IMPACTT Newsletter

IMPACTT Newsletter | July 2021

Dear reader,

This past July has been prolific in terms of discoveries. From health to disease, from early life to adulthood, our network of experts is making significant advances to decipher the role of the microbiome in our Health, harness the power of our microbiome and improve personalized medicine. In this newsletter, we gathered some of their latest news and research.

Happy reading!

NEWSROOM

Dr. Kathy McCoy has been awarded the Killiam Memorial Chair, highest scientific recognition of the University of Calgary, more.

Special Issue on Intestinal Microbiota in Health and Disease. Microbes & Infection. Edited by Girardin SE, Philpott DJ. Volume 23, Issues 6–7, July–August 2021. A collection of articles that presents the current state of our knowledge on the role of our intestinal Microbiota and perspectives, written by microbiome experts across Canada. A great resource!

ON THE RESEARCH SIDE

Microbiome & Diseases

#ClinicalTrial #Obesity #FMT #Diet

Fecal microbial transplantation and fiber supplementation in patients with severe obesity and metabolic syndrome: a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial. Mocanu V, et al. Nat Med. 2021 Jul 5. The results of this double-blind randomized trial provide a 'proof of concept for the use of a single-dose oral FMT combined with daily low-fermentable fiber supplementation to improve insulin sensitivity in patients with severe obesity and metabolic syndrome.'

#VaginalMicrobiome #ReproductiveTissues

Protease activities of vaginal Porphyromonas species disrupt coagulation and extracellular matrix in the cervicovaginal niche. Lithgow KV et al. BioRxiv. 2021 July 7. (Preprint) From bioinformatics analysis to bacterial engineering and in vitro testing, the authors demonstrated the first known virulence factor in a species colonizing the human vagina, shedding light on their potentially harmful effects on reproductive tissues and roles in reproductive complications.

#Inflammation #Obesity #Dysglycemia

Metabolic endotoxemia is dictated by the type of lipopolysaccharide. F. Anhê F. et al. BioRxiv. 2021 July 14. (Preprint) Using mouse models and LPS treatments, the authors 'demonstrate that metabolic endotoxemia should be expanded beyond LPS load to include LPS characteristics, where the balance of deleterious and beneficial endotoxemia regulates host metabolism.'

#COVID19 #GutMicrobiota

Critical appraisal of the mechanisms of gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary infection by COVID-19. Levy E, et al. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2021 Jul 15. (Review) After providing a brief update on COVID-19 pathogenesis and a critical overview of its GI, the authors present microbiota-related associated mechanisms to discuss the need for additional studies to clarify the contribution of bacterial microflora to COVID-19 phenotype, and develop biomarkers and therapeutics.

#Cancer #CohortStudy #MicrobialDiagnosticMarkers

Distinct microbial communities colonize tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma. De Martin A, et al. OncoImmunol. 2021 Jul 25. Using 16S sequencing to characterize the microbiome of patients suffering from tonsil carcinoma, machine-learning approach to identify microbial markers and PCR to validate results; the authors demonstrated that 'tonsil cancer patients harbor a characteristic microbiome in the crypt environment that differs from the microbiome of sleep apnea patients providing microbiome-based avenues for the diagnosis of tonsil cancer.'

#SkinInfection

Staphylococcus aureus uses the ArlRS and MgrA cascade to regulate immune evasion during skin infection. Kwiecinski JM, et al. Cells Report. 2021 July 27. Using a combination of in vitro assays, mouse models, and intravital imaging, the authors elucidate a molecular mechanism that enables S. aureus immune evasion during skin infection.

Microbiome in Early-life

#TD1 #CMT

Maternal cecal microbiota transfer (CMT) rescues early-life antibiotic-induced enhancement of type 1 diabetes in mice. Zhang XS, et al. Cell Host Microbe. 2021 Jul 15. Studying the NOD mouse model, the authors observed that CMT after early-life antibiotic perturbation largely rescued the induced T1D enhancement and provide a potential mechanistic immunological explanation.

#FMT #AgeMatching

Age-Matching in Pediatric Fecal Matter Transplants. MacLellan AD, Finlay BB, Appel-Cresswell S. Front Pediatr. 2021 Jul 16. (Opinion) Summarizing the current landscape in FMT pediatric clinical trials, the authors address the potential risks of using adult donors for pediatric FMT and why age-matching should be considered for pediatric FMTs.

#GutBrainAxis #CHILDStudy #SexDifference

Breastfeeding in the First Days of Life Is Associated With Lower Blood Pressure at 3 Years of Age. Miliku K, et al. JAHA. 2021 July 21. By analyzing the gut microbiota of 405 infants at 4 months and 1 year of age, the authors revealed an association between the cognitive development of infants based on the presence of a specific genus of bacteria.

Methodologies

#Bioinformatics #LongitudinalStudies

phyLoSTM: a novel deep learning model on disease prediction from longitudinal microbiome data. Sharma D, Xu W. Bioinformatics. 2021 Jul 2. (New bioinformatics tool) The authors developed a 'methodology that improves predictive accuracy on longitudinal human microbiome studies containing spatially correlated data, and evaluates the change of microbiome composition contributing to outcome prediction.'

#EarlyLife #MetagenomicsAnalysis

Comparative Analysis of 16S rRNA Gene and Metagenome Sequencing in Pediatric Gut Microbiomes. Peterson D, et al. Front Microbiol. 2021 Jul 15. This comparative study of Metagenomics methodologies aims to provide a guide for selecting an appropriate method and sequencing depth for the three studied age groups in pediatrics.

#GutMicrobiome #MetaproteomicsAnalysis

Revealing Protein-Level Functional Redundancy in the Human Gut Microbiome using Ultra-deep Metaproteomics. Li L, et al. BioRxiv. 2021 July 15. (Preprint) In this study, the authors explore the redundancy of protein functions within the human microbiome via ultra-deep metaproteomics and network approaches and highlight external factors that may influence this phenomenon.

#MouseModels

Mice, Models, Microbiota: How Can We More Accurately Reflect Human Disease? Ladak RA, Philpott D. JULS. 2021 Jul 23. (Review) The authors present approaches for how the gut microbiota might be considered when modelling human diseases in mice and propose ways to improve mouse models.

UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST

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