Journal article
Campylobacter infection of young children in Colombia and its impact on the gastrointestinal environment
mSphere, Vol.9(10), e00342-24
10/29/2024
DOI: 10.1128/msphere.00342-24
PMCID: PMC11520299
PMID: 39320095
Abstract
Campylobacter infections are a leading cause of bacterial-derived gastroenteritis worldwide with particularly profound impacts on pediatric patients in low- and middle-income countries. It remains unclear how Campylobacter impacts these hosts, though it is becoming increasingly evident that it is a multifactorial process that depends on the host immune response, the gastrointestinal microbiota, various bacterial factors, and host nutritional status. Since these factors likely vary between adult and pediatric patients in different regions of the world, it is important that studies define these attributes in well-characterized clinical cohorts in diverse settings. In this study, we analyzed the fecal microbiota and the metabolomic and micronutrient profiles of asymptomatic and symptomatic pediatric patients in Colombia who were either infected or uninfected with Campylobacter during a case-controlled study on acute diarrheal disease. Here, we report that the microbiome of Campylobacter-infected children only changed in their abundance of Campylobacter spp. despite the inclusion of children with or without diarrhea. In addition to increased Campylobacter, computational models were used to identify fecal metabolites that were associated with Campylobacter infection and found that glucose-6-phosphate and homovanillic acid were the strongest predictors of infection in these pediatric patients, which suggests that colonocyte metabolism is impacted during infection. Despite changes to the fecal metabolome, the concentrations of intestinal minerals and trace elements were not significantly impacted by Campylobacter infection but were elevated in uninfected children with diarrhea.IMPORTANCEGastrointestinal infection with pathogenic Campylobacter species has long been recognized as a significant cause of human morbidity. Recently, it has been observed that pediatric populations in low- and middle-income countries are uniquely impacted by these organisms in that infected children can be persistently colonized, develop enteric dysfunction, and exhibit reduced development and growth. While the association of Campylobacter species with these long-term effects continues to emerge, the impact of infection on the gastrointestinal environment of these children remains uncharacterized. To address this knowledge gap, our group leveraged clinical samples collected during a previous study on gastrointestinal infections in pediatric patients to examine the fecal microbiota, metabolome, and micronutrient profiles of those infected with Campylobacter species and found that the metabolome was impacted in a way that suggests gastrointestinal cell metabolism is affected during infection, which is some of the first data indicating how gastrointestinal health in these patients may be affected.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Campylobacter infection of young children in Colombia and its impact on the gastrointestinal environment
- Creators
- Zachary M. Burcham - University of Tennessee at KnoxvilleJessie L. Tweedie - University of Tennessee at KnoxvilleA. E. Farfán-García - Universidad De SantanderVikki G. Nolan - University of MemphisDallas Donohoe - University of Tennessee at KnoxvilleOscar G. Gómez-Duarte - University at Buffalo, State University of New YorkJeremiah G. Johnson - University of Tennessee at Knoxville
- Contributors
- Vincent B. Young (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- mSphere, Vol.9(10), e00342-24
- DOI
- 10.1128/msphere.00342-24
- PMID
- 39320095
- PMCID
- PMC11520299
- NLM abbreviation
- mSphere
- eISSN
- 2379-5042
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology
- Number of pages
- 17
- Grant note
- NIH: R01AI095346
The authors would like to thank Hector Castro-Gonzalez and Sara Howard from the University of Tennessee Biological and Small Molecule Mass Spectrometry Core for their help in preparing and analyzing samples for metabolomic analysis. We would also like to thank Joseph Jackson and Brittni Kelley at the University of Tennessee for providing support during the preparation of the manuscript. This work was funded from start-up funds provided to J.G.J. from the University of Tennessee as well as Seed Grant funding from the University of Tennessee Office of Research and Engagement's (ORE) Strategic and Transformative Investments in Research (STIR) program to J.G.J. Also, this study was supported, in part, by NIH R01AI095346 to O.G.G.-D. Z.M.B. - data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, validation, visualization, writing-original draft preparation, and writing-review & editing; J.L.T. -data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, validation, visualization, writing-original draft preparation, and writing-review & editing; A.E.F.-G.-data curation, investigation, methodology, and writing-review & editing; V.G.N.-formal analysis, methodology, validation, and writing-review & editing; D.D.-methodology, supervision, and writing-review & editing; O.G.G.-D.-conceptualization, methodology, project administration, resources, supervision, and writing - review & editing; J.G.J.- conceptualization, funding acquisition, methodology, project administration, resources, supervision, and writing-review & editing.
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 09/25/2024
- Date published
- 10/29/2024
- Academic Unit
- Microbiology and Immunology
- Record Identifier
- 9984719267102771
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