Technology Advancement Enabling the Link of Gut Microbiota with Obesity and Metabolic Disorder

Obesity is a growing epidemic due to an accelerated phase of industrialization and urbanization with the overfed people now outnumbered the underfed. It is the major public health problem with a lot of research interest as it is associated with many complicated chronic disorders such as type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and cancers. A global estimation of 2.8 million deaths per year is due to obesity and there are tremendous on-going efforts to identify hosts and environmental factors that infl uence the cause and pathogenesis of obesity. Concerted efforts from different research groups had successfully shown that obese subjects have altered composition of gut microbiota and transplantation of this microbiota infl uences body weight in the germ-free recipient mice. The advancement of technology had made possible the study of gut microbiota which was unculturable for better understanding of their impact to human health. Rapid deep sequencing of DNA at reasonable cost through various options of platforms followed by data analysis using robust bioinformatic tools are an important way of analysing the gut microbiome. Here we review the role of gut microbiota which modulates host’s metabolic functions and gene expression, facilitating the extraction and storage of energy from the ingested dietary substances and leading to body-weight gain. We will discuss on the different techniques used, focusing on the high-defi nition technologies for the determination of the composition, function and ecology of gut microbiota. This allows the appropriate selection of platform which becomes the key for success of subsequent research

The effect of dimethyl sulfoxide on Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis biofilm: an in silico prediction and experimental validation

Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis is a Gram-positive pathogen that commonly causes caseous lymphadenitis which occurs in sheep, goats, cattle, buffalo and horses. This disease has long been shown to be a major cause of economic loss on sheep industries. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is known to be effective against a wide spectrum of pathogens however, its efficacy against C. pseudotuberculosis biofilm remains uncertain. The objective of this study was to predict the antibiofilm potential of DMSO against C. pseudotuberculosis using in silico protein interaction network analysis and experimentally determine the antibiofilm activity using standard microplate assay system. As compared to the protein interaction network of S. typhimurium biofilm that had previously been shown to be inhibited by DMSO, the protein interaction network of C. pseudotuberculosis showed similar nodes, hub proteins and functional linkages between glycolytic enzymes. Further experimental validation revealed that the treatment with DMSO significantly (p<0.05) inhibited C. pseudotuberculosis biofilm at all tested concentrations (1.56% - 50%). The findings from the present study suggest the potential application of DMSO in controlling caseous lymphadenitis in ruminants

Inhibition of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis biofilm by DNA synthesis and protein synthesis inhibitors

Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis represents the causative factor of caseous lymphadenitis, a ruminant disease that contributes to major economic loss in most sheep farming countries. The present study was performed to determine the efficacy of DNA synthesis (nalidixic acid) and protein synthesis inhibitors (streptomycin and tetracycline) on C. pseudotuberculosis biofilm. Biofilm of C. pseudotuberculosis clinical isolate was developed in the flat-bottom microplate. Field-emission scanning electron microscope and resazurin assay were used to investigate the structure and antimicrobial susceptibility of C. pseudotuberculosis biofilm, respectively. All test inhibitors were evaluated in the range between 3.125 μg/ml and 100 μg/ml. Results demonstrated that C. pseudotuberculosis biofilm formed a three dimensional and heterogeneous structure on the surface. The highest biofilm percentage inhibition shown by nalidixic acid, streptomycin and tetracycline were 71.57%, 87.44% and 74.73%, respectively