Centering microbes in the emerging role of integrative biology in understanding environmental change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ebony I Weems ◽  
Noé U de la Sancha ◽  
Laurel J Anderson ◽  
Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio ◽  
Ronaldo P Ferraris
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Gut Microbiome ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Environmental Pollutants ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Integrative Biology ◽  
Concerted Effort ◽  
Ecosystem Disturbance

Synopsis We argue that the current environmental changes stressing the Earth’s biological systems urgently require study from an integrated perspective to reveal unexpected, cross-scale interactions, particularly between microbes and macroscale phenomena. Such interactions are the basis of a mechanistic understanding of the important connections between deforestation and emerging infectious disease, feedback between ecosystem disturbance and the gut microbiome, and the cross-scale effects of environmental pollutants. These kinds of questions can be answered with existing techniques and data, but a concerted effort is necessary to better coordinate studies and data sets from different disciplines to fully leverage their potential.

scholarly journals All disease begins in the (leaky) gut: role of zonulin-mediated gut permeability in the pathogenesis of some chronic inflammatory diseases

F1000Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessio Fasano
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Gut Microbiome ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Human Genetics ◽  
Inflammatory Diseases ◽  
Mucosal Barrier ◽  
Gut Permeability ◽  
Chronic Inflammatory Diseases ◽  
Mucosal Barrier Function

Improved hygiene leading to reduced exposure to microorganisms has been implicated as one possible cause for the recent “epidemic” of chronic inflammatory diseases (CIDs) in industrialized countries. That is the essence of the hygiene hypothesis that argues that rising incidence of CIDs may be, at least in part, the result of lifestyle and environmental changes that have made us too “clean” for our own good, so causing changes in our microbiota. Apart from genetic makeup and exposure to environmental triggers, inappropriate increase in intestinal permeability (which may be influenced by the composition of the gut microbiota), a “hyper-belligerent” immune system responsible for the tolerance–immune response balance, and the composition of gut microbiome and its epigenetic influence on the host genomic expression have been identified as three additional elements in causing CIDs. During the past decade, a growing number of publications have focused on human genetics, the gut microbiome, and proteomics, suggesting that loss of mucosal barrier function, particularly in the gastrointestinal tract, may substantially affect antigen trafficking, ultimately influencing the close bidirectional interaction between gut microbiome and our immune system. This cross-talk is highly influential in shaping the host gut immune system function and ultimately shifting genetic predisposition to clinical outcome. This observation led to a re-visitation of the possible causes of CIDs epidemics, suggesting a key pathogenic role of gut permeability. Pre-clinical and clinical studies have shown that the zonulin family, a group of proteins modulating gut permeability, is implicated in a variety of CIDs, including autoimmune, infective, metabolic, and tumoral diseases. These data offer novel therapeutic targets for a variety of CIDs in which the zonulin pathway is implicated in their pathogenesis.

Indian Lifestyle With Ayurveda Perspective During Covid-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 1396-1399
Author(s):  
Disha Bhatero ◽  
Punam Sawarkar ◽  
Gaurav Sawarkar
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Disease Resistance ◽  
Prevalence Rate ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Google Scholar ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Covid-19 is an infectious disease caused by novel Coronavirus. The overall prevalence rate of Covid-19 in Worldwide ( 9.94M )& it is (529 K) & (153 K) in India and Maharashtra. This situation can be considered under JanapadodhwansaVyadhi in Ayurveda. The primary purpose of Ayurveda  is the prevention of the disease in healthy individuals and eradication of disease, which are curable. Immunity comes under the Vyadhikshamatva. Further, Covid-19 infection is correlated with Vataj-Kaphaj Jwara. In Ayurveda Rasayana therapy to boost up immunity (Bala  & Vyadhikshamatva). The present study aimed to explore the concept of infectious disease and its prevention through different lifestyles described in Ayurveda. The above need-based information is collected from various Ayurvedicliterature (Laghutrayee, Bruhatryayi) along with numerous research articles from databases, such as PubMed, Google Scholar. All collected data were depicted in narrative form and tabular manner under different heads. Considering the above aspect in the prevention of Covid-19, the role of Ayurveda intervention may be proved more beneficial in Covid-19. Further, adoption of code of conduct may efficiently overcome the current pandemic situation by maintaining good immunity & implementation of Ahar, Vihar Vidhis, Dincharya, and Rutucharya& Sadvritta  for improving disease resistance.

Participant recruitment and data collection through Facebook: the role of personality factors

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Chandler Rife ◽  
Kelly L. Cate ◽  
Michal Kosinski ◽  
David Stillwell
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Personality Factors ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Social Networking Service ◽  
Participant Recruitment ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Promising Avenue

As participant recruitment and data collection over the Internet have become more common, numerous observers have expressed concern regarding the validity of research conducted in this fashion. One growing method of conducting research over the Internet involves recruiting participants and administering questionnaires over Facebook, the world’s largest social networking service. If Facebook is to be considered a viable platform for social research, it is necessary to demonstrate that Facebook users are sufficiently heterogeneous and that research conducted through Facebook is likely to produce results that can be generalized to a larger population. The present study examines these questions by comparing demographic and personality data collected over Facebook with data collected through a standalone website, and data collected from college undergraduates at two universities. Results indicate that statistically significant differences exist between Facebook data and the comparison data-sets, but since 80% of analyses exhibited partial η2 < .05, such differences are small or practically nonsignificant in magnitude. We conclude that Facebook is a viable research platform, and that recruiting Facebook users for research purposes is a promising avenue that offers numerous advantages over traditional samples.

scholarly journals Guild-based analysis for understanding gut microbiome in human health and diseases

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guojun Wu ◽  
Naisi Zhao ◽  
Chenhong Zhang ◽  
Yan Y. Lam ◽  
Liping Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Gut Microbiome ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Causative Role ◽  
Disease Phenotypes ◽  
Genetic Complexity ◽  
Causative Agents ◽  
Specific Health

AbstractTo demonstrate the causative role of gut microbiome in human health and diseases, we first need to identify, via next-generation sequencing, potentially important functional members associated with specific health outcomes and disease phenotypes. However, due to the strain-level genetic complexity of the gut microbiota, microbiome datasets are highly dimensional and highly sparse in nature, making it challenging to identify putative causative agents of a particular disease phenotype. Members of an ecosystem seldomly live independently from each other. Instead, they develop local interactions and form inter-member organizations to influence the ecosystem’s higher-level patterns and functions. In the ecological study of macro-organisms, members are defined as belonging to the same “guild” if they exploit the same class of resources in a similar way or work together as a coherent functional group. Translating the concept of “guild” to the study of gut microbiota, we redefine guild as a group of bacteria that show consistent co-abundant behavior and likely to work together to contribute to the same ecological function. In this opinion article, we discuss how to use guilds as the aggregation unit to reduce dimensionality and sparsity in microbiome-wide association studies for identifying candidate gut bacteria that may causatively contribute to human health and diseases.

scholarly journals Exploring the Potential Role of the Gut Microbiome in Chemotherapy-Induced Neurocognitive Disorders and Cardiovascular Toxicity

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 782
Author(s):  
Sona Ciernikova ◽  
Michal Mego ◽  
Michal Chovanec
Keyword(s):  
Cardiovascular Diseases ◽  
Cancer Survivors ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Gut Microbiome ◽  
Late Effects ◽  
Fecal Microbiota Transplantation ◽  
Experimental Models ◽  
Neurocognitive Disorders ◽  
Cardiovascular Toxicity

Chemotherapy, targeting not only malignant but also healthy cells, causes many undesirable side effects in cancer patients. Due to this fact, long-term cancer survivors often suffer from late effects, including cognitive impairment and cardiovascular toxicity. Chemotherapy damages the intestinal mucosa and heavily disrupts the gut ecosystem, leading to gastrointestinal toxicity. Animal models and clinical studies have revealed the associations between intestinal dysbiosis and depression, anxiety, pain, impaired cognitive functions, and cardiovascular diseases. Recently, a possible link between chemotherapy-induced gut microbiota disruption and late effects in cancer survivors has been proposed. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of preclinical and clinical findings regarding the emerging role of the microbiome and the microbiota–gut–brain axis in chemotherapy-related late effects affecting the central nervous system (CNS) and heart functions. Importantly, we provide an overview of clinical trials evaluating the relationship between the gut microbiome and cancer survivorship. Moreover, the beneficial effects of probiotics in experimental models and non-cancer patients with neurocognitive disorders and cardiovascular diseases as well as several studies on microbiota modulations via probiotics or fecal microbiota transplantation in cancer patients are discussed.

scholarly journals Role of lung and gut microbiota on lung cancer pathogenesis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Zhao ◽  
Yuxia Liu ◽  
Shuang Li ◽  
Zhaoyun Peng ◽  
Xiantao Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lung Cancer ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Gut Microbiome ◽  
Intestinal Flora ◽  
Inflammatory Factors ◽  
Cancer Pathogenesis ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Relationship Of

Abstract Background Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide (Ferlay et al., Int J Cancer 136:E359–386, 2015). In addition, lung cancer is associated with the highest mortality among all cancer types (Wu et al., Exp Ther Med 16:3004–3010, 2018). Previous studies report that microbiota play an important role in lung cancer. Notably, changes in lung and gut microbiota, are associated with progression of lung cancer. Several studies report that lung and gut microbiome promote lung cancer initiation and development by modulating metabolic pathways, inhibiting the function of immune cells, and producing pro-inflammatory factors. In addition, some factors such as microbiota dysbiosis, affect production of bacteriotoxins, genotoxicity and virulence effect, therefore, they play a key role in cancer progression. These findings imply that lung and gut microbiome are potential markers and targets for lung cancer. However, the role of microbiota in development and progression of lung cancer has not been fully explored. Purpose The aim of this study was to systemically review recent research findings on relationship of lung and gut microbiota with lung cancer. In addition, we explored gut–lung axis and potential mechanisms of lung and gut microbiota in modulating lung cancer progression. Conclusion Pulmonary and intestinal flora influence the occurrence, development, treatment and prognosis of lung cancer, and will provide novel strategies for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of lung cancer.

scholarly journals How does globalization affect COVID-19 responses?

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve J. Bickley ◽  
Ho Fai Chan ◽  
Ahmed Skali ◽  
David Stadelmann ◽  
Benno Torgler
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
International Travel ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Government Effectiveness ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Travel Restrictions ◽  
High Government

Abstract Background The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vast differences in approaches to the control and containment of coronavirus across the world and has demonstrated the varied success of such approaches in minimizing the transmission of coronavirus. While previous studies have demonstrated high predictive power of incorporating air travel data and governmental policy responses in global disease transmission modelling, factors influencing the decision to implement travel and border restriction policies have attracted relatively less attention. This paper examines the role of globalization on the pace of adoption of international travel-related non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the coronavirus pandemic. This study aims to offer advice on how to improve the global planning, preparation, and coordination of actions and policy responses during future infectious disease outbreaks with empirical evidence. Methods and data We analyzed data on international travel restrictions in response to COVID-19 of 185 countries from January to October 2020. We applied time-to-event analysis to examine the relationship between globalization and the timing of travel restrictions implementation. Results The results of our survival analysis suggest that, in general, more globalized countries, accounting for the country-specific timing of the virus outbreak and other factors, are more likely to adopt international travel restrictions policies. However, countries with high government effectiveness and globalization were more cautious in implementing travel restrictions, particularly if through formal political and trade policy integration. This finding is supported by a placebo analysis of domestic NPIs, where such a relationship is absent. Additionally, we find that globalized countries with high state capacity are more likely to have higher numbers of confirmed cases by the time a first restriction policy measure was taken. Conclusions The findings highlight the dynamic relationship between globalization and protectionism when governments respond to significant global events such as a public health crisis. We suggest that the observed caution of policy implementation by countries with high government efficiency and globalization is a by-product of commitment to existing trade agreements, a greater desire to ‘learn from others’ and also perhaps of ‘confidence’ in a government’s ability to deal with a pandemic through its health system and state capacity. Our results suggest further research is warranted to explore whether global infectious disease forecasting could be improved by including the globalization index and in particular, the de jure economic and political, and de facto social dimensions of globalization, while accounting for the mediating role of government effectiveness. By acting as proxies for a countries’ likelihood and speed of implementation for international travel restriction policies, such measures may predict the likely time delays in disease emergence and transmission across national borders.

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