Center for Microbiome Analyses and Therapeutics, Leiden University Medical Center , Leiden, The Netherlands.
Department of Medical Microbiology, Leiden University Medical Center , Leiden, The Netherlands.
Gut Microbes. 2020 Nov 9;12(1):1-15. doi: 10.1080/19490976.2020.1840764.
Hookworms are soil-transmitted helminths that use immune-evasive strategies to persist in the human duodenum where they are responsible for anemia and protein loss. Given their location and immune regulatory effects, hookworms likely impact the bacterial microbiota. However, microbiota studies struggle to deconvolute the effect of hookworms from confounders such as coinfections and malnutrition. We thus used an experimental human hookworm infection model to explore temporal changes in the gut microbiota before and during hookworm infection. Volunteers were dermally exposed to cumulative dosages of 50, 100 or 150 L3 larvae. Fecal samples were collected for microbiota profiling through 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing at weeks zero, four, eight, fourteen and twenty. During the acute infection phase (trial week zero to eight) no changes in bacterial diversity were detected. During the established infection phase (trial week eight to twenty), bacterial richness (Chao1, = .0174) increased significantly over all volunteers. No relation was found between larval dosage and diversity, stability or relative abundance of individual bacterial taxa. GI symptoms were associated with an unstable microbiota during the first eight weeks and rapid recovery at week twenty. , amongst other taxa, was more abundant in volunteers with more GI symptoms throughout the study. In conclusion, this study showed that clinical GI symptoms following infection are associated with temporary microbiota instability and relative abundance of specific bacterial taxa. These results suggest a possible role of hookworm-induced enteritis on microbiota stability.
钩虫是一种土壤传播的寄生虫，它使用免疫逃避策略在人类十二指肠中生存，在那里它会导致贫血和蛋白质流失。鉴于它们的位置和免疫调节作用，钩虫可能会影响细菌微生物群。然而，微生物组研究在从合并感染和营养不良等混杂因素中分离钩虫的影响方面存在困难。因此，我们使用实验性人类钩虫感染模型来探索钩虫感染前后肠道微生物群的时间变化。志愿者通过皮肤暴露于累积剂量为 50、100 或 150 L3 幼虫来进行感染。在零周、四周、八周、十四周和二十周通过 16S rRNA 基因扩增子测序收集粪便样本进行微生物组分析。在急性感染阶段（试验零周到八周），未检测到细菌多样性的变化。在已建立的感染阶段（试验第八周到二十周），所有志愿者的细菌丰富度（Chao1， = 0.0174）显著增加。幼虫剂量与多样性、稳定性或个别细菌类群的相对丰度之间没有关系。GI 症状与前八周不稳定的微生物群有关，在第二十周时迅速恢复。在整个研究过程中，志愿者的 GI 症状越多， 等分类群的丰度就越高。总之，这项研究表明， 感染后出现的临床 GI 症状与暂时的微生物群不稳定和特定细菌类群的相对丰度有关。这些结果表明钩虫诱导的肠炎可能对微生物群的稳定性有一定的影响。
