Vultures are scavengers that fill a key ecosystem niche, in which they have evolved a remarkable tolerance to bacterial toxins in decaying meat. Here we report the first deep metagenomic analysis of the vulture microbiome. Through face and gut comparisons of 50 vultures representing two species, we demonstrate a remarkably conserved low diversity of gut microbial flora. The gut samples containe...

Acute pancreatitis is a potentially fatal condition, and its incidence is increasing. Bacterial translocation and end organ failure are the main causes of death. Gut flora have the potential for modulation of the inflammatory cascade. Fasting has a negative impact on gut flora. Animal studies suggested a role for probiotics in the treatment of severe acute pancreatitis; however, a very recent h...

Aims In recent years, the role of gut flora in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn ́s Disease (CD) has become focus of intense research. The working hypothesis is that an altered microbiota causes mucosal inflammation in a genetically susceptible individual. Understanding the microbiota ́s role in the pathogenesis of the disease is essential for new IBD ...

In recent years, the gut microbiota has been considered as a full-fledged actor of the gut-brain axis, making it possible to take a new step in understanding the pathophysiology of both neurological and psychiatric diseases. However, most of the studies have been devoted to gut bacterial microbiota, forgetting the non-negligible fungal flora. In this review, we expose how the role of the fungal...

The susceptibility of Anopheles mosquitoes to Plasmodium infections relies on complex interactions between the insect vector and the malaria parasite. A number of studies have shown that the mosquito innate immune responses play an important role in controlling the malaria infection and that the strength of parasite clearance is under genetic control, but little is known about the influence of ...

The widespread use of antibiotics has led Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) to become a common problem with pronounced medical and economic effects. The recurrence of CDI after treatment with standard antibiotics is becoming more common with the emergence of more resistant strains of C. difficile. As CDI is an antibiotic-associated disease, further treatment with antibiotic is best avoided....

1 made the seminal discovery that 3 metabolites of dietary phosphatidylcholine (choline, trimethylamine N-oxide [TMAO] and betaine) predicted risk for cardiovascular disease in an independent large clinical cohort. They also demonstrated that supplementing the diet with choline or TMAO promoted atherosclerosis in a mouse model. 1 The gut flora was shown to be required for the production of TMAO...

BACKGROUND Gut flora are important immunomodulators that may be disrupted in individuals with atopic conditions. Probiotic bacteria have been suggested as therapeutic modalities to mitigate or prevent food allergic manifestations. We wished to investigate whether perinatal factors known to disrupt gut flora increase the risk of IgE-mediated food allergies. METHODS Birth records obtained from ...

14–30% of the subjects (Bifidobacterium, Enterococcus, and the Bacteroides fragilis group). Fallani compared neonatal fecal samples from Sweden, Scotland, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Bifidobacterium genus was predominant (40% average proportion of total detectable bacteria), followed by Bacteroides (11.4%) and Enterobacteria (7.5%; Fallani et al., 2010). Differences in colonization pattern can b...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a multifactorial disease and requires interaction between genetic and environmental factors for predisposition. The presence of bacterial DNA of the gut residing commensals in synovium as well as dysbiosis of certain commensal bacteria in faecal samples of RA patients as compared to controls suggest a significant role of the gut flora in pathogenesis of RA. The gut ...