0000000000003105
AUTHOR
María Loreto Ferrús
Altered metabolism of gut microbiota contributes to chronic immune activation in HIV-infected individuals.
Altered interplay between gut mucosa and microbiota during treated HIV infection may possibly contribute to increased bacterial translocation and chronic immune activation, both of which are predictors of morbidity and mortality. Although a dysbiotic gut microbiota has recently been reported in HIV + individuals, the metagenome gene pool associated with HIV infection remains unknown. The aim of this study is to characterize the functional gene content of gut microbiota in HIV + patients and to define the metabolic pathways of this bacterial community, which is potentially associated with immune dysfunction. We determined systemic markers of innate and adaptive immunity in a cohort of HIV-in…
Differential Effects of Antibiotic Therapy on the Structure and Function of Human Gut Microbiota
The human intestinal microbiota performs many essential functions for the host. Antimicrobial agents, such as antibiotics (AB), are also known to disturb microbial community equilibrium, thereby having an impact on human physiology. While an increasing number of studies investigate the effects of AB usage on changes in human gut microbiota biodiversity, its functional effects are still poorly understood. We performed a follow-up study to explore the effect of ABs with different modes of action on human gut microbiota composition and function. Four individuals were treated with different antibiotics and samples were taken before, during and after the AB course for all of them. Changes in the…
Microbial Succession in the Gut: Directional Trends of Taxonomic and Functional Change in a Birth Cohort of Spanish Infants
In spite of its major impact on life-long health, the process of microbial succession in the gut of infants remains poorly understood. Here, we analyze the patterns of taxonomic and functional change in the gut microbiota during the first year of life for a birth cohort of 13 infants. We detect that individual instances of gut colonization vary in the temporal dynamics of microbiota richness, diversity, and composition at both functional and taxonomic levels. Nevertheless, trends discernible in a majority of infants indicate that gut colonization occurs in two distinct phases of succession, separated by the introduction of solid foods to the diet. This change in resource availability causes…
Carriage of Enterobacteria Producing Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamases and Composition of the Gut Microbiota in an Amerindian Community
ABSTRACT Epidemiological and individual risk factors for colonization by enterobacteria producing extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (E-ESBL) have been studied extensively, but whether such colonization is associated with significant changes in the composition of the rest of the microbiota is still unknown. To address this issue, we assessed in an isolated Amerindian Guianese community whether intestinal carriage of E-ESBL was associated with specificities in gut microbiota using metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches. While the richness of taxa of the active microbiota of carriers was similar to that of noncarriers, the taxa were less homogeneous. In addition, species of four genera,…