Gut microbiota related to Giardia duodenalis, Entamoeba spp. and Blastocystis hominis infections in humans from Côte d’Ivoire

Abstract

Introduction: Literature data provide little information about protozoa infections and gut microbiota compositional shifts in humans. This preliminary study aimed to describe the fecal bacterial community composition of people from Côte d'Ivoire harboring Giardia duodenalis, Entamoeba spp., and Blastocystis hominis, in trying to discover possible alterations in their fecal microbiota structure related to the presence of such parasites. Methodology: Twenty fecal samples were collected from people inhabiting three different localities of Côte d'Ivoire for copromicroscopic analysis and molecular identification of G. duodenalis, Entamoeba spp., and B. hominis. Temporal temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TTGE) was used to obtain a fingerprint of the overall bacterial community; quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used to define the relative abundances of selected bacterial species/group, and multivariate statistical analyses were employed to correlate all data. Results: Cluster analysis revealed a significant separation of TTGE profiles into four clusters (p < 0.0001), with a marked difference for G. duodenalis-positive samples in relation to the others (p = 5.4×10 -6 ). Interestingly, qPCR data showed how G. duodenalis-positive samples were related to a dysbiotic condition that favors potentially harmful species (such as Escherichia coli), while Entamoeba spp./B. hominis-positive subjects were linked to a eubiotic condition, as shown by a significantly higher Faecalibacterium prausnitzii-Escherichia coli ratio. Conclusions: This preliminary investigation demonstrates a differential fecal microbiota structure in subjects infected with G. duodenalis or Entamoeba spp./B. hominis, paving the way for using further next-generation DNA technologies to better understand host-parasite-bacteria interactions, aimed at identifying potential indicators of microbiota changes.

Parasitic Protozoa and Interactions with the Host Intestinal Microbiota

“…Application of this tool to samples from a patient cohort in Côte d'Ivoire suggested that the Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroonian study results were in agreement and that an increase in microbiome diversity occurs in asymptomatic Entamoeba species infections. The Côte d'Ivoire results also suggest that this observation may be extended and that an increase in microbiome diversity also occurred during Blastocystis hominis infections (47). It is controversial, however, whether Blastocystis can cause diarrhea (48).…”

Impact of intestinal parasites on microbiota and cobalamin gene sequences: a pilot study

“…1b). Alpha diversity was also lower for the Giardia + helminth co-infected group compared to the helminth-only group U (19) = 7, Z = 2.958, P = 0.00178 ( Fig. 1b).…”

“…The Etiology, Risk Factors, and Interactions of Enteric Infections and Malnutrition and the Consequences for Child Health and Development (MAL-ED) study found an association with subclinical, non-diarrheal giardiasis and decreases in growth of children [16]. There are few studies attributing gut microbiome changes to giardiasis [17][18][19] and no published studies showing the impact on the human intestinal microbiome using multi-parallel real-time quantitative (qPCR) to detect the presence of Giardia and quantitating the burden of infection [20]. To date, most studies examining intestinal parasitism have not been able to study intestinal worms and protozoans simultaneously and to successfully dissect the relative contribution of each of the significant intestinal helminth or protozoan pathogens to specific diseases.…”

“…Animal studies further show changes in microbial diversity due to G. duodenalis [18,28]. There is a lack of literature studying the relationship between GI parasitesʼ impact on the human intestinal microbiome [19]. These few studies have presented discordant results of the impact parasites have on human intestinal microbiota biodiversity [29,30].…”

Targeted metagenomic sequencing data of human gut microbiota associated with Blastocystis colonization

“…However, they are also detected with high prevalence in healthy people, and it has been shown that they can colonize the healthy human gut for long periods of time without resulting in symptomatic carrier status 4 . In order to address the issue of the clinical significance of these intestinal protists, studying the impact of their colonization on gut microbiota began to attract interest from the scientific community 3, 5,6,7 .…”