Project description:Although modern clinical practices such as cesarean sections and perinatal antibiotics have improved infant survival, treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics alters intestinal microbiota and causes dysbiosis. Infants exposed to perinatal antibiotics have an increased likelihood of life-threatening infections, including pneumonia. Here, we investigated how the gut microbiota sculpt pulmonary immune responses, promoting recovery and resolution of infection in newborn rhesus macaques. Early-life antibiotic exposure interrupted the maturation of intestinal commensal bacteria and disrupted the developmental trajectory of the pulmonary immune system, as assessed by single-cell proteomic and transcriptomic analyses. Early-life antibiotic exposure rendered newborn macaques more susceptible to bacterial pneumonia, concurrent with increases in neutrophil senescence and hyperinflammation, broad inflammatory cytokine signaling, and macrophage dysfunction. This pathogenic reprogramming of pulmonary immunity was further reflected by a hyperinflammatory signature in all pulmonary immune cell subsets coupled with a global loss of tissue-protective, homeostatic pathways in the lungs of dysbiotic newborns. Fecal microbiota transfer was associated with partial correction of the broad immune maladaptations and protection against severe pneumonia. These data demonstrate the importance of intestinal microbiota in programming pulmonary immunity and support the idea that gut microbiota promote the balance between pathways driving tissue repair and inflammatory responses associated with clinical recovery from infection in infants. Our results highlight a potential role for microbial transfer for immune support in these at-risk infants.
Project description:The early life microbiome plays important roles in host immunological and metabolic development. Because type 1 diabetes (T1D) incidence has been increasing substantially in recent decades, we hypothesized that early-life antibiotic use alters gut microbiota that predisposes to disease. Using NOD mice that are genetically susceptible to T1D, we examined the effects of exposure to either continuous low-dose antibiotics or pulsed therapeutic antibiotics (PAT) early in life, mimicking childhood exposures. We found that in mice receiving PAT, T1D incidence was significantly higher, microbial community composition and structure differed compared with controls. In pre-diabetic male PAT mice, the intestinal lamina propria had lower Th17 and T reg proportions and intestinal SAA expression than in controls, suggesting key roles in transducing the altered microbiota signals. PAT affected microbial lipid metabolism and host cholesterol biosynthetic gene expression. These findings show that early-life antibiotic treatments alter the gut microbiota and its metabolic capacities, intestinal gene expression, and T-cell populations, accelerating T1D onset in NOD mice.
Project description:Surfing motility is a novel form of surface adaptation exhibited by the nosocomial pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, in the presence of the glycoprotein mucin that is found in high abundance at mucosal surfaces especially the lungs of cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis patients. Here we investigated the adaptive antibiotic resistance of P. aeruginosa under conditions in which surfing occurs compared to cells undergoing swimming. P. aeruginosa surfing cells were significantly more resistant to several classes of antibiotics including aminoglycosides, carbapenems, polymyxins, and fluroquinolones. This was confirmed by incorporation of antibiotics into growth medium, which revealed a concentration-dependent inhibition of surfing motility that occurred at concentrations much higher than those needed to inhibit swimming. To investigate the basis of resistance, RNA-Seq was performed and revealed that surfing influenced the expression of numerous genes. Included amongst genes dysregulated under surfing conditions were multiple genes from the Pseudomonas resistome, which are known to affect antibiotic resistance when mutated. Screening transposon mutants in these surfing-dysregulated resistome genes revealed that several of these mutants exhibited changes in susceptibility to one or more antibiotics under surfing conditions, consistent with a contribution to the observed adaptive resistance. In particular, several mutants in resistome genes, including armR, recG, atpB, clpS, nuoB, and certain hypothetical genes such as PA5130, PA3576 and PA4292, showed contributions to broad-spectrum resistance under surfing conditions and could be complemented by their respective cloned genes. Therefore, we propose that surfing adaption led to extensive multidrug adaptive resistance as a result of the collective dysregulation of diverse genes.
Project description:Impact of antibiotics (T2) or antibiotics in combination with stress (T3) in early life on intestinal functioning in pigs on 8, 55, 176 days in jejunum and ileum (blood only day 8) and control pigs (T1)
Project description:Impact of antibiotics (T2) or antibiotics in combination with stress (T3) in early life on intestinal functioning in pigs on 8, 55, 176 days in jejunum and ileum (blood only day 8) and control pigs (T1) 4 pools consisting of 16 animals were generated per time-point (day 8, 55, 176 after birth) per treatment (T1;control, T2; antibiotics, T3; antibiotics+stress)
Project description:<p>The human gut microbiome establishes and matures during infancy, and dysregulation at this stage may lead to pathologies later in life. We conducted a multi-omics study comprising three generations of family members to investigate the early development of the gut microbiota. Fecal samples from 200 individuals, including infants (0-12 months old; 55% females, 45% males) and their respective mothers and grandmothers, were analyzed using two independent metabolomics platforms and metagenomics. For metabolomics, gas chromatography and capillary electrophoresis – using multisegment injection – coupled to mass spectrometry were applied. For metagenomics, both 16S rRNA gene and shotgun sequencing were performed. Here we show that infants greatly vary from their elders in fecal microbiota populations, function, and metabolome. Infants have a less diverse microbiota than adults and present differences in several metabolite classes, such as short- and branched-chain fatty acids, which are associated with shifts in bacterial populations. These findings provide innovative biochemical insights into the shaping of the gut microbiome within the same generational line that could be beneficial in improving childhood health outcomes.</p>