For a study, hookworms were defined as soil-transmitted helminths that used immune-evasive tactics to stay alive in the human duodenum, causing anemia and protein loss. Hookworms were expected to have an impact on the bacterial microbiota due to their location and immune regulatory effects. Microbiota studies, on the other hand, had a hard time distinguishing the effect of hookworms from confounders like coinfections and malnutrition. The researchers investigated temporal variations in the gut microbiota before and during hookworm infection using an experimental human hookworm infection paradigm. Cumulative doses of 50, 100, or 150 L3 Necator americanus larvae were given to the subjects through the skin. At weeks zero, four, eight, fourteen, and twenty, feces samples were obtained for microbiota profiling using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. There were no changes in bacterial diversity during the acute infection period (weeks zero to eight of the study). Bacterial richness (Chao1, P=.0174) increased considerably among volunteers during the established infection period (trial weeks eight to twenty). There was no link discovered between larval dose and bacterial taxon diversity, stability, or relative abundance. GI problems were linked to an unstable microbiota during the first eight weeks but recovered quickly by week twenty. Barnesiella, among other taxa, was shown to be more prevalent in volunteers who had more GI problems. In conclusion, clinical GI symptoms after N. americanus infection were linked to transitory microbiota instability and a relative sample of particular bacterial taxa.
Link:www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19490976.2020.1840764
