Project description:Effects of current therapeutic foods in undernourished Bangladeshi children compared to microbiota-directed food prototypes in gnotobiotic mice and piglets
Project description:We illustrate an approach for integrating preclinical gnotobiotic animal models with human studies to understand the contributions of perturbed gut microbiota development to childhood undernutrition, and to identify new microbiota-directed therapeutic concepts/leads. Combining metabolomic and proteomic analyses of serially collected plasma samples with metagenomic analyses of serially collected fecal samples, we characterized the biological state of Bangladeshi children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) as they transitioned to moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) after standard treatment. Gnotobiotic mice were subsequently colonized with a defined consortium of bacterial strains representing different stages of microbiota development in healthy children from Bangladesh. Administering different combinations of Bangladeshi complementary food ingredients to colonized mice and germ-free controls revealed diet-dependent changes in representation and metabolism of targeted weaning-phase strains, including accompanying increases in branched-chain amino acids, plus diet- and colonization-dependent augmentation of IGF-1/mTOR signaling. Host and microbial effects of microbiota-directed complementary food (MDCF) prototypes were subsequently examined in gnotobiotic mice colonized with post-SAM MAM microbiota and in gnotobiotic piglets colonized with a defined consortium of targeted age- and growth-discriminatory bacteria. Finally, ar andomized, double-blind study revealed a lead MDCF that affected the representation of targeted bacterial taxa and increased levels of biomarkers and mediators of growth, bone formation, neurodevelopment, and immune function.
Project description:Comparing the effects of microbiota-directed therapeutic foods in gnotobiotic mice, gnotobiotic piglets and undernourished children
Project description:Based on the developmental origin of health of disease hypothesis, we previously showed that prenatal 70% maternal food restriction (FR30) predisposes the offspring to development of pathologies in adulthood. In the present study, we focused on the hypothalamus gene expression profile of standard and high fat (HF)-fed FR30 adult offspring. Total RNA obtained from isolated hypothalami of control standard and high fat-fed adult offspring compared to prenatally undernourished (FR30) counterparts.
Project description:A microbiota-directed complementary food, developed and characterized in gnotobiotic mice and piglets colonized with microbial therapeutic targets, has wide-ranging beneficial effects on biomarkers and mediators of postnatal development in Bangladeshi children with moderate acute malnutrition
Project description:Here we studied the epigenetic regulation of the naïve CD4+ T-cell activation response among children with IgE-mediated food allergy. Using integrated DNA methylation and transcriptomic profiling, we found that food allergy in infancy is associated with dysregulation of T-cell activation genes. Reduced expression of cell cycle related targets of the E2F and MYC transcription factor networks, and remodeling of DNA methylation at metabolic (RPTOR, PIK3D, MAPK1, FOXO1) and inflammatory genes (IL1R, IL18RAP, CD82) were associated with poorer T-lymphoproliferative responses in infancy after polyclonal activation of the T-cell receptor.
Project description:Here we studied the epigenetic regulation of the naïve CD4+ T-cell activation response among children with IgE-mediated food allergy. Using integrated DNA methylation and transcriptomic profiling, we found that food allergy in infancy is associated with dysregulation of T-cell activation genes. Reduced expression of cell cycle related targets of the E2F and MYC transcription factor networks, and remodeling of DNA methylation at metabolic (RPTOR, PIK3D, MAPK1, FOXO1) and inflammatory genes (IL1R, IL18RAP, CD82) were associated with poorer T-lymphoproliferative responses in infancy after polyclonal activation of the T-cell receptor.