Dynamics of Gut Microbiota-Pathogen Interactions and Acquisition of Antibiotic Resistance During Travel to High Infectious Burden Regions
Abstract
ulti-drug resistant (MDR) infections and infectious diarrhea pose high risks to deployed military personnel and travelling civilians. To better understand, predict, and counter the AR threat to deployed military personnel, we are interrogating a longitudinal study of diarrhea in international travelers (both civilian and military) to understand and predict gut microbiota-pathogen interactions and subsequent carriage of MDR organisms (MDROs) following international travel to regions with high infectious disease burdens. In the first phase of the project, we analyzed fecal samples from 156 civilian travelers to Cusco, of whom 113 experienced traveler's diarrhea. We identified MDR E. coli in 34% of diarrheal samples and 24% of asymptomatic samples. We found no obvious changes in the microbial diversity over time while traveling. However, by computing the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity between consecutive samples supplied by the same individual, we found that foreign travel immediately leads to a robust difference between baseline samples, and travelers with diarrhea had substantially more variation in microbiome structure than healthy travelers. By comparing the inter-individual (between consecutive samples from the same individual) versus the inter-individual (comparing samples between individuals) we developed a microbiome perturbation index, and identified microbiome shifts from healthy and diarrheal states. A hallmark of the diarrheal state was an increased ratio of bacteroidetes to firmicutes, corroborating dysbiosis during diarrhea. After shotgun metagenomic sequencing, we identified that in a linear mixed effects model, several species enriched and depleted during diarrhea. E. coli and Dorea formicigenerans were most enriched during diarrhea, and Ruminococcus bromii and Eubacterium rectale were most decreased in diarrheal samples.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1126350
Entities
People
- Gautam Dantas
- Mark P Simons
Organizations
- Washington University in St. Louis