Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death globally, responsible for an estimated 17.9 million deaths annually. Traditional screening and diagnostic tests often fail to identify those at risk until a late stage, it is therefore essential to develop new predictive tests to enable diagnosis at an earlier stage to facilitate preventative treatments. Recently, many studies have shown that high levels of circulating Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) are indicative of an increased risk of CVD. Through the analysis of TMAO levels it was found patients whose TMAO level was in the 4th quartile had a 2.29 fold increase of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) over patients whose level was in the 1st quartile (p < 0.05). These studies have also demonstrated the role of the gut microbiome in the formation of TMAO. This review will provide an overview of the role of the gut microbiome and explore the evidence linking TMAO and CVD.
•The vaginal microbiomes of recurrent BV patients differ significantly from healthy controls.•Metronidazole temporarily reinstates healthy vaginal flora of recurrent BV patients.•Oral Metronidazole is insufficient long-term treatment for recurrent BV.•Future research into alternative treatment and cure for BV warranted.
•193 school-aged children with low and 183 with high screen viewing (sitting) times.•Saliva microbiota diversity was higher in children with low screen times.•Microbiota composition differed between the screen time groups.•Ten taxonomic groups were differentially abundant between the screen time groups.•Five metabolic pathways were differentially present between the screen time groups.
The cervicovaginal microbiome consists of community state types (CSTs) I-V. Several studies have reported positive correlations between health issues such as bacterial vaginosis (BV), acquisition of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), preterm labour and CST IV. The cervicovaginal microbiome in Afro-Caribbean women has never been characterized. Hence, this study aimed to determine the composition, CST, microbial function and resistome of the cervicovaginal microbiome in a cohort of Afro-Caribbean women using targeted (16S rRNA V4) and whole genome shotgun metagenomics. CST IV predominated in this ethnic group, with Prevotella (13.91 %) being the most abundant genus followed by Gardnerella (12.14 %). The relative abundance for Lactobacillus was 9.37 %. The most abundant species for Prevotella and Lactobacillus were P. timonensis (5.00 %) and L. iners (7.00 %), respectively. Taxa with significant nucleotide similarity to the less virulent culture collection strain G. vaginalis 409–05 (8.14 %) were more abundant than G. vaginalis ATCC 14019 (4.00 %) in this group that was asymptomatic of BV. Functional profiling revealed a high abundance of biological processes (such as flagellum-dependent cell motility, cell adhesion and quorum sensing) associated with biofilm activity. In the resistome, 2,753 predicted antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes consisting of 28 types (mostly tet and Emr; relative abundance 52.94 % and 16.18 %, respectively) that can potentially confer resistance to tetracyclines and the macrolide-lincosamide streptogramin B group were identified. Theoretically, these AMR genes can impact the effectiveness of antibiotics commonly used in the treatment of STIs and BV. This study is the first to provide insight into the cervicovaginal microbiome and its resistome in Afro-Caribbean women.
The role of the human gut phageome (HGP) for a healthy gut microbiome is not well-established. This study aims to identify phages based on Reduced Metagenome Sequencing (RMS) fragments from an Indian mother and child cohort. For this study, fecal samples were collected from 17 mother-infant pairs at Nishanth Hospital, Tamil Nadu, India. RMS data analysis and shotgun sequencing approaches were used to assemble and identify the genome fragments. Out of the 156,926 RMS fragments, 434 were classified as bacteriophages by Kraken 2. Mapping of virus sequences in NCBI and de novo assembly with subsequent taxonomic assignment revealed 41 different phage species. The prevalence (>50%) of three bacteriophages was observed in mother and child; overall four phages were more prevalent in the mothers while one phage was more prevalent in the children. Even at the species level, mothers were found to have more diverse phage species than children. No significant association was observed for mother–child sharing of phages. This study highlights the prevalence of Caudovirales phages in healthy HGP and also the use of the RMS approach to study the phageome composition.
