Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Oregon, USA.
Department of Pathobiology, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Illinois, USA.
mSystems. 2024 Sep 17;9(9):e0054524. doi: 10.1128/msystems.00545-24. Epub 2024 Aug 27.
Intestinal helminth parasite (IHP) infection induces alterations in the composition of microbial communities across vertebrates, although how gut microbiota may facilitate or hinder parasite infection remains poorly defined. In this work, we utilized a zebrafish model to investigate the relationship between gut microbiota, gut metabolites, and IHP infection. We found that extreme disparity in zebrafish parasite infection burden is linked to the composition of the gut microbiome and that changes in the gut microbiome are associated with variation in a class of endogenously produced signaling compounds, N-acylethanolamines, that are known to be involved in parasite infection. Using a statistical mediation analysis, we uncovered a set of gut microbes whose relative abundance explains the association between gut metabolites and infection outcomes. Experimental investigation of one of the compounds in this analysis reveals salicylaldehyde, which is putatively produced by the gut microbe , as a potent anthelmintic with activity against egg hatching, both and . Collectively, our findings underscore the importance of the gut microbiome as a mediating agent in parasitic infection and highlight specific gut metabolites as tools for the advancement of novel therapeutic interventions against IHP infection.
Intestinal helminth parasites (IHPs) impact human health globally and interfere with animal health and agricultural productivity. While anthelmintics are critical to controlling parasite infections, their efficacy is increasingly compromised by drug resistance. Recent investigations suggest the gut microbiome might mediate helminth infection dynamics. So, identifying how gut microbes interact with parasites could yield new therapeutic targets for infection prevention and management. We conducted a study using a zebrafish model of parasitic infection to identify routes by which gut microbes might impact helminth infection outcomes. Our research linked the gut microbiome to both parasite infection and to metabolites in the gut to understand how microbes could alter parasite infection. We identified a metabolite in the gut, salicylaldehyde, that is putatively produced by a gut microbe and that inhibits parasitic egg growth. Our results also point to a class of compounds, N-acyl-ethanolamines, which are affected by changes in the gut microbiome and are linked to parasite infection. Collectively, our results indicate the gut microbiome may be a source of novel anthelmintics that can be harnessed to control IHPs.
肠道寄生虫感染会改变脊椎动物微生物群落的组成，但肠道微生物群如何促进或阻碍寄生虫感染仍不清楚。在这项工作中，我们利用斑马鱼模型研究了肠道微生物群、肠道代谢物和肠道寄生虫感染之间的关系。我们发现，斑马鱼寄生虫感染负担的极端差异与肠道微生物群的组成有关，而肠道微生物群的变化与一类内源性信号化合物 N-酰基乙醇胺有关，已知这些化合物参与寄生虫感染。通过统计中介分析，我们发现了一组相对丰度可以解释肠道代谢物与感染结果之间关联的肠道微生物。对该分析中的一种化合物的实验研究揭示了水杨醛，它是一种推定由肠道微生物产生的化合物，对 和 的卵孵化具有强烈的驱虫活性。总的来说，我们的研究结果强调了肠道微生物群作为寄生虫感染中介的重要性，并突出了特定的肠道代谢物作为针对肠道寄生虫感染的新型治疗干预的工具。
肠道寄生虫（IHPs）在全球范围内影响人类健康，并干扰动物健康和农业生产力。虽然驱虫剂对于控制寄生虫感染至关重要，但它们的功效越来越受到药物耐药性的影响。最近的研究表明，肠道微生物群可能调节寄生虫感染动态。因此，确定肠道微生物与寄生虫的相互作用方式可能为感染预防和管理提供新的治疗靶点。我们使用斑马鱼寄生虫感染模型进行了一项研究，以确定肠道微生物可能影响寄生虫感染结果的途径。我们的研究将肠道微生物群与寄生虫感染和肠道中的代谢物联系起来，以了解微生物如何改变寄生虫感染。我们鉴定出一种肠道代谢物水杨醛，它是由肠道微生物产生的，并且抑制寄生虫卵的生长。我们的结果还指向一类化合物，N-酰基乙醇胺，它们受肠道微生物群变化的影响，与寄生虫感染有关。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，肠道微生物群可能是一种新型驱虫剂的来源，可以用来控制肠道寄生虫。
