAA and Khanna, N},
title = {Automatic disease prediction from human gut metagenomic data using boosting GraphSAGE.},
journal = {BMC bioinformatics},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
pages = {126},
pmid = {37003965},
issn = {1471-2105},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The human microbiome plays a critical role in maintaining human health. Due to the recent advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies, the microbiome profiles present in the human body have become publicly available. Hence, many works have been done to analyze human microbiome profiles. These works have identified that different microbiome profiles are present in healthy and sick individuals for different diseases. Recently, several computational methods have utilized the microbiome profiles to automatically diagnose and classify the host phenotype.

RESULTS: In this work, a novel deep learning framework based on boosting GraphSAGE is proposed for automatic prediction of diseases from metagenomic data. The proposed framework has two main components, (a). Metagenomic Disease graph (MD-graph) construction module, (b). Disease prediction Network (DP-Net) module. The graph construction module constructs a graph by considering each metagenomic sample as a node in the graph. The graph captures the relationship between the samples using a proximity measure. The DP-Net consists of a boosting GraphSAGE model which predicts the status of a sample as sick or healthy. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified using real and synthetic datasets corresponding to diseases like inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer. The proposed model achieved a highest AUC of 93%, Accuracy of 95%, F1-score of 95%, AUPRC of 95% for the real inflammatory bowel disease dataset and a best AUC of 90%, Accuracy of 91%, F1-score of 87% and AUPRC of 93% for the real colorectal cancer dataset.

CONCLUSION: The proposed framework outperforms other machine learning and deep learning models in terms of classification accuracy, AUC, F1-score and AUPRC for both synthetic and real metagenomic data.},
}

@article {pmid37002975,
year = {2023},
author = {Stockdale, SR and Hill, C},
title = {Incorporating plasmid biology and metagenomics into a holistic model of the human gut microbiome.},
journal = {Current opinion in microbiology},
volume = {73},
number = {},
pages = {102307},
doi = {10.1016/j.mib.2023.102307},
pmid = {37002975},
issn = {1879-0364},
abstract = {The human gut microbiome is often described as the collection of bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, and viruses associated with an individual, with no acknowledgement of the plasmid constituents. However, like viruses, plasmids are autonomous intracellular replicating entities that can influence the genotype and phenotype of their host and mediate trans-kingdom interactions. Plasmids are frequently noted as vehicles for horizontal gene transfer and for spreading antibiotic resistance, yet their multifaceted contribution to mutualistic and antagonistic interactions within the human microbiome and impact on human health is overlooked. In this review, we highlight the importance of plasmids and their biological properties as overlooked components of microbiomes. Subsequent human microbiome studies should include dedicated analyses of plasmids, particularly as a holistic understanding of human-microbial interactions is required before effective and safe interventions can be implemented to improve human well-being.},
}

@article {pmid36998574,
year = {2023},
author = {Haahtela, T and Alenius, H and Auvinen, P and Fyhrquist, N and von Hertzen, L and Jousilahti, P and Karisola, P and Laatikainen, T and Lehtimäki, J and Paalanen, L and Ruokolainen, L and Saarinen, K and Valovirta, E and Vasankari, T and Vlasoff, T and Erhola, M and Bousquet, J and Vartiainen, E and Mäkelä, MJ},
title = {A short history from Karelia study to biodiversity and public health interventions.},
journal = {Frontiers in allergy},
volume = {4},
number = {},
pages = {1152927},
pmid = {36998574},
issn = {2673-6101},
abstract = {Contact with natural environments enriches the human microbiome, promotes immune balance and protects against allergies and inflammatory disorders. In Finland, the allergy & asthma epidemic became slowly visible in mid 1960s. After the World War II, Karelia was split into Finnish and Soviet Union (now Russia) territories. This led to more marked environmental and lifestyle changes in the Finnish compared with Russian Karelia. The Karelia Allergy Study 2002-2022 showed that allergic conditions were much more common on the Finnish side. The Russians had richer gene-microbe network and interaction than the Finns, which associated with better balanced immune regulatory circuits and lower allergy prevalence. In the Finnish adolescents, a biodiverse natural environment around the homes associated with lower occurrence of allergies. Overall, the plausible explanation of the allergy disparity was the prominent change in environment and lifestyle in the Finnish Karelia from 1940s to 1980s. The nationwide Finnish Allergy Programme 2008-2018 implemented the biodiversity hypothesis into practice by endorsing immune tolerance, nature contacts, and allergy health with favorable results. A regional health and environment programme, Nature Step to Health 2022-2032, has been initiated in the City of Lahti, EU Green Capital 2021. The programme integrates prevention of chronic diseases (asthma, diabetes, obesity, depression), nature loss, and climate crisis in the spirit of Planetary Health. Allergic diseases exemplify inappropriate immunological responses to natural environment. Successful management of the epidemics of allergy and other non-communicable diseases may pave the way to improve human and environmental health.},
}

@article {pmid36995244,
year = {2023},
author = {Herviou, P and Balvay, A and Bellet, D and Bobet, S and Maudet, C and Staub, J and Alric, M and Leblond-Bourget, N and Delorme, C and Rabot, S and Denis, S and Payot, S},
title = {Transfer of the Integrative and Conjugative Element ICESt3 of Streptococcus thermophilus in Physiological Conditions Mimicking the Human Digestive Ecosystem.},
journal = {Microbiology spectrum},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0466722},
doi = {10.1128/spectrum.04667-22},
pmid = {36995244},
issn = {2165-0497},
abstract = {Metagenome analyses of the human microbiome suggest that horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is frequent in these rich and complex microbial communities. However, so far, only a few HGT studies have been conducted in vivo. In this work, three different systems mimicking the physiological conditions encountered in the human digestive tract were tested, including (i) the TNO gastro-Intestinal tract Model 1 (TIM-1) system (for the upper part of the intestine), (ii) the ARtificial COLon (ARCOL) system (to mimic the colon), and (iii) a mouse model. To increase the likelihood of transfer by conjugation of the integrative and conjugative element studied in the artificial digestive systems, bacteria were entrapped in alginate, agar, and chitosan beads before being placed in the different gut compartments. The number of transconjugants detected decreased, while the complexity of the ecosystem increased (many clones in TIM-1 but only one clone in ARCOL). No clone was obtained in a natural digestive environment (germfree mouse model). In the human gut, the richness and diversity of the bacterial community would offer more opportunities for HGT events to occur. In addition, several factors (SOS-inducing agents, microbiota-derived factors) that potentially increase in vivo HGT efficiency were not tested here. Even if HGT events are rare, expansion of the transconjugant clones can happen if ecological success is fostered by selecting conditions or by events that destabilize the microbial community. IMPORTANCE The human gut microbiota plays a key role in maintaining normal host physiology and health, but its homeostasis is fragile. During their transit in the gastrointestinal tract, bacteria conveyed by food can exchange genes with resident bacteria. New traits acquired by HGT (e.g., new catabolic properties, bacteriocins, antibiotic resistance) can impact the gut microbial composition and metabolic potential. We showed here that TIM-1, a system mimicking the upper digestive tract, is a useful tool to evaluate HGT events in conditions closer to the physiological ones. Another important fact pointed out in this work is that Enterococcus faecalis is a good candidate for foreign gene acquisition. Due to its high ability to colonize the gut and acquire mobile genetic elements, this commensal bacterium could serve as an intermediate for HGT in the human gut.},
}

@article {pmid36992511,
year = {2023},
author = {Shafigh Kheljan, F and Sheikhzadeh Hesari, F and Aminifazl, MS and Skurnik, M and Gholadze, S and Zarrini, G},
title = {Design of Phage-Cocktail-Containing Hydrogel for the Treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa-Infected Wounds.},
journal = {Viruses},
volume = {15},
number = {3},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/v15030803},
pmid = {36992511},
issn = {1999-4915},
mesh = {Mice ; Animals ; *Bacteriophages ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; Hydrogels/pharmacology/therapeutic use ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology/therapeutic use ; Ciprofloxacin/pharmacology ; *Bacterial Infections/drug therapy ; Disease Models, Animal ; *Wound Infection/drug therapy ; },
abstract = {Recently, the treatment of infected wounds has become a global problem due to increased antibiotic resistance in bacteria. The Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa is often present in chronic skin infections, and it has become a threat to public health as it is increasingly multidrug resistant. Due to this, new measures to enable treatment of infections are necessary. Treatment of bacterial infections with bacteriophages, known as phage therapy, has been in use for a century, and has potential with its antimicrobial effect. The main purpose of this study was to create a phage-containing wound dressing with the ability to prevent bacterial infection and rapid wound healing without side effects. Several phages against P. aeruginosa were isolated from wastewater, and two polyvalent phages were used to prepare a phage cocktail. The phage cocktail was loaded in a hydrogel composed of polymers of sodium alginate (SA) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). To compare the antimicrobial effects, hydrogels containing phages, ciprofloxacin, or phages plus ciprofloxacin were produced, and hydrogels without either. The antimicrobial effect of these hydrogels was investigated in vitro and in vivo using an experimental mouse wound infection model. The wound-healing process in different mouse groups showed that phage-containing hydrogels and antibiotic-containing hydrogels have almost the same antimicrobial effect. However, in terms of wound healing and pathological process, the phage-containing hydrogels performed better than the antibiotic alone. The best performance was achieved with the phage-antibiotic hydrogel, indicating a synergistic effect between the phage cocktail and the antibiotic. In conclusion, phage-containing hydrogels eliminate efficiently P. aeruginosa in wounds and may be a proper option for treating infectious wounds.},
}

Mice
Animals
*Bacteriophages
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Hydrogels/pharmacology/therapeutic use
Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology/therapeutic use
Ciprofloxacin/pharmacology
*Bacterial Infections/drug therapy
Disease Models, Animal
*Wound Infection/drug therapy

@article {pmid36991500,
year = {2023},
author = {Burckhardt, JC and Chong, DHY and Pett, N and Tropini, C},
title = {Gut commensal Enterocloster species host inoviruses that are secreted in vitro and in vivo.},
journal = {Microbiome},
volume = {11},
number = {1},
pages = {65},
pmid = {36991500},
issn = {2049-2618},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Bacteriophages in the family Inoviridae, or inoviruses, are under-characterized phages previously implicated in bacterial pathogenesis by contributing to biofilm formation, immune evasion, and toxin secretion. Unlike most bacteriophages, inoviruses do not lyse their host cells to release new progeny virions; rather, they encode a secretion system that actively pumps them out of the bacterial cell. To date, no inovirus associated with the human gut microbiome has been isolated or characterized.

RESULTS: In this study, we utilized in silico, in vitro, and in vivo methods to detect inoviruses in bacterial members of the gut microbiota. By screening a representative genome library of gut commensals, we detected inovirus prophages in Enterocloster spp. (formerly Clostridium spp.). We confirmed the secretion of inovirus particles in in vitro cultures of these organisms using imaging and qPCR. To assess how the gut abiotic environment, bacterial physiology, and inovirus secretion may be linked, we deployed a tripartite in vitro assay that progressively evaluated bacterial growth dynamics, biofilm formation, and inovirus secretion in the presence of changing osmotic environments. Counter to other inovirus-producing bacteria, inovirus production was not correlated with biofilm formation in Enterocloster spp. Instead, the Enterocloster strains had heterogeneous responses to changing osmolality levels relevant to gut physiology. Notably, increasing osmolality induced inovirus secretion in a strain-dependent manner. We confirmed inovirus secretion in a gnotobiotic mouse model inoculated with individual Enterocloster strains in vivo in unperturbed conditions. Furthermore, consistent with our in vitro observations, inovirus secretion was regulated by a changed osmotic environment in the gut due to osmotic laxatives.

CONCLUSION: In this study, we report on the detection and characterization of novel inoviruses from gut commensals in the Enterocloster genus. Together, our results demonstrate that human gut-associated bacteria can secrete inoviruses and begin to elucidate the environmental niche filled by inoviruses in commensal bacteria. Video Abstract.},
}

@article {pmid36991009,
year = {2023},
author = {Liu, X and Zou, L and Nie, C and Qin, Y and Tong, X and Wang, J and Yang, H and Xu, X and Jin, X and Xiao, L and Zhang, T and Min, J and Zeng, Y and Jia, H and Hou, Y},
title = {Mendelian randomization analyses reveal causal relationships between the human microbiome and longevity.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {13},
number = {1},
pages = {5127},
pmid = {36991009},
issn = {2045-2322},
abstract = {Although recent studies have revealed the association between the human microbiome especially gut microbiota and longevity, their causality remains unclear. Here, we assess the causal relationships between the human microbiome (gut and oral microbiota) and longevity, by leveraging bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses based on genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary statistics of the gut and oral microbiome from the 4D-SZ cohort and longevity from the CLHLS cohort. We found that some disease-protected gut microbiota such as Coriobacteriaceae and Oxalobacter as well as the probiotic Lactobacillus amylovorus were related to increased odds of longevity, whereas the other gut microbiota such as colorectal cancer pathogen Fusobacterium nucleatum, Coprococcus, Streptococcus, Lactobacillus, and Neisseria were negatively associated with longevity. The reverse MR analysis further revealed genetically longevous individuals tended to have higher abundances of Prevotella and Paraprevotella but lower abundances of Bacteroides and Fusobacterium species. Few overlaps of gut microbiota-longevity interactions were identified across different populations. We also identified abundant links between the oral microbiome and longevity. The additional analysis suggested that centenarians genetically had a lower gut microbial diversity, but no difference in oral microbiota. Our findings strongly implicate these bacteria to play a role in human longevity and underscore the relocation of commensal microbes among different body sites that would need to be monitored for long and healthy life.},
}

@article {pmid36986037,
year = {2023},
author = {Cappello, C and Tlais, AZA and Acin-Albiac, M and Lemos Junior, WJF and Pinto, D and Filannino, P and Rinaldi, F and Gobbetti, M and Di Cagno, R},
title = {Identification and Selection of Prospective Probiotics for Enhancing Gastrointestinal Digestion: Application in Pharmaceutical Preparations and Dietary Supplements.},
journal = {Nutrients},
volume = {15},
number = {6},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/nu15061306},
pmid = {36986037},
issn = {2072-6643},
abstract = {Our study investigated the effectiveness of 446 strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) belonging to different species and isolated from diverse sources (food, human, and animal) as potential probiotic candidates, with the perspective of producing dietary supplements or pharmacological formulations suitable for enhancing gastrointestinal digestion. The survival capability of all the isolates under harsh gastrointestinal tract conditions was evaluated, in which only 44 strains, named high-resistant, were selected for further food digestibility investigations. All 44 strains hydrolyzed raffinose and exhibited amino and iminopeptidase activities but at various extents, confirming species- and strain-specificity. After partial in vitro digestion mimicking oral and gastric digestive phases, food matrices were incubated with single strains for 24 h. Fermented partially digested matrices provided additional functional properties for some investigated strains by releasing peptides and increasing the release of highly bio-accessible free phenolic compounds. A scoring procedure was proposed as an effective tool to reduce data complexity and quantitively characterize the probiotic potential of each LAB strain, which could be more useful in the selection procedure of powerful probiotics.},
}

@article {pmid36984891,
year = {2023},
author = {Qin, F and Li, J and Mao, T and Feng, S and Li, J and Lai, M},
title = {2 Hydroxybutyric Acid-Producing Bacteria in Gut Microbiome and Fusobacterium nucleatum Regulates 2 Hydroxybutyric Acid Level In Vivo.},
journal = {Metabolites},
volume = {13},
number = {3},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/metabo13030451},
pmid = {36984891},
issn = {2218-1989},
abstract = {2-hydroxybutyric acid (2HB) serves as an important regulatory factor in a variety of diseases. The circulating level of 2HB in serum is significantly higher in multiple diseases, such as cancer and type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, there is currently no systematic study on 2HB-producing bacteria that demonstrates whether gut bacteria contribute to the circulating 2HB pool. To address this question, we used BLASTP to reveal the taxonomic profiling of 2HB-producing bacteria in the human microbiome, which are mainly distributed in the phylum Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. In vitro experiments showed that most gut bacteria (21/32) have at least one path to produce 2HB, which includes Aspartic acid, methionine, threonine, and 2-aminobutyric acid. Particularly, Fusobacterium nucleatum has the strongest ability to synthesize 2HB, which is sufficient to alter colon 2HB concentration in mice. Nevertheless, neither antibiotic (ABX) nor Fusobacterium nucleatum gavage significantly affected mouse serum 2HB levels during the time course of this study. Taken together, our study presents the profiles of 2HB-producing bacteria and demonstrates that gut microbiota was a major contributor to 2HB concentration in the intestinal lumen but a relatively minor contributor to serum 2HB concentration.},
}

@article {pmid36983812,
year = {2023},
author = {Wazir, HU and Narang, P and Silvani, G and Mehner, C and Poole, K and Burke, C and Chou, J},
title = {Bacterial Virulence and Prevention for Human Spaceflight.},
journal = {Life (Basel, Switzerland)},
volume = {13},
number = {3},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/life13030656},
pmid = {36983812},
issn = {2075-1729},
abstract = {With the advancement in reusable rocket propulsion technology, space tourist trips into outer space are now becoming a possibility at a cost-effective rate. As such, astronauts will face a host of health-related challenges, particularly on long-duration space missions where maintaining a balanced healthy microbiome is going to be vital for human survival in space exploration as well as mission success. The human microbiome involves a whole list of micro-organisms that reside in and on the human host, and plays an integral role in keeping the human host healthy. However, imbalances in the microbiome have been directly linked to many human diseases. Research findings have clearly shown that the outer space environment can directly affect the normal microbiome of astronauts when the astronaut is exposed to the microgravity environment. In this study, we show that the simulation of microgravity on earth can mimic the outer space microgravity environment. Staphylococus aureus (S. aureus) was chosen for this study as it is an opportunistic pathogen, which is part of the normal human skin microflora and the nasal passages. This study's results show that S. aureus proliferation was significantly increased under a microgravity environment compared to Earth's gravity conditions, which complements previous work performed on bacteria in the outer space environment in the International Space Station (ISS). This demonstrates that this technology can be utilised here on Earth to mimic the outer space environment and to study challenging health-related questions. This in return saves us the cost on conducting experiments in the ISS and can help advance knowledge at a faster rate and produce countermeasures to mitigate the negative side effects of the hostile outer space environment on humans.},
}

@article {pmid36983633,
year = {2023},
author = {Kartti, S and Bendani, H and Boumajdi, N and Bouricha, EM and Zarrik, O and El Agouri, H and Fokar, M and Aghlallou, Y and El Jaoudi, R and Belyamani, L and Elkhannoussi, B and Ibrahimi, A},
title = {Metagenomics Analysis of Breast Microbiome Highlights the Abundance of Rothia Genus in Tumor Tissues.},
journal = {Journal of personalized medicine},
volume = {13},
number = {3},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/jpm13030450},
pmid = {36983633},
issn = {2075-4426},
abstract = {Breast cancer is one of the main global priorities in terms of public health. It remains the most frequent cancer in women and is the leading cause of their death. The human microbiome plays various roles in maintaining health by ensuring a dynamic balance with the host or in the appearance of various pathologies including breast cancer. In this study, we performed an analysis of bacterial signature differences between tumor and adjacent tissues of breast cancer patients in Morocco. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we observed that adjacent tissue contained a much higher percentage of the Gammaproteobacteria class (35.7%) while tumor tissue was characterized by a higher percentage of Bacilli and Actinobacteria classes, with about 18.8% and 17.2% average abundance, respectively. Analysis of tumor subtype revealed enrichment of genus Sphingomonodas in TNBC while Sphingomonodas was predominant in HER2. The LEfSe and the genus level heatmap analysis revealed a higher abundance of the Rothia genus in tumor tissues. The identified microbial communities can therefore serve as potential biomarkers for prognosis and diagnosis, while also helping to develop new strategies for the treatment of breast cancer patients.},
}

@article {pmid36982257,
year = {2023},
author = {Zhao, L and Wang, S and Ilves, M and Lehtonen, S and Saikko, L and El-Nezami, H and Alenius, H and Karisola, P},
title = {Transcriptomic Profiling the Effects of Airway Exposure of Zinc Oxide and Silver Nanoparticles in Mouse Lungs.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
volume = {24},
number = {6},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/ijms24065183},
pmid = {36982257},
issn = {1422-0067},
abstract = {Consumers and manufacturers are exposed to nanosized zinc oxide (nZnO) and silver particles (nAg) via airways, but their biological effects are still not fully elucidated. To understand the immune effects, we exposed mice to 2, 10, or 50 μg of nZnO or nAg by oropharyngeal aspiration and analyzed the global gene expression profiles and immunopathological changes in the lungs after 1, 7, or 28 days. Our results show that the kinetics of responses varied in the lungs. Exposure to nZnO resulted in the highest accumulation of F4/80- and CD3-positive cells, and the largest number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified after day 1, while exposure to nAg caused peak responses at day 7. Additionally, nZnO mainly activated the innate immune responses leading to acute inflammation, whereas the nAg activated both innate and adaptive immune pathways, with long-lasting effects. This kinetic-profiling study provides an important data source to understand the cellular and molecular processes underlying nZnO- and nAg-induced transcriptomic changes, which lead to the characterization of the corresponding biological and toxicological effects of nZnO and nAg in the lungs. These findings could improve science-based hazard and risk assessment and the development of safe applications of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs), e.g., in biomedical applications.},
}

@article {pmid36978455,
year = {2023},
author = {Brzozowska, E and Lipiński, T and Korzeniowska-Kowal, A and Filik, K and Górski, A and Gamian, A},
title = {Detection and Level Evaluation of Antibodies Specific to Environmental Bacteriophage I11mO19 and Related Coliphages in Non-Immunized Human Sera.},
journal = {Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland)},
volume = {12},
number = {3},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/antibiotics12030586},
pmid = {36978455},
issn = {2079-6382},
abstract = {Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses infecting bacteria. They are widely present in the environment, food, and normal microflora. The human microbiome is a mutually interdependent network of bacteria, bacteriophages, and human cells. The stability of these tri-kingdom interactions may be essential for maintaining immunologic and metabolic health. Phages, as with each other's antigens, may evoke an immune response during a human's lifetime and induce specific antibody generation. In this manuscript, we labeled these antibodies as naturally generated. Naturally generated antibodies may be one of the most important factors limiting the efficacy of phage therapy. Herein, we attempted to determine the physiological level of these antibodies specific to a population bacteriophage named I11mO19 in human sera, using an ELISA-based assay. First, we purified the phage particles and assessed the immunoreactivity of phage proteins. Then, affinity chromatography was performed on columns with immobilized phage proteins to obtain a fraction of human polyclonal anti-phage antibodies. These antibodies were used as a reference to elaborate an immunoenzymatic test that was used to determine the level of natural anti-phage antibodies. We estimated the average level of anti-I11mO19 phage antibodies at 190 µg per one milliliter of human serum. However, immunoblotting revealed that cross-reactivity occurs between some proteins of I11mO19 and two other coliphages: T4 and ΦK1E. The antigens probably share common epitopes, suggesting that the determined level of anti-I11mO19 phage might be overestimated and reflects a group of antibodies reactive to a broad range of other E. coli phages. Anti-I11mO19 antibodies did not react with Pseudomonas bacteriophage F8, confirming specificity to the coliphage group. In this work, we wanted to show whether it is possible to determine the presence and level of anti-phage antibodies in nontargeted-immunized sera, using an immunoenzymatic assay. The conclusion is that it is possible, and specific antibodies can be determined. However, the specificity refers to a broader coliphage group of phages, not only the single phage strain.},
}

@article {pmid36978453,
year = {2023},
author = {Dugot, M and Merzon, E and Ashkenazi, S and Vinker, S and Green, I and Golan-Cohen, A and Israel, A},
title = {The Association between Previous Antibiotic Consumption and SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Population-Based Case-Control Study.},
journal = {Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland)},
volume = {12},
number = {3},
pages = {},
doi = {10.3390/antibiotics12030587},
pmid = {36978453},
issn = {2079-6382},
abstract = {Background: The susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection is complex and not yet fully elucidated, being related to many variables; these include human microbiome and immune status, which are both affected for a long period by antibiotic use. We therefore aimed to examine the association of previous antibiotic consumption and SARS-CoV-2 infection in a large-scale population-based study with control of known confounders. Methods: A matched case-control study was performed utilizing the electronic medical records of a large Health Maintenance Organization. Cases were subjects with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection (n = 31,260), matched individually (1:4 ratio) to controls without a positive SARS-CoV-2 test (n = 125,039). The possible association between previous antibiotic use and SARS-CoV-2 infection was determined by comparing antibiotic consumption in the previous 6 and 12 months between the cases and controls. For each antibiotic consumed we calculated the odds ratio (OR) for documented SARS-CoV-2 infection, 95% confidence interval (CI), and p-value using univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: The association between previous antibiotic consumption and SARS-CoV-2 infection was complex and bi-directional. In the multivariate analysis, phenoxymethylpenicillin was associated with increased rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection (OR 1.110, 95% CI: 1.036-1.191) while decreased rates were associated with previous consumption of trimethoprim-sulfonamides (OR 0.783, 95% CI: 0.632-0.971) and azithromycin (OR 0.882, 95% CI: 0.829-0.938). Fluroquinolones were associated with decreased rates (OR 0.923, 95% CI: 0.861-0.989) only in the univariate analysis. Previous consumption of other antibiotics had no significant association with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conclusions: Previous consumption of certain antibiotic agents has an independent significant association with increased or decreased rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Plausible mechanisms, that should be further elucidated, are mainly antibiotic effects on the human microbiome and immune modulation.},
}

@article {pmid36971593,
year = {2023},
author = {Liu, F and Lu, H and Dong, B and Huang, X and Cheng, H and Qu, R and Hu, Y and Zhong, L and Guo, Z and You, Y and Xu, ZZ},
title = {Systematic Evaluation of the Viable Microbiome in the Human Oral and Gut Samples with Spike-in Gram+/- Bacteria.},
journal = {mSystems},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e0073822},
doi = {10.1128/msystems.00738-22},
pmid = {36971593},
issn = {2379-5077},
abstract = {PMA (propidium monoazide) is one of the few methods that are compatible with metagenomic sequencing to characterize the live/intact microbiota. However, its efficiency in complex communities such as saliva and feces is still controversial. An effective method for depleting host and dead bacterial DNA in human microbiome samples is lacking. Here, we systematically evaluate the efficiency of osmotic lysis and PMAxx treatment (lyPMAxx) in characterizing the viable microbiome with four live/dead Gram+/Gram- microbial strains in simple synthetic and spiked-in complex communities. We show that lyPMAxx-quantitative PCR (qPCR)/sequencing eliminated more than 95% of the host and heat-killed microbial DNA and had a much smaller effect on the live microbes in both simple mock and spiked-in complex communities. The overall microbial load and the alpha diversity of the salivary and fecal microbiome were decreased by lyPMAxx, and the relative abundances of the microbes were changed. The relative abundances of Actinobacteria, Fusobacteria, and Firmicutes in saliva were decreased by lyPMAxx, as was that of Firmicutes in feces. We also found that the frequently used sample storage method, freezing with glycerol, killed or injured 65% and 94% of the living microbial cells in saliva and feces, respectively, with the Proteobacteria phylum affected most in saliva and the Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes phyla affected most in feces. By comparing the absolute abundance variation of the shared species among different sample types and individuals, we found that sample habitat and personal differences affected the response of microbial species to lyPMAxx and freezing. IMPORTANCE The functions and phenotypes of microbial communities are largely defined by viable microbes. Through advanced nucleic acid sequencing technologies and downstream bioinformatic analyses, we gained an insight into the high-resolution microbial community composition of human saliva and feces, yet we know very little about whether such community DNA sequences represent viable microbes. PMA-qPCR was used to characterize the viable microbes in previous studies. However, its efficiency in complex communities such as saliva and feces is still controversial. By spiking-in four live/dead Gram+/Gram- bacterial strains, we demonstrate that lyPMAxx can effectively discriminate between live and dead microbes in the simple synthetic community and complex human microbial communities (saliva and feces). In addition, freezing storage was found to kill or injure the microbes in saliva and feces significantly, as measured with lyPMAxx-qPCR/sequencing. This method has a promising prospect in the viable/intact microbiota detection of complex human microbial communities.},
}