Microbiome Alterations Driven by Trypanosoma cruzi Infection in Two Disjunctive Murine Models

Authors

Sergio Castañeda
Marina Muñoz
Peter J Hotez
Maria Elena Bottazzi
Alberto E Paniz-Mondolfi
Kathryn M Jones
Rojelio Mejia
Cristina Poveda
Juan David Ramírez

Publication Date

6-15-2023

Journal

Microbiology Spectrum

DOI

10.1128/spectrum.00199-23

PMID

37140369

PMCID

PMC10269900

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

5-4-2023

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Mice, Animals, Disease Models, Animal, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Chagas Disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, Microbiota

Abstract

Alterations caused by Trypanosoma cruzi in the composition of gut microbiome may play a vital role in the host-parasite interactions that shapes physiology and immune responses against infection. Thus, a better understanding of this parasite-host-microbiome interaction may yield relevant information in the comprehension of the pathophysiology of the disease and the development of new prophylactic and therapeutic alternatives. Therefore, we implemented a murine model with two mice strains (BALB/c and C57BL/6) to evaluate the impact of Trypanosoma cruzi (Tulahuen strain) infection on the gut microbiome utilizing cytokine profiling and shotgun metagenomics. Higher parasite burdens were observed in cardiac and intestinal tissues, including changes in anti-inflammatory (interleukin-4 [IL-4] and IL-10) and proinflammatory (gamma interferon, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and IL-6) cytokines. Bacterial species such as Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, Faecalibaculum rodentium, and Lactobacillus johnsonii showed a decrease in relative abundance, while Akkermansia muciniphila and Staphylococcus xylosus increased. Likewise, as infection progressed, there was a decrease in gene abundances related to metabolic processes such as lipid synthesis (including short-chain fatty acids) and amino acid synthesis (including branched-chain amino acids). High-quality metagenomic assembled genomes of L. johnsonii and A. muciniphila among other species were reconstructed, confirming, functional changes associated with metabolic pathways that are directly affected by the loss of abundance of specific bacterial taxa.

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