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Gut Microbioma in Childhood Health and Disease
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Gut Microbioma in Childhood Health and Disease

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Microbiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2021) | Viewed by 15645

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Salvatore Cucchiara

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Guest Editor
Department of Women’s and Child’s Health, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Interests: molecular mechanisms underlying intestinal inflammation; immuno-pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases; genetics of inflammatory bowel diseases; mucosal healing of inflammatory bowel disease; neuro-gastroenterology and disorders of intestinal motility; immuno-pathogenesis of food allergy; genetics and immuno-pathogenesis of celiac disease
Prof. Dr. Laura Stronati

E-Mail
Guest Editor
Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Interests: immunopathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases; genetics of inflammatory bowel diseases; mechanisms of interaction between commensal microbiota and innate immune system; analysis of gut microbiota composition and functions through next generation sequencing; novel non-pharmacological therapies for the treatment of inflammatory immune-mediated diseases; inflammatory processes in gut-liver and gut-brain axis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The gut microbiota (GM) composition and function is a major factor involved in human health and disease. In particular, GM is a key player in the mechanisms underlying chronic multifactorial disorders, known as noncommunicable diseases, interacting with host genetics and immune system. In this interplay the intestine has a gatekeeper role, since it harbours a very heterogeneous microbial community and possesses a sophisticated immune system which is daily exposed to a multitude of food and microbial antigens. 

The GM is characterized by distinctive compositional and functional features in different periods of life. Emerging evidence suggests that the microbes found in the human body are essential for the development and maturation of the child's immune system; moreover, they play fundamental roles in nutrition and resistance to pathogens at all ages.

The developmental origin of health and disease highlights the importance of the first two years of life of humans and the GM establishment is included in this time window. Microbiota gained at birth develops in parallel as the host matures and maintains its temporal stability and diversity through adulthood. Recent developments in genome sequencing technologies and bioinformatics have allowed to explore the composition and functions of GM at a high level of depth. The collected evidences suggest that though a part of the microbiota is conserved, the dynamic members vary along the gastrointestinal tract from infants to elderly in different health conditions.

Alterations of the GM may lead to the onset of several complex disorders, such as food allergies, inflammatory bowel disease, metabolic disease but also diseases related to the neurodevelopment. Restoring immune homeostasis through the normalization of the GM is now considered a valuable therapeutic approach to treat pediatric patients.

Therefore, manipulating human GM (through different strategies such as probiotics, symbiotics, live biotherapeutics, post-biotics and fecal microbiota transplantation) may represent an innovative and robust strategy for treating and preventing many chronic disorders arising from altered GM development during the pediatric age.

The purpose of this special issue is to provide an overview of the GM role during the childhood in health and disease and the use of the microbiota-directed therapies in pediatric disorders.

Prof. Dr. Salvatore Cucchiara
Prof. Dr. Laura Stronati
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • gut microbiota
  • dysbiosis
  • paediatrics
  • development
  • inflammation

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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10 pages, 2038 KiB  
Article
Dysfunctional Gut Microbiome Networks in Childhood IgE-Mediated Food Allergy
by Khui Hung Lee, Jing Guo, Yong Song, Amir Ariff, Michael O’Sullivan, Belinda Hales, Benjamin J. Mullins and Guicheng Zhang
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(4), 2079; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22042079 - 19 Feb 2021
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 4945
Abstract
The development of food allergy has been reported to be related with the changes in the gut microbiome, however the specific microbe associated with the pathogenesis of food allergy remains elusive. This study aimed to comprehensively characterize the gut microbiome and identify individual [...] Read more.
The development of food allergy has been reported to be related with the changes in the gut microbiome, however the specific microbe associated with the pathogenesis of food allergy remains elusive. This study aimed to comprehensively characterize the gut microbiome and identify individual or group gut microbes relating to food-allergy using 16S rRNA gene sequencing with network analysis. Faecal samples were collected from children with IgE-mediated food allergies (n = 33) and without food allergy (n = 27). Gut microbiome was profiled by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. OTUs obtained from 16S rRNA gene sequencing were then used to construct a co-abundance network using Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) and mapped onto Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways. We identified a co-abundance network module to be positively correlated with IgE-mediated food allergy and this module was characterized by a hub taxon, namely Ruminococcaceae UCG-002 (phylum Firmicutes). Functional pathway analysis of all the gut microbiome showed enrichment of methane metabolism and glycerolipid metabolism in the gut microbiome of food-allergic children and enrichment of ubiquinone and other terpenoid-quinone biosynthesis in the gut microbiome of non-food allergic children. We concluded that Ruminococcaceae UCG-002 may play determinant roles in gut microbial community structure and function leading to the development of IgE-mediated food allergy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gut Microbioma in Childhood Health and Disease)
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15 pages, 3015 KiB  
Article
Gut Microbiota Profile in Children with IgE-Mediated Cow’s Milk Allergy and Cow’s Milk Sensitization and Probiotic Intestinal Persistence Evaluation
by Maurizio Mennini, Sofia Reddel, Federica Del Chierico, Simone Gardini, Andrea Quagliariello, Pamela Vernocchi, Rocco Luigi Valluzzi, Vincenzo Fierro, Carla Riccardi, Tania Napolitano, Alessandro Giovanni Fiocchi and Lorenza Putignani
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(4), 1649; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22041649 - 6 Feb 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3862
Abstract
Food allergy (FA) and, in particular, IgE-mediated cow’s milk allergy is associated with compositional and functional changes of gut microbiota. In this study, we compared the gut microbiota of cow’s milk allergic (CMA) infants with that of cow’s milk sensitized (CMS) infants and [...] Read more.
Food allergy (FA) and, in particular, IgE-mediated cow’s milk allergy is associated with compositional and functional changes of gut microbiota. In this study, we compared the gut microbiota of cow’s milk allergic (CMA) infants with that of cow’s milk sensitized (CMS) infants and Healthy controls. The effect of the intake of a mixture of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum BB536, Bifidobacterium breve M-16V and Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis M-63 on gut microbiota modulation of CMA infants and probiotic persistence was also investigated. Gut microbiota of CMA infants resulted to be characterized by a dysbiotic status with a prevalence of some bacteria as Haemophilus, Klebsiella, Prevotella, Actinobacillus and Streptococcus. Among the three strains administered, B.longum subsp. infantis colonized the gastrointestinal tract and persisted in the gut microbiota of infants with CMA for 60 days. This colonization was associated with perturbations of the gut microbiota, specifically with the increase of Akkermansia and Ruminococcus. Multi-strain probiotic formulations can be studied for their persistence in the intestine by monitoring specific bacterial probes persistence and exploiting microbiota profiling modulation before the evaluation of their therapeutic effects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gut Microbioma in Childhood Health and Disease)
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Review

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12 pages, 788 KiB  
Review
Emerging Roles of Gut Virome in Pediatric Diseases
by Valerio Fulci, Laura Stronati, Salvatore Cucchiara, Ilaria Laudadio and Claudia Carissimi
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(8), 4127; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22084127 - 16 Apr 2021
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3373
Abstract
In the last decade, the widespread application of shotgun metagenomics provided extensive characterization of the bacterial “dark matter” of the gut microbiome, propelling the development of dedicated, standardized bioinformatic pipelines and the systematic collection of metagenomic data into comprehensive databases. The advent of [...] Read more.
In the last decade, the widespread application of shotgun metagenomics provided extensive characterization of the bacterial “dark matter” of the gut microbiome, propelling the development of dedicated, standardized bioinformatic pipelines and the systematic collection of metagenomic data into comprehensive databases. The advent of next-generation sequencing also unravels a previously underestimated viral population (virome) present in the human gut. Despite extensive efforts to characterize the human gut virome, to date, little is known about the childhood gut virome. However, alterations of the gut virome in children have been linked to pathological conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease, type 1 diabetes, malnutrition, diarrhea and celiac disease. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gut Microbioma in Childhood Health and Disease)
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Other

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13 pages, 2953 KiB  
Case Report
Strongyloides stercoralis Infestation in a Child: How a Nematode Can Affect Gut Microbiota
by Stefania Pane, Anna Sacco, Andrea Iorio, Lorenza Romani and Lorenza Putignani
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(4), 2131; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22042131 - 21 Feb 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2934
Abstract
Background: Strongyloidiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by the intestinal nematode Strongyloides stercoralis and characterized by gastrointestinal and pulmonary involvement. We report a pediatric case of strongyloidiasis to underline the response of the host microbiota to the perturbation induced by the nematode. [...] Read more.
Background: Strongyloidiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by the intestinal nematode Strongyloides stercoralis and characterized by gastrointestinal and pulmonary involvement. We report a pediatric case of strongyloidiasis to underline the response of the host microbiota to the perturbation induced by the nematode. Methods: We performed a 16S rRNA-metagenomic analysis of the gut microbiota of a 7-year-old female during and after S. stercolaris infection, investigating three time-point of stool samples’ ecology: T0- during parasite infection, T1- a month after parasite infection, and T2- two months after parasite infection. Targeted-metagenomics were used to investigate ecology and to predict the functional pathways of the gut microbiota. Results: an increase in the alpha-diversity indices in T0-T1 samples was observed compared to T2 and healthy controls (CTRLs). Beta-diversity analysis showed a shift in the relative abundance of specific gut bacterial species from T0 to T2 samples. Moreover, the functional prediction of the targeted-metagenomics profiles suggested an enrichment of microbial glycan and carbohydrate metabolisms in the T0 sample compared with CTRLs. Conclusions: The herein report reinforces the literature suggestion of a putative direct or immune-mediated ability of S. stercolaris to promote the increase in bacterial diversity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gut Microbioma in Childhood Health and Disease)
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