Dataset Information

Viral activation and ecological restructuring characterize a microbiome axis of spaceflight-associated immune activation.

ABSTRACT: Maintenance of astronaut health during spaceflight will require monitoring and potentially modulating their microbiomes, which play a role in some space-derived health disorders. However, documenting the response of microbiota to spaceflight has been difficult thus far due to mission constraints that lead to limited sampling. Here, we executed a six-month longitudinal study centered on a three-day flight to quantify the high-resolution microbiome response to spaceflight. Via paired metagenomics and metatranscriptomics alongside single immune profiling, we resolved a microbiome "architecture" of spaceflight characterized by time-dependent and taxonomically divergent microbiome alterations across 750 samples and ten body sites. We observed pan-phyletic viral activation and signs of persistent changes that, in the oral microbiome, yielded plaque-associated pathobionts with strong associations to immune cell gene expression. Further, we found enrichments of microbial genes associated with antibiotic production, toxin-antitoxin systems, and stress response enriched universally across the body sites. We also used strain-level tracking to measure the potential propagation of microbial species from the crew members to each other and the environment, identifying microbes that were prone to seed the capsule surface and move between the crew. Finally, we identified associations between microbiome and host immune cell shifts, proposing both a microbiome axis of immune changes during flight as well as the sources of some of those changes. In summary, these datasets and methods reveal connections between crew immunology, the microbiome, and their likely drivers and lay the groundwork for future microbiome studies of spaceflight.

SUBMITTER: Tierney BT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10602132 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Viral activation and ecological restructuring characterize a microbiome axis of spaceflight-associated immune activation.

Tierney Braden T BT Kim JangKeun J Overbey Eliah G EG Ryon Krista A KA Foox Jonathan J Sierra Maria M Bhattacharya Chandrima C Damle Namita N Najjar Deena D Park Jiwoon J Garcia Medina Sebastian S Houerbi Nadia N Meydan Cem C Wain Hershberg Jeremy J Qiu Jake J Kleinman Ashley A Al Ghalith Gabe G MacKay Matthew M Afshin Evan E EE Dhir Raja R Borg Joseph J Gatt Christine C Brereton Nicholas N Readhead Ben B Beyaz Semir S Venkateswaran Kasthuri J KJ Blease Kelly K Moreno Juan J Boddicker Andrew A Zhao Junhua J Lajoie Bryan B Scott Ryan T RT Altomare Andrew A Kruglyak Semyon S Levy Shawn S Church George G Mason Christopher E CE

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Maintenance of astronaut health during spaceflight will require monitoring and potentially modulating their microbiomes, which play a role in some space-derived health disorders. However, documenting the response of microbiota to spaceflight has been difficult thus far due to mission constraints that lead to limited sampling. Here, we executed a six-month longitudinal study centered on a three-day flight to quantify the high-resolution microbiome response to spaceflight. Via paired metagenomics ...[more]

PMID: 37886447

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Project description:BackgroundSpaceflight impacts astronauts in many ways but little is known on how spaceflight affects the salivary microbiome and the consequences of these changes on astronaut health, such as viral reactivation. In order to understand this, the salivary microbiome was analyzed with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, and saliva viral titers were analyzed with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) with primers specific for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), and varicella zoster virus (VZV) from 10 astronauts pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight.ResultsStreptococcus was the most abundant organism in the saliva, making up 8% of the total organisms detected, and their diversity decreased during spaceflight. Other organisms that had statistically significant changes were Proteobacteria and Fusobacteria which increased during flight and Actinobacteria which decreased during flight. At the genus level, Catonella, Megasphera, and Actinobacillus were absent in more than half of saliva samples collected pre-flight but were then detected during flight. In those subjects that already had these genera pre-flight, their relative abundances increased during flight. Correlation analyses between the microbiome and viral titers revealed a positive correlation with Gracilibacteria, Absconditabacteria, and Abiotrophia and a negative correlation between Oribacterium, Veillonella, and Haemophilus. There was also a significant positive correlation between microbiome richness and EBV viral titers.ConclusionsThis is the first study to look at how the salivary microbiome changes as a result of spaceflight and the search for bacterial biomarkers for viral reactivation. Further studies examining the role of specific organisms that were shown to be correlative and predictive in viral reactivation, a serious problem in astronauts during spaceflight, could lead to mitigation strategies to help prevent disease during both short and long duration space missions. Video abstract.

Dataset Information

Viral activation and ecological restructuring characterize a microbiome axis of spaceflight-associated immune activation.

Publications

Viral activation and ecological restructuring characterize a microbiome axis of spaceflight-associated immune activation.

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