Emerg Infect Dis. 2024 Aug;30(8):1505-13. doi: 10.3201/eid3008.240181.
Archaea represent a separate domain of life, next to bacteria and eukarya. As components of the human microbiome, archaea have been associated with various diseases, including periodontitis, endodontic infections, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, and urogenital tract infections. Archaea are generally considered nonpathogenic; the reasons are speculative because of limited knowledge and gene annotation challenges. Nevertheless, archaeal syntrophic principles that shape global microbial networks aid both archaea and potentially pathogenic bacteria. Evaluating archaea interactions remains challenging, requiring clinical studies on inflammatory potential and the effects of archaeal metabolism. Establishing a culture collection is crucial for investigating archaea functions within the human microbiome, which could improve health outcomes in infectious diseases. We summarize potential reasons for archaeal nonpathogenicity, assess the association with infectious diseases in humans, and discuss the necessary experimental steps to enable mechanistic studies involving archaea.
古菌代表了生命的一个独立领域，与细菌和真核生物并列。作为人类微生物组的组成部分，古菌与各种疾病有关，包括牙周炎、牙髓感染、小肠细菌过度生长和泌尿生殖道感染。古菌通常被认为是非致病性的；由于知识有限和基因注释挑战，原因还在推测之中。然而，塑造全球微生物网络的古菌共生原则既有利于古菌，也有利于潜在的致病性细菌。评估古菌的相互作用仍然具有挑战性，需要进行关于炎症潜力和古菌代谢影响的临床研究。建立一个培养物库对于研究古菌在人类微生物组中的功能至关重要，这可以改善传染病的健康结果。我们总结了古菌非致病性的潜在原因，评估了它们与人类传染病的关联，并讨论了进行涉及古菌的机制研究所需的实验步骤。
