Bacterial Community Composition and its Functional Potential in Ulcerative Colitis Patients:A Case Study

Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease characterized by recurring inflammation in the colon. This study aimed to showcase the challenges related to the characterization of the enteric microbial community structure using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and its functional potentialusing metagenomic sequencing in five patients with UC during active disease and remission. The results revealed inter-individual and intra-individual differences in the microbial community composition. Differential abundance analysis identified specific genera associated with disease state, such asFaecalibacterium and Anaerostipes, which showed positive- and negative correlations, respectively. Prevotella was observed only during active disease. The high level of inter-individual taxonomicdifferences makes it difficult to link the changes to the disease. Functional analysis identified genes related to virulence and inflammatory bowel disease specifically during active disease. Although the approach showed great potential, it was limited by the vast amount of sequencing effort used on host DNA. Further research with a larger cohort and optimized DNA extraction protocols is needed in order validate the results and explore the functional roles of relevant epithelial-associated bacteria which is essential for unravelling the intricate host-microbiota interactions underlying disease pathogenesis

Unraveling the significance of epithelial-associated bacteria in gastrointestinal diseases: Importance of choosing an optimal DNA extraction method

Understanding the significance of epithelial-associated bacteria in gastrointestinal diseases is essential for gaining insights into the complex host-microbiota interactions that influence disease development and progression. However, sequencing approaches face limitations due to the overwhelming presence of host DNA in the samples. PCR-based approaches like 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing enables taxonomic profiling and has been studied extensively in connection with a wide range of diseases and while still being a valuable method, microbiome research is moving towards metagenomic sequencing. This allows for the deciphering of both the bacterial community structure at a higher taxonomic resolution as well as insight into its functional potential. Here, we present a comparative study of three different DNA extraction methods for human colon biopsies: two commercially available kits (Qiagen Blood and tissue kit and Molzym ultra-deep microbiome prep) and one published optimized method (Saponin approach). The three methods were evaluated in terms of the ratio between host and bacterial DNA and their ability to retain the relative bacterial abundance at different taxonomic levels. Six colon biopsies (18 technical replicates) were sequenced with 16S rRNA gene amplicon and metagenomic sequencing resulting in distinct bacterial profiles dependent on the applied extraction method. The Saponin approach showed depletion of both host and bacterial DNA to an extent that the bacterial community structure was not retained when looking at 16S rRNA sequencing data. Furthermore, only the Molzym kit showed a satisfying sequencing depth suggesting that although Qiagens kit retained the community structure better than the Saponin approach, the vast amount of host DNA hampered the sequencing effort even after producing amplicons. When employing metagenomic sequencing to evaluate the bacterial:host DNA ratio, the Molzym kit showed up to a 10-fold enrichment of bacterial DNA compared to the Qiagen kit. Selecting an appropriate DNA extraction method is vital when studying epithelial-associated bacteria in gastrointestinal diseases and is essential for unravelling the intricate host-microbiota interactions underlying disease pathogenesis

Full-Body Kinematics and Vertical Ground Reaction Forces in Elite Ten-Pin Bowling:A Field Study

The purpose was to investigate full-body kinematics and vertical ground reaction forces in the lower extremities of the delivery and to determine delivery changes over time after many deliveries in ten-pin bowling. Six male elite ten-pin bowlers completed six bouts of twelve bowling deliveries, all strike attempts, while measuring full-body kinematics and vertical ground reaction forces. Full-body joint angles, peak vertical ground reaction forces in the feet, vertical breaking impulse, centre of mass velocity, bowling score, and ball release velocity (BR vel) were measured. Results revealed that the BR vel was significantly decreased over bouts (p &lt; 0.001). Additionally, increased flexion of the dominant wrist (p &lt; 0.001) and elbow (p = 0.004) prior to ball release (BR) and increased pronation of the dominant wrist during BR (p = 0.034) were observed at later bouts. It was concluded that these kinematic changes in the dominant wrist and elbow prior to and during BR were performed to compensate for the change in traction between ball and lane during a bowling match. This, in turn, caused a decrease in BR vel. A conservation of energy perspective was discussed to highlight training applications and possibilities to enhance elite athletes’ bowling performance.</p

Functional connectivity of spoken language processing in early-stage Parkinson’s disease : an MEG study

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder, well-known for its motor symptoms; however, it also adversely affects cognitive functions, including language, a highly important human ability. PD pathology is associated, even in the early stage of the disease, with alterations in the functional connectivity within corticosubcortical circuitry of the basal ganglia as well as within cortical networks. Here, we investigated functional cortical connectivity related to spoken language processing in early-stage PD patients. We employed a patientfriendly passive attention-free paradigm to probe neurophysiological correlates of language processing in PD patients without confounds related to active attention and overt motor responses. MEG data were recorded from a group of newly diagnosed PD patients and age-matched healthy controls who were passively presented with spoken word stimuli (action and abstract verbs, as well as grammatically correct and incorrect inflectional forms) while focussing on watching a silent movie. For each of the examined linguistic aspects, a logistic regression classifier was used to classify participants as either PD patients or healthy controls based on functional connectivity within the temporo-fronto-parietal cortical language networks. Classification was successful for action verbs (accuracy = 0.781, p-value = 0.003) and, with lower accuracy, for abstract verbs (accuracy = 0.688, pvalue = 0.041) and incorrectly inflected forms (accuracy = 0.648, p-value = 0.021), but not for correctly inflected forms (accuracy = 0.523, p-value = 0.384). Our findings point to quantifiable differences in functional connectivity within the cortical systems underpinning language processing in newly diagnosed PD patients compared to healthy controls, which arise early, in the absence of clinical evidence of deficits in cognitive or general language functions. The techniques presented here may aid future work on establishing neurolinguistic markers to objectively and noninvasively identify functional changes in the brain's language networks even before clinical symptoms emerge.Peer reviewe

Prevalence and Mortality of Infective Endocarditis in Community-Acquired and Healthcare-Associated Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia::A Danish Nationwide Registry-Based Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) can be community-acquired or healthcare-associated, and prior small studies have suggested that this mode of acquisition impacts the subsequent prevalence of infective endocarditis (IE) and patient outcomes. METHODS: First-time SAB was identified from 2010 to 2018 using Danish nationwide registries and categorized into community-acquired (no healthcare contact within 30 days) or healthcare-associated (SAB >48 hours of hospital admission, hospitalization within 30 days, or outpatient hemodialysis). Prevalence of IE (defined from hospital codes) was compared between groups using multivariable adjusted logistic regression analysis. One-year mortality of S aureus IE (SAIE) was compared between groups using multivariable adjusted Cox proportional hazard analysis. RESULTS: We identified 5549 patients with community-acquired SAB and 7491 with healthcare-associated SAB. The prevalence of IE was 12.1% for community-acquired and 6.6% for healthcare-associated SAB. Community-acquired SAB was associated with a higher odds of IE as compared with healthcare-associated SAB (odds ratio, 2.12 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 1.86–2.41]). No difference in mortality was observed with 0–40 days of follow-up for community-acquired SAIE as compared with healthcare-associated SAIE (HR, 1.07 [95% CI, .83–1.37]), while with 41–365 days of follow-up, community-acquired SAIE was associated with a lower mortality (HR, 0.71 [95% CI, .53–.95]). CONCLUSIONS: Community-acquired SAB was associated with twice the odds for IE, as compared with healthcare-associated SAB. We identified no significant difference in short-term mortality between community-acquired and healthcare-associated SAIE. Beyond 40 days of survival, community-acquired SAIE was associated with a lower mortality

Functional traits—not nativeness—shape the effects of large mammalian herbivores on plant communities

DATA AND MATERIALS AVAILABILITY : All data and the core analysis scripts are provided in Dryad (24).Large mammalian herbivores (megafauna) have experienced extinctions and declines since prehistory. Introduced megafauna have partly counteracted these losses yet are thought to have unusually negative effects on plants compared with native megafauna. Using a meta-analysis of 3995 plot-scale plant abundance and diversity responses from 221 studies, we found no evidence that megafauna impacts were shaped by nativeness, “invasiveness,” “feralness,” coevolutionary history, or functional and phylogenetic novelty. Nor was there evidence that introduced megafauna facilitate introduced plants more than native megafauna. Instead, we found strong evidence that functional traits shaped megafauna impacts, with larger-bodied and bulk-feeding megafauna promoting plant diversity. Our work suggests that trait-based ecology provides better insight into interactions between megafauna and plants than do concepts of nativeness.EDITOR'S SUMMARY : Large herbivores shape ecosystems by consuming vegetation, dispersing seeds, and creating disturbances. Due to extirpations of many large herbivorous mammals and the spread of others by people, many ecosystems host megaherbivores that did not coevolve with the local plant species. Lundgren et al. investigated whether introduced species therefore have stronger and more negative effects on plant abundance and diversity (see the Perspective by Buckley and Torsney). In their meta-analysis of more than 200 studies, they found no differences between introduced and native megaherbivore impacts or evidence for stronger impacts of functionally novel species. Instead, large-bodied herbivores and those with selective diets had a stronger effect on vegetation (e.g., grass feeders reducing graminoid diversity), suggesting a stronger role for species’ traits than origins in determining their impacts. —Bianca LopezVILLUM FONDEN; Danish National Research Foundation; and Independent Research Fund Denmark–Natural Sciences.https://www.science.org/journal/sciadvhj2024Mammal Research InstituteSDG-15:Life on lan