College of Public Health, Medical, and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4811, Australia.
Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32608, USA.
Environ Microbiol. 2019 Aug;21(8):2871-2885. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.14644. Epub 2019 May 15.
Green turtles are endangered marine herbivorous hindgut fermenters that contribute to a variety of marine ecosystems. Debilitated turtles are often rehabilitated in turtle hospitals. Since accurate diagnosis of disease is difficult, broad-spectrum antibiotics are routinely used as a general treatment, potentially causing collateral damage to the gut microbiome of the patient. Here, we evaluated the concept of the application of bacteriophage (phages) to eliminate targeted intestinal bacteria as an alternative to a broad-spectrum antibiotic (enrofloxacin) in clinically healthy, captive green turtles. Additionally, the impact of a broad-spectrum antibiotic (enrofloxacin) and phage therapy on the gut bacterial communities of green turtles was evaluated. Gut bacterial communities in faecal samples were analysed by sequencing the V1-V3 regions of the bacterial 16S rRNA. Bacteria-specific phage cocktails significantly (P < 0.05) reduced targeted Acinetobacter in phage-treated turtles during the therapy. Compared to control, no significant difference was observed in the bacterial diversity and compositions in phage-treated turtles. In contrast, bacterial diversity was significantly (P < 0.05) reduced in antibiotic-treated turtles at day 15 and throughout the trial. The alteration in the bacterial microbiota of antibiotic-treated turtles was largely due to an increase in abundance of Gram-positive Firmicutes and a concurrent decrease in Gram-negative Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria and Verrucomicrobia. Additionally, we observed the relative abundance of several bacteria at lower taxonomic level was much less affected by phages than by antibiotics. These data offer the proof of concept of phage therapy to manipulate transient as well as indigenous bacterial flora in gut-related dysbiosis of turtles.
绿海龟是濒危的海洋草食性后肠发酵者，对各种海洋生态系统有贡献。衰弱的海龟经常在海龟医院接受康复治疗。由于准确诊断疾病很困难，广谱抗生素通常被用作一般治疗方法，这可能会对患者的肠道微生物群造成附带损害。在这里，我们评估了应用噬菌体（噬菌体）来消除靶向肠道细菌作为替代广谱抗生素（恩诺沙星）的概念，用于临床健康的圈养绿海龟。此外，还评估了广谱抗生素（恩诺沙星）和噬菌体治疗对绿海龟肠道细菌群落的影响。通过测序细菌 16S rRNA 的 V1-V3 区来分析粪便样本中的肠道细菌群落。在治疗期间，针对特定的不动杆菌的细菌特异性噬菌体鸡尾酒显著（P < 0.05）减少了噬菌体治疗的海龟中的靶向不动杆菌。与对照组相比，噬菌体治疗的海龟的细菌多样性和组成没有显著差异。相比之下，在第 15 天和整个试验期间，抗生素治疗的海龟的细菌多样性显著（P < 0.05）降低。抗生素治疗的海龟的细菌微生物群的改变主要是由于革兰氏阳性Firmicutes 的丰度增加和革兰氏阴性Bacteroidetes、Proteobacteria 和 Verrucomicrobia 的同时减少。此外，我们观察到，在较低的分类水平上，几种细菌的相对丰度受噬菌体的影响比抗生素小得多。这些数据提供了噬菌体治疗的概念验证，以操纵海龟肠道相关生态失调中的短暂和固有细菌菌群。
