Project description:We illustrate how metabolically distinct species of Clostridia can protect against or worsen Clostridioides difficile infection, modulating the pathogen's colonization, growth, and virulence to impact host survival. Gnotobiotic mice colonized with the amino acid fermenter Paraclostridium bifermentans survived infection while mice colonized with the butyrate-producer, Clostridium sardiniense, more rapidly succumbed. Systematic in vivo analyses revealed how each commensal altered the gut nutrient environment, modulating the pathogen's metabolism, regulatory networks, and toxin production. Oral administration of P. bifermentans rescued conventional mice from lethal C. difficile infection via mechanisms identified in specifically colonized mice. Our findings lay the foundation for mechanistically informed therapies to counter C. difficile disease using systems biologic approaches to define host-commensal-pathogen interactions in vivo.
Project description:Clostridioides difficile can cause severe infections in the gastrointestinal tract and affects almost half a million people in the U.S every year. Upon establishment of infection, a strong immune response is induced. We sought to investigate the dynamics of the mucosal host response during C. difficile infection.
Project description:Gene expression level of Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) strain R20291 comparing control C. difficile carring pMTL84151 as vector plasmid with C. difficile conjugated with a pMTL84151-03890 gene. Goal was to determine the effects of 03890 gene conjugation on C. difficile strain R20291 gene expression.
Project description:Clostridioides difficile is one of the most common nosocomial pathogens and a global public health threat. Upon colonization of the gastrointestinal tract, C. difficile is exposed to a rapidly changing polymicrobial environment and a dynamic metabolic milieu. Despite the link between the gut microbiota and susceptibility to C. difficile, the impact of synergistic interactions between the microbiota and pathogens on the outcome of infection is largely unknown. Here, we show that microbial cooperation between C. difficile and Enterococcus has a profound impact on the growth, metabolism, and pathogenesis of C. difficile.. Through a process of nutrient restriction and metabolite cross-feeding, E. faecalis shapes the metabolic environment in the gut to enhance C. difficile fitness and increase toxin production. These findings demonstrate that members of the microbiota, such as Enterococcus, have a previously unappreciated impact on C. difficile behavior and virulence.
Project description:Clostridioides difficile interactions with the gut mucosa are crucial for colonisation and establishment of infection, however key infection events during the establishment of disease are still poorly defined. To better understand the initial events that occur during C. difficile colonisation, we employed a dual RNA-sequencing approach to study the host and bacterial transcriptomic profiles during C. difficile infection in a dual-environment in vitro human gut model. Temporal changes in gene expression were analysed over 3-24h post infection and comparisons were made with uninfected controls.
Project description:The most clinically relevant risk factor for Clostridioides difficile-associated disease (CDAD) is recent antibiotic treatment. Though most broad-spectrum antibiotics significantly disrupt the structure of the gut microbiota, only particular ones increase CDAD risk, suggesting additional factors might increase the risk from certain antibiotics. Here we show that commensal-independent effects of antibiotics collectively prime an in vitro germ-free human gut for CDAD. We found a marked loss of mucosal barrier and immune function with CDAD-associated antibiotic pretreatment distinct from pretreatment with an antibiotic unassociated with CDAD, which did not reduce innate immune or mucosal barrier functions. Importantly, pretreatment with CDAD-associated antibiotics sensitized mucosal barriers to C. difficile toxin activity in primary cell-derived enteroid monolayers. These data implicate commensal-independent host changes in the increased risk of CDAD with specific antibiotics. Our findings are contrary to the previously held belief that antibiotics allow for CDAD solely through disruption of the microbiome. We anticipate this work to suggest potential avenues of research for host-directed treatment and preventive therapies for CDAD, and to impact human tissue culturing protocols.
Project description:Clostridioides difficile, the leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea worldwide, is a genetically diverse species which can metabolise a number of nutrient sources upon colonising a dysbiotic gut environment. Trehalose, a disaccharide sugar consisting of two glucose molecules bonded by an α 1,1-glycosidic bond, has been hypothesised to be involved in the emergence of C. difficile hypervirulence due to its increased utilisation by the RT027 and RT078 strains. Using RNA-sequencing analysis, we report the identification of a putative trehalose metabolism pathway which is induced during growth in trehalose: this has not been previously described within the C. difficile species. These data demonstrate the metabolic diversity exhibited by C. difficile which warrants further investigation to elucidate the molecular basis of trehalose metabolism within this important gut pathogen.
Project description:The gut microbiome engenders colonization resistance against the diarrheal pathogen Clostridioides difficile but the molecular basis of this colonization resistance is incompletely understood. A prominent class of gut microbiome-produced metabolites important for colonization resistance against C. difficile is short chain fatty acids (SCFAs). In particular, one SCFA (butyrate) decreases the fitness of C. difficile in vitro and is correlated with C. difficile-inhospitable gut environments, both in mice and in humans. Here, we demonstrate that butyrate-dependent growth inhibition in C. difficile occurs under conditions where C. difficile also produces butyrate as a metabolic end product. Furthermore, we show that exogenous butyrate is internalized into C. difficile cells and is incorporated into intracellular CoA pools where it is metabolized in a reverse (energetically unfavorable) direction to crotonyl-CoA and (S)-3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA and/or 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA. This internalization of butyrate and reverse metabolic flow of butyrogenic pathway(s) in C. difficile coincides with alterations in toxin release and sporulation. Together, this work highlights butyrate as a marker of a C. difficile inhospitable environment to which C. difficile responds by releasing its diarrheagenic toxins and producing environmentally-resistant spores necessary for transmission between hosts. These findings provide foundational data for understanding the molecular and genetic basis of how C. difficile growth is inhibited by butyrate and how butyrate alters C. difficile virulence in the face of a highly competitive and dynamic gut environment.
Project description:Clostridioides difficile (formerly Clostridium difficile) is a Gram-positive, spore-forming pathogen which cases drug-induced Clostridioides difficile-associated diseases in hospitals worldwide. A detailed analysis of the proteome may provide new targets for drug development or therapy strategies to combat this pathogen. So far, quantitative proteome analyses could only be carried out by label-free or chemical labeling methods. However, the application of metabolic labeling would allow for accurate quantification of significant differences, even in the case of very small changes. Additionally, it would be possible to perform bias free studies of the membrane or surface proteome which require elaborated preparations and are therefore prone to higher standard deviations during the quantification. Up to now, the implementation of metabolic labeling strategies of C. difficile was hampered by the very specific metabolic requirements of this anaerobic pathogen. To solve this problem, media were evaluated and the cultivation procedure with 15N labeled media for the C. difficile 630Δerm strain was optimized to gain a high incorporation rate. In the following proof-of-principle experiment, the cytosolic sub-proteomes of C. difficile cells of three different cultivation media and two growth phases were analyzed resulting in reproducible data which are shown in detail.
Project description:Leber2015 - Mucosal immunity and gut
microbiome interaction during C. difficile infection
This model is described in the article:
Systems Modeling of
Interactions between Mucosal Immunity and the Gut Microbiome
during Clostridium difficile Infection.
Leber A, Viladomiu M, Hontecillas R,
Abedi V, Philipson C, Hoops S, Howard B, Bassaganya-Riera
J.
PLoS ONE 2015; 10(7): e0134849
Abstract:
Clostridium difficile infections are associated with the use
of broad-spectrum antibiotics and result in an exuberant
inflammatory response, leading to nosocomial diarrhea, colitis
and even death. To better understand the dynamics of mucosal
immunity during C. difficile infection from initiation through
expansion to resolution, we built a computational model of the
mucosal immune response to the bacterium. The model was
calibrated using data from a mouse model of C. difficile
infection. The model demonstrates a crucial role of T helper 17
(Th17) effector responses in the colonic lamina propria and
luminal commensal bacteria populations in the clearance of C.
difficile and colonic pathology, whereas regulatory T (Treg)
cells responses are associated with the recovery phase. In
addition, the production of anti-microbial peptides by inflamed
epithelial cells and activated neutrophils in response to C.
difficile infection inhibit the re-growth of beneficial
commensal bacterial species. Computational simulations suggest
that the removal of neutrophil and epithelial cell derived
anti-microbial inhibitions, separately and together, on
commensal bacterial regrowth promote recovery and minimize
colonic inflammatory pathology. Simulation results predict a
decrease in colonic inflammatory markers, such as neutrophilic
influx and Th17 cells in the colonic lamina propria, and length
of infection with accelerated commensal bacteria re-growth
through altered anti-microbial inhibition. Computational
modeling provides novel insights on the therapeutic value of
repopulating the colonic microbiome and inducing regulatory
mucosal immune responses during C. difficile infection. Thus,
modeling mucosal immunity-gut microbiota interactions has the
potential to guide the development of targeted fecal
transplantation therapies in the context of precision medicine
interventions.
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