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Environmental Research Apr 2024The Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) have effectively kept lower antibiotic-resistant bacterial (ARB) pathogen rates than many other... (Review)
Review
The Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) have effectively kept lower antibiotic-resistant bacterial (ARB) pathogen rates than many other countries. However, in recent years, these five countries have encountered a rise in ARB cases and challenges in treating infections due to the growing prevalence of ARB pathogens. Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) is a valuable supplement to clinical methods for ARB surveillance, but there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of WBS application for ARB in the Nordic countries. This review aims to compile the latest state-of-the-art developments in WBS for ARB monitoring in the Nordic countries and compare them with clinical surveillance practices. After reviewing 1480 papers from the primary search, 54 were found relevant, and 15 additional WBS-related papers were included. Among 69 studies analyzed, 42 dedicated clinical epidemiology, while 27 focused on wastewater monitoring. The PRISMA review of the literature revealed that Nordic countries focus on four major WBS objectives of ARB: assessing ARB in the human population, identifying ARB evading wastewater treatment, quantifying removal rates, and evaluating potential ARB evolution during the treatment process. In both clinical and wastewater contexts, the most studied targets were pathogens producing carbapenemase and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL), primarily Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. However, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have received more attention in clinical epidemiology than in wastewater studies, probably due to their lower detection rates in wastewater. Clinical surveillance has mostly used culturing, antibiotic susceptibility testing, and genotyping, but WBS employed PCR-based and metagenomics alongside culture-based techniques. Imported cases resulting from international travel and hospitalization abroad appear to have frequently contributed to the rise in ARB pathogen cases in these countries. The many similarities between the Nordic countries (e.g., knowledge exchange practices, antibiotic usage patterns, and the current ARB landscape) could facilitate collaborative efforts in developing and implementing WBS for ARB in population-level screening.
Topics: Humans; Wastewater; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus; Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists; Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Drug Resistance, Microbial; beta-Lactamases; Escherichia coli; Scandinavian and Nordic Countries
PubMed: 38163547
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.118052 -
Viruses Jan 2020A majority of emerging infectious diseases are of zoonotic origin. Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing (mNGS) has been employed to identify uncommon and novel...
A majority of emerging infectious diseases are of zoonotic origin. Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing (mNGS) has been employed to identify uncommon and novel infectious etiologies and characterize virus diversity in human, animal, and environmental samples. Here, we systematically reviewed studies that performed viral mNGS in common livestock (cattle, small ruminants, poultry, and pigs). We identified 2481 records and 120 records were ultimately included after a first and second screening. Pigs were the most frequently studied livestock and the virus diversity found in samples from poultry was the highest. Known animal viruses, zoonotic viruses, and novel viruses were reported in available literature, demonstrating the capacity of mNGS to identify both known and novel viruses. However, the coverage of metagenomic studies was patchy, with few data on the virome of small ruminants and respiratory virome of studied livestock. Essential metadata such as age of livestock and farm types were rarely mentioned in available literature, and only 10.8% of the datasets were publicly available. Developing a deeper understanding of livestock virome is crucial for detection of potential zoonotic and animal pathogens and One Health preparedness. Metagenomic studies can provide this background but only when combined with essential metadata and following the "FAIR" (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles.
Topics: Animals; Cattle; Communicable Diseases, Emerging; Disease Reservoirs; Farms; Genome, Viral; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Livestock; Metagenome; Metagenomics; One Health; RNA, Viral; Virus Diseases; Viruses; Zoonoses
PubMed: 31963174
DOI: 10.3390/v12010107 -
Animal Microbiome Jun 2021Undesirable microbial infiltration into the female bovine reproductive tracts, for example during calving or mating, is likely to disturb the commensal microflora.... (Review)
Review
Undesirable microbial infiltration into the female bovine reproductive tracts, for example during calving or mating, is likely to disturb the commensal microflora. Persistent establishment and overgrowth of certain pathogens induce reproductive diseases, render the female bovine reproductive tract unfavourable for pregnancy or can result in transmission to the foetus, leading to death and abortion or birth abnormalities. This review of culture-independent metagenomics studies revealed that normal microflora in the female bovine reproductive tract is reasonably consistently dominated by bacteria from the phyla Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, following by Actinobacteria, Fusobacteria and Tenericutes. Reproductive disease development in the female bovine reproductive tract was demonstrated across multiple studies to be associated with high relative abundances of bacteria from the phyla Bacteroidetes and Fusobacteria. Reduced bacterial diversity in the reproductive tract microbiome in some studies of cows diagnosed with reproductive diseases also indicated an association between dysbiosis and bovine reproductive health. Nonetheless, the bovine genital tract microbiome remains underexplored, and this is especially true for the male genital tract. Future research should focus on the functional aspects of the bovine reproductive tract microbiomes, for example their contributions to cattle fertility and susceptibility towards reproductive diseases.
PubMed: 34108039
DOI: 10.1186/s42523-021-00106-3 -
Frontiers in Neurology 2022It is widely acknowledged that central nervous system (CNS) infection is a serious infectious disease accompanied by various complications. However, the accuracy of...
OBJECTIVE
It is widely acknowledged that central nervous system (CNS) infection is a serious infectious disease accompanied by various complications. However, the accuracy of current detection methods is limited, leading to delayed diagnosis and treatment. In recent years, metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) has been increasingly adopted to improve the diagnostic yield. The present study sought to evaluate the value of mNGS in CNS infection diagnosis.
METHODS
Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2022 guidelines, we searched relevant articles published in seven databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library, published from January 2014 to January 2022. High-quality articles related to mNGS applications in the CNS infection diagnosis were included. The comparison between mNGS and the gold standard of CNS infection, such as culture, PCR or serology, and microscopy, was conducted to obtain true positive (TP), true negative (TN), false positive (FP), and false negative (FN) values, which were extracted for sensitivity and specificity calculation.
RESULTS
A total of 272 related studies were retrieved and strictly selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Finally, 12 studies were included for meta-analysis and the pooled sensitivity was 77% (95% CI: 70-82%, = 39.69%) and specificity was 96% (95% CI: 93-98%, = 72.07%). Although no significant heterogeneity in sensitivity was observed, a sub-group analysis was conducted based on the pathogen, region, age, and sample pretreatment method to ascertain potential confounders. The area under the curve (AUC) of the summary receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC) of mNGS for CNS infection was 0.91 (95% CI: 0.88-0.93). Besides, Deek's Funnel Plot Asymmetry Test indicated no publication bias in the included studies (, > 0.05).
CONCLUSION
Overall, mNGS exhibits good sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing CNS infection and diagnostic performance during clinical application by assisting in identifying the pathogen. However, the efficacy remains inconsistent, warranting subsequent studies for further performance improvement during its clinical application.
STUDY REGISTRATION NUMBER
INPLASY202120002.
PubMed: 36203993
DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2022.989280 -
PeerJ 2021Vaginal microbiome studies frequently report diversity metrics and communities of microbiomes associated with reproductive health outcomes. Reports of (also known as...
BACKGROUND
Vaginal microbiome studies frequently report diversity metrics and communities of microbiomes associated with reproductive health outcomes. Reports of (also known as Group B Streptococcus or GBS), the leading cause of neonatal infectious morbidity and mortality, are notably lacking from the studies of the vaginal microbiome, despite being a known contributor to preterm birth and other complications. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review was to explore the frequency of GBS reporting in vaginal microbiome literature pertaining to pregnancy and to examine methodological bias that contributes to differences in species and genus-level microbiome reporting. Lack of identification of GBS via sequencing-based approaches due to methodologic or reporting bias may result incomplete understanding of bacterial composition during pregnancy and subsequent birth outcomes.
METHODOLOGY
A systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA guideline. Three databases (PubMed, CINAHL, and Web of Science) were used to identify papers for review based on the search terms "vaginal microbiome", "pregnancy", and "16S rRNA sequencing". Articles were evaluated for methods of DNA extraction and sequencing, 16S region, taxonomy classification database, number of participants or vaginal specimens, and pregnancy trimester.
RESULTS
Forty-five research articles reported employing a metagenomic approach or 16S approach for vaginal microbiome analysis during pregnancy that explicitly reported taxonomic composition and were included in this review. Less than 30% of articles reported the presence of GBS ( = 13). No significant differences in methodology were identified between articles that reported versus did not report GBS. However, there was large variability across research methods used for vaginal microbiome analysis and species-level bacterial community reporting.
CONCLUSION
Considerable differences in study design and data formatting methods may contribute to underrepresentation of GBS, and other known pathogens, in existing vaginal microbiome literature. Previous studies have identified considerable variation in methodology across vaginal microbiome studies. This study adds to this body of work because in addition to laboratory or statistical methods, how results and data are shared (e.g., only analyzing genus level data or 20 most abundant microbes), may hinder reproducibility and limit our understanding of the influence of less abundant microbes. Sharing detailed methods, analysis code, and raw data may improve reproducibility and ability to more accurately compare microbial communities across studies.
PubMed: 34046261
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.11437 -
International Journal of Infectious... May 2024Early diagnosis of infectious diseases remains a challenge. This study assessed the diagnostic value of mNGS in infections and explored the effect of various factors on... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
OBJECTIVES
Early diagnosis of infectious diseases remains a challenge. This study assessed the diagnostic value of mNGS in infections and explored the effect of various factors on the accuracy of mNGS.
METHODS
An electronic article search of PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase was performed. A total of 85 papers were eligible for inclusion and analysis. Stata 12.0 was used for statistical calculation to evaluate the efficacy of mNGS for the diagnosis of infectious diseases.
RESULTS
The AUC of 85 studies was 0.88 (95%CI, 0.85-0.90). The AUC of the clinical comprehensive diagnosis and conventional test groups was 0.92 (95%CI, 0.89-0.94) and 0.82 (95%CI, 0.78-0.85), respectively. The results of subgroup analysis indicated that the PLR and NLR were 12.67 (95%CI, 6.01-26.70) and 0.05 (95%CI, 0.03-0.10), respectively, in arthrosis infections. The PLR was 24.41 (95%CI, 5.70-104.58) in central system infections and the NLR of immunocompromised patients was 0.08 (95%CI, 0.01-0.62).
CONCLUSION
mNGS demonstrated satisfactory diagnostic performance for infections, especially for bone and joint infections and central system infections. Moreover, mNGS also has a high value in the exclusion of infection in immunocompromised patients.
Topics: Humans; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Arthritis, Infectious; Immunocompromised Host; Metagenome; Metagenomics; Sepsis; Communicable Diseases; Sensitivity and Specificity
PubMed: 38458421
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2024.106996 -
Microbial Ecology Feb 2023Soil is one of the most important assets of the planet Earth, responsible for maintaining the biodiversity and managing the ecosystem services for both managed and... (Review)
Review
Soil is one of the most important assets of the planet Earth, responsible for maintaining the biodiversity and managing the ecosystem services for both managed and natural ecosystems. It encompasses large proportion of microscopic biodiversity, including prokaryotes and the microscopic eukaryotes. Soil microbiome is critical in managing the soil functions, but their activities have diminutive recognition in few systems like desert land and forest ecosystems. Soil microbiome is highly dependent on abiotic and biotic factors like pH, carbon content, soil structure, texture, and vegetation, but it can notably vary with ecosystems and the respective inhabitants. Thus, unboxing this black box is essential to comprehend the basic components adding to the soil systems and supported ecosystem services. Recent advancements in the field of molecular microbial ecology have delivered commanding tools to examine this genetic trove of soil biodiversity. Objective of this review is to provide a critical evaluation of the work on the soil microbiome, especially since the advent of the NGS techniques. The review also focuses on advances in our understanding of soil communities, their interactions, and functional capabilities along with understanding their role in maneuvering the biogeochemical cycle while underlining and tapping the unprecedented metagenomics data to infer the ecological attributes of yet undiscovered soil microbiome. This review focuses key research directions that could shape the future of basic and applied research into the soil microbiome. This review has led us to understand that it is difficult to generalize that soil microbiome plays a substantiated role in shaping the soil networks and it is indeed a vital resource for sustaining the ecosystem functioning. Exploring soil microbiome will help in unlocking their roles in various soil network. It could be resourceful in exploring and forecasting its impacts on soil systems and for dealing with alleviating problems like rapid climate change.
Topics: Ecosystem; Soil; Soil Microbiology; Biodiversity; Microbiota; Climate Change
PubMed: 35112151
DOI: 10.1007/s00248-022-01962-5 -
The Journal of Animal Ecology Apr 2020The prevalence and intensity of parasites in wild hosts varies across space and is a key determinant of infection risk in humans, domestic animals and threatened... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
The prevalence and intensity of parasites in wild hosts varies across space and is a key determinant of infection risk in humans, domestic animals and threatened wildlife. Because the immune system serves as the primary barrier to infection, replication and transmission following exposure, we here consider the environmental drivers of immunity. Spatial variation in parasite pressure, abiotic and biotic conditions, and anthropogenic factors can all shape immunity across spatial scales. Identifying the most important spatial drivers of immunity could help pre-empt infectious disease risks, especially in the context of how large-scale factors such as urbanization affect defence by changing environmental conditions. We provide a synthesis of how to apply macroecological approaches to the study of ecoimmunology (i.e. macroimmunology). We first review spatial factors that could generate spatial variation in defence, highlighting the need for large-scale studies that can differentiate competing environmental predictors of immunity and detailing contexts where this approach might be favoured over small-scale experimental studies. We next conduct a systematic review of the literature to assess the frequency of spatial studies and to classify them according to taxa, immune measures, spatial replication and extent, and statistical methods. We review 210 ecoimmunology studies sampling multiple host populations. We show that whereas spatial approaches are relatively common, spatial replication is generally low and unlikely to provide sufficient environmental variation or power to differentiate competing spatial hypotheses. We also highlight statistical biases in macroimmunology, in that few studies characterize and account for spatial dependence statistically, potentially affecting inferences for the relationships between environmental conditions and immune defence. We use these findings to describe tools from geostatistics and spatial modelling that can improve inference about the associations between environmental and immunological variation. In particular, we emphasize exploratory tools that can guide spatial sampling and highlight the need for greater use of mixed-effects models that account for spatial variability while also allowing researchers to account for both individual- and habitat-level covariates. We finally discuss future research priorities for macroimmunology, including focusing on latitudinal gradients, range expansions and urbanization as being especially amenable to large-scale spatial approaches. Methodologically, we highlight critical opportunities posed by assessing spatial variation in host tolerance, using metagenomics to quantify spatial variation in parasite pressure, coupling large-scale field studies with small-scale field experiments and longitudinal approaches, and applying statistical tools from macroecology and meta-analysis to identify generalizable spatial patterns. Such work will facilitate scaling ecoimmunology from individual- to habitat-level insights about the drivers of immune defence and help predict where environmental change may most alter infectious disease risk.
Topics: Animals; Animals, Wild; Humans; Parasites; Spatial Analysis
PubMed: 31856309
DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13166 -
Biological Research For Nursing Jan 2020Maternal obesity is a well-known risk factor for significant obstetric and neonatal complications. The influence of the gastrointestinal microbiome in the setting of...
BACKGROUND
Maternal obesity is a well-known risk factor for significant obstetric and neonatal complications. The influence of the gastrointestinal microbiome in the setting of maternal obesity during pregnancy is less understood. The purpose of this systematic review is to synthesize the literature on the relationships between maternal obesity and excessive gestational weight gain (EGWG) and the composition of maternal and child gastrointestinal microbiomes.
METHOD
We searched CINHAL, OVID Medline, Web of Science, and PubMed for relevant literature using medical subject heading terms related to obesity, pregnancy, and the gastrointestinal microbiome. We assessed 249 articles for potential inclusion using the preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analyses framework and deemed 11 articles as relevant for this review.
RESULTS
Maternal obesity was associated with significant microbial changes in both maternal and infant fecal microbiome biospecimens including increases in , , and the phyla and decreases in . However, inconsistencies in uniform taxonomic results across all studies mean that evidence of specific microbial associations with obesity and EGWG is inconclusive.
CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that both maternal and child gastrointestinal microbiome composition is altered in the setting of maternal obesity and EGWG during pregnancy. Future microbiome studies should concentrate on the investigation of metagenomic sequencing to elucidate microbial function rather than solely taxonomic composition. More diverse populations of mothers should be sampled to address health disparities and adverse outcomes of underrepresented populations. Finally, analytic pipelines should be standardized across studies to aid in reproducibility.
Topics: Body Mass Index; Child; Female; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Gestational Weight Gain; Humans; Infant; Obesity, Maternal; Pediatric Obesity; Pregnancy
PubMed: 31597472
DOI: 10.1177/1099800419880615 -
Frontiers in Bioengineering and... 2021Global environmental contamination with a complex mixture of xenobiotics has become a major environmental issue worldwide. Many xenobiotic compounds severely impact the...
Global environmental contamination with a complex mixture of xenobiotics has become a major environmental issue worldwide. Many xenobiotic compounds severely impact the environment due to their high toxicity, prolonged persistence, and limited biodegradability. Microbial-assisted degradation of xenobiotic compounds is considered to be the most effective and beneficial approach. Microorganisms have remarkable catabolic potential, with genes, enzymes, and degradation pathways implicated in the process of biodegradation. A number of microbes, including , and , have been isolated and characterized, and have shown exceptional biodegradation potential for a variety of xenobiotic contaminants from soil/water environments. Microorganisms potentially utilize xenobiotic contaminants as carbon or nitrogen sources to sustain their growth and metabolic activities. Diverse microbial populations survive in harsh contaminated environments, exhibiting a significant biodegradation potential to degrade and transform pollutants. However, the study of such microbial populations requires a more advanced and multifaceted approach. Currently, multiple advanced approaches, including metagenomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics, are successfully employed for the characterization of pollutant-degrading microorganisms, their metabolic machinery, novel proteins, and catabolic genes involved in the degradation process. These technologies are highly sophisticated, and efficient for obtaining information about the genetic diversity and community structures of microorganisms. Advanced molecular technologies used for the characterization of complex microbial communities give an in-depth understanding of their structural and functional aspects, and help to resolve issues related to the biodegradation potential of microorganisms. This review article discusses the biodegradation potential of microorganisms and provides insights into recent advances and omics approaches employed for the specific characterization of xenobiotic-degrading microorganisms from contaminated environments.
PubMed: 33644024
DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.632059