The hospital microbiome project: meeting report for the UK science and innovation network UK-USA workshop ‘beating the superbugs: hospital microbiome studies for tackling antimicrobial resistance’, October 14th 2013

Westwood, Jack; Burnett, Matthew; Spratt, David A.; Ball, Michael C.; Wilson, Daniel J.; Wellsteed, Sally; Cleary, David W.; Green, Andrew; Hutley, Emma; Cichowska, Anna; Hopkins, Susan; Wilcox, Mark H.; Kessel, Anthony; Zoubiane, Ghada; Bethke, Lara; Crook, Derrick W.; Walker, Jimmy; Sutton, Mark; Marsh, Philip; Moore, Ginny; Wilson, Peter; Holmes, Alison; Hoffman, Peter; Smith, Chris; Oppenheim, Beryl; Parkhill, Julian; Woodford, Neil; Robotham, Julie V.; Kidgell, Claire; Anyim, Martin; Gilkes, Gabriella; Field, Dawn; Quick, Josh; Pickering, Tony; Kirkup, Benjamin C.; Gilbert, Jack A.

doi:10.1186/1944-3277-9-12

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(26 reference statements)

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“…Microorganisms associated with fabrics have not historically been studied in detail ( Buschle-Diller et al, 1994 ; Cappitelli and Sorlini, 2008 ; Linacre et al, 2010 ; Daly et al, 2012 ; Lee et al, 2016 ), whereas microbiome of human ( Turnbaugh et al, 2007 ; Nelson et al, 2010 ; Jensen, 2013 ; Shafquat et al, 2014 ) and built environments ( Danko et al, 2021a ), including closed habitat of ISS environment ( Singh et al, 2018 ; Checinska Sielaff et al, 2019 ), has received much attention ( Westwood et al, 2014 ; Kettleson et al, 2015 ; Chase et al, 2016 ; Lax et al, 2017 ). One of the objectives of this study was determining if a human within a spacesuit could act as a source for the unintentional microbial contamination and pass on microbial signatures out of the spacesuits.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since 2006, the field of genomics has been revolutionized by the development of next-generation sequencing technologies, enabling the comprehensive understanding of the microbial ecology of built environments such as offices ( Chase et al, 2016 ), hospitals ( Westwood et al, 2014 ), and transportation system environments ( Hsu et al, 2016 ; Danko et al, 2021a ) where humans spend a significant fraction of their time. Subsequently, molecular microbial community analyses were implemented to monitor the International Space Station (ISS) ( Singh et al, 2018 ; Checinska Sielaff et al, 2019 ) and spacecraft assembly cleanrooms ( Danko et al, 2021b ) but this is the first report measuring spacesuit microbiome.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterization of Spacesuit Associated Microbial Communities and Their Implications for NASA Missions

et al. 2021

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BackgroundCrewed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions to other solar system bodies are currently being planned. One high-profile scientific focus during such expeditions would be life detection, specifically the discovery of past or present microbial life, if they exist. However, both humans and associated objects typically carry a high microbial burden. Thus, it is essential to distinguish between microbes brought with the expedition and those present on the exploring planets. Modern spacesuits are unique, customized spacecraft which provide protection, mobility and life support to crew during spacewalks, yet they vent, and the mobility of microbes through spacesuits has not been studied.ResultsTo evaluate the microbial colonization of spacesuits, NASA used an Extravehicular Activity swab kit to examine viable microbial populations of 48 samples from spacesuits using both traditional microbiological methods and molecular sequencing methods. The cultivable microbial population ranged from below the detection limit to 9 × 102 colony forming units per 25 cm2 of sample and also significantly varied by the location. The cultivable microbial diversity was dominated by members of Bacillus, Arthrobacter, and Ascomycota. However, 16S rRNA-based viable bacterial burden ranged from 105 to 106 copies per 25 cm2 of sample. Shotgun metagenome sequencing revealed the presence of a diverse microbial population on the spacesuit surfaces, including Curtobacterium and Methylobacterium from across all sets of spacesuits in high abundance. Among bacterial species identified, higher abundance of Cutibacterium acnes, Methylobacterium oryzae, and M. phyllosphaerae reads were documented.ConclusionThe results of this study provide evidence that identical microbial strains may live on the wrist joint, inner gauntlet, and outer gauntlet of spacesuits. This raises the possibility, but does not confirm that microbial contaminants on the outside of the suits could contaminate planetary science operations unless additional measures are taken. Overall, these data provide the first estimate of microbial distribution associated with spacesuit surfaces, which will help future mission planners develop effective planetary protection strategies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of Spacesuit Associated Microbial Communities and Their Implications for NASA Missions

et al. 2021

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“…Microorganisms associated with fabrics have not historically been studied in detail [9,[49][50][51][52], whereas microbiome of human [37,[53][54][55] and built environments [16], including closed habitat of ISS environment, has received much attention [13,14,56,57]. One of the objectives of this study was determining if a human within a spacesuit could act as a source for the unintentional microbial contamination and pass on microbial signatures out of the spacesuits.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since 2006, the eld of genomics has been revolutionized by the development of next-generation sequencing technologies, enabling the comprehensive understanding of the microbial ecology of built environments such as o ces [13], hospitals [14], and transportation system environments [15,16] where humans spend a signi cant fraction of their time. Subsequently, molecular microbial community analyses were implemented to monitor the International Space Station (ISS) and spacecraft assembly cleanrooms [17,18] but this is the rst report measuring spacesuit microbiome.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of Spacesuit Associated Microbial Communities and Their Implications for NASA Missions

Danko

Mohan

Sierra

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background. Crewed NASA missions to other solar system bodies are currently being planned. One high-profile scientific focus during such expeditions would be life detection, specifically the discovery of past or present microbial life, if they exist. However, both humans and associated objects typically carry a high microbial burden. Thus, it is essential to distinguish between microbes brought with the expedition and those present on the exploring planets. Modern spacesuits are unique, customized spacecraft which provide protection, mobility and life support to crew during spacewalks, yet they vent continuously, and the mobility of microbes through spacesuits has not been studied. Results. To evaluate the microbial colonization of spacesuits, NASA used an Extravehicular Activity swab kit to examine viable microbial populations of 48 samples from spacesuits using both traditional microbiological methods and molecular sequencing methods. The cultivable microbial population ranged from below the detection limit to 9 x 102 colony forming units per 25 cm2 of sample and also significantly varied by the location. The cultivable microbial diversity was dominated by members of Bacillus, Arthrobcter, and Ascomycota. However, 16S rRNA-based viable bacterial burden ranged from 105 to 106 copies per 25 cm2 of sample. Shotgun metagenome sequencing revealed the presence of a diverse microbial population on the spacesuit surfaces, including Curtobacterium and Methylobacterium from across all sets of spacesuits in high abundance. Among bacterial species identified, higher abundance of Cutibacterium acnes, Methylobacterium oryzae, and M. phyllosphaerae reads were documented. Conclusion. The results of this study provide evidence that identical microbial strains may live on the wrist joint, inner gauntlet, and outer gauntlet of spacesuits. This raises the possibility, but does not confirm, that viable microbes are able to migrate between the interior and exterior of spacesuits. Overall, these data provide the first estimate of microbial dispersion from internal to external spacesuit surfaces, which will help future mission planners develop effective planetary protection strategies.

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“… 6 , 7 These ‘super bugs’ have made the treatment of haematogenous pneumonia and other associated infections difficult. 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 Thus, there is need for an alternative therapeutic measure, such as phage therapy, to combat super bugs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental phage therapy against haematogenous multi-drug resistant <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> pneumonia in mice

et al. 2016

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BackgroundCommunity-acquired haematogenous Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia is a rare infection, though it can be acquired nosocomially. Currently, antibiotics used against S. aureus pneumonia have shown reduced efficacy. Thus, there is need for an alternative therapy against multidrug-resistant S. aureus (MDRSA) strains in the community.ObjectiveWe sought to determine the efficacy of environmentally-obtained S. aureus lytic phage against haematogenous MDRSA pneumonia in mice.MethodsPhages and MDRSA were isolated from sewage samples collected within Nairobi County, Kenya. Isolated S. aureus bacteria were screened for resistance against ceftazidime, oxacillin, vancomycin, netilmicin, gentamicin, erythromycin, trimethroprim-sulfamethoxazole and cefuroxime. Thirty BALB/c mice aged six to eight weeks were randomly assigned into three groups: the MDRSA-infection group (n = 20), the phage-infection group (n = 5) and the non-infection group (n = 5). Mice were infected with either MDRSA or phage (108 CFU/mL) and treated after 72 hours with a single dose of clindamycin (8 mg/kg/bwt) or 108 PFU/mL of phage or a combination therapy (clindamycin and phage). The efficacy of phage, clindamycin or clindamycin with phage combination was determined using resolution of lung pathology and bacterial load in lung homogenates.ResultsThe viable MDRSA count was 0.5 ± 0.2 log10 CFU/gm in the phage-treated group, 4.4 ± 0.2 log10 CFU/gm in the clindamycin-treated group and 4.0 ± 0.2 log10 CFU/gm in the combination-treated group. The efficacy of phage therapy was significantly different from other therapeutic modes (p = 0 < 0.0001). Histology showed that the mice treated with phage did not develop pneumonia.ConclusionPhage therapy is effective against haematogenous MDRSA infection. Thus, it can be explored as an alternative treatment method.

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The hospital microbiome project: meeting report for the UK science and innovation network UK-USA workshop ‘beating the superbugs: hospital microbiome studies for tackling antimicrobial resistance’, October 14th 2013

Cited by 8 publications

References 28 publications

Characterization of Spacesuit Associated Microbial Communities and Their Implications for NASA Missions

Characterization of Spacesuit Associated Microbial Communities and Their Implications for NASA Missions

Characterization of Spacesuit Associated Microbial Communities and Their Implications for NASA Missions

Experimental phage therapy against haematogenous multi-drug resistant <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> pneumonia in mice

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