The first taxonomic and functional characterization of human CAVD-associated microbiota

Abstract

Introduction: Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is the most common heart valve disorder, defined by a remodeling multistep process: namely, valve fibrosis with its area narrowing, impaired blood flow, and final calcification phase. Nowadays, the only treatment is the surgical valve replacement. As for other cardiovascular diseases, growing evidence suggest an active role of the immune system in the calcification process that could be modulated by the microbiota. To address this point, we aimed to investigate and characterize, for the first time, the presence of a valve microbiota and associated immune response in human CAVD. Method: Calcified aortic valve (CAV) samples from twenty patients (11 from Germany and 9 from Italy) with diagnosis of severe symptomatic CAVD were used to assess the presence of infiltrating T cells, by cloning approach, and to characterize the valve microbiota, by 16S rRNA gene sequencing (NGS). Results: We documented the presence of infiltrating T lymphocytes, especially the T helper subset, in CAV samples. Moreover, we found a tissue-associated microbiota in freshly collected CAV samples, which was significantly different in Italian and German patients, suggesting potential correlation with other cardiovascular risk factors. Conclusion: The presence of microbiota in inflamed CAV samples represents the right trigger point to explain the valve calcification process, encouraging further studies to explore the potential link between bacteria and adaptive immune response and to define the critical role of local microbiota-immunity axis on CAVD development.

Potential Association of the Oral Microbiome with Trimethylamine N-Oxide Quantification in Mexican Patients with Myocardial Infarction

“…The differences between groups were performed by permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA, adonis, R, 999 permutations). The differential taxonomic analysis was performed by DESeq2 (v.1.42.0, R package) [ 18 ].…”

Cytokine and microbiota profiles in obesity-related hypertension patients

“…The differences between groups were assessed by Permutational Multivariate Analysis of Variance (PERMANOVA, adonis, R, 999 permutations). The differential taxonomic analysis had been performed by DESeq2 as previously described in ( Curini et al., 2023 ).…”

Familial Hypercholesterolemia and Acute Coronary Syndromes: The Microbiota–Immunity Axis in the New Diagnostic and Prognostic Frontiers

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