Alteration of the fecal microbiota in Chinese patients with Schistosoma japonicum infection

Abstract

Schistosoma japonicum infection causes pathological injury to the host. Multiple studies have shown that intestinal helminth infection causes dysbiosis for the gut microbial community and impacts host immunology. However, the effect of acute S. japonicum infection on the gut microbiome structure (abundance and diversity) is still unclear. We collected fecal samples from healthy and infected patients from a single hospital in Hunan Province, China. The bacterial community was analyzed using 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing of the V4 hypervariable region using the HiSeq platform. Compared with healthy subjects, infected patients exhibited an increase in relative abundance of the TM7 phylum. At the genus level, there were seven differentially abundant genera between groups. The most significant finding was a Bacteroides enterotype in patients with acute schistosomiasis. These results suggest that S. japonicum infection has a significant effect on microbiome composition characterized by a higher abundance of the TM7 phylum and development of a Bacteroides enterotype.

Adult schistosomes have an epithelial bacterial population distinct from the surrounding mammalian host blood

“…The human gut microbial changes to S . japonicum have been recently reported [ 6 ], associated infection with the higher abundance of certain taxa. Similarly studies using experimental animals infected with S .…”

Effects of helminths on the human immune response and the microbiome

“…Most of the work in this area involves describing associations between intestinal helminths and fecal samples by 16S ribosomal sequencing analysis in endemic populations. These include cross-sectional (n = 12) 53,[133][134][135][136][137][138][139][140][141][142][143][144][145][146][147] and longitudinal studies (n = 10) [148][149][150][151][152][153][154][155][156][157][158][159] , but the conclusions are often divergent, due to differences in the prevalence of helminths and study population for each analysis (see below). A common feature observed from some cross-sectional studies is increased gut microbial diversity in helminth-infected individuals 133,138,142,[144][145][146]151,153,159 ; however, some other studies showed either reduced diversity 146 or no significant differences in microbial diversity in infected individuals 134,135,139,140,143,148,…”

“…As the gut microbiota varies across geography, ethnicity and mode of subsistence 161 , in studies conducted in various continents including South America 53,141,157 , North America 136,147 , Africa 133,138,139,148,153,154,156 , Europe 151 , and Asia 134,135,140,[142][143][144][145][146]149,150,152,153,155,158,159 , it is not surprising to have divergent findings. In addition, studies have focused on different parasites, based on the study population including T. trichiura 133,144,149,155,157 , A. lumbricoides 147 , S. haematobium 139,156 , S. mansoni 154 S. japonicum 134 , Strongyloides stercoralis 151 , Clonorchis sinensis 142 , Haplorchis taichui 146 , E. vermicularis 159 , or mixed infections 136,138,140,141,143,145...…”

Unbalanced relationships: insights into the interaction between gut microbiota, geohelminths, and schistosomiasis

“…Interestingly, the same was found when analyzing S. japonicum in a population of 11 patients infected in China; Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were the most altered phyla as observed for S. mansoni and S. haematobium . Bacteroides , Faecalibacterium , and Prevotella were the most often found genera, which could be related to difficulties in the metabolism of many nutrients; hence, a problem observed in patients with schistosomiasis with intense infections can be related to this dysbiosis ( Jiang et al, 2021 ). After the infection with S. japonicum , Bacilli and Lactobacillales showed an increase, and this alteration was related to cirrhosis ( Gui et al, 2021 ).…”