Publications
Video Abstract
Mercer EM, Ramay HR, Moossavi S, Laforest-Lapointe I, Reyna ME, Becker AB, Simons E, Mandhane PJ, Turvey SE, Moraes TJ, Sears MR, Subbarao P, Azad MB, Arrieta MC. (2024). Microbiome.
Keywords: Alpha diversity; Colonization patterns; Early life; Gut fungi; Gut microbiome; Gut mycobiome; Inter-kingdom dynamics; Microbial succession; Microbiome maturation.
Abstract
...Examine individual shifts in bacterial and fungal alpha diversity from 3 to 12 months of age in 100 infants from the CHILD Cohort Study. Identified divergent patterns of gut bacterial or fungal microbiome maturation in over 40% of infants, which were characterized by differences in community composition, inter-kingdom dynamics, and microbe-derived metabolites in urine, suggestive of alterations in the timing of ecosystem transitions. Known microbiome-modifying factors, such as formula feeding and delivery by C-section, were associated with READ MORE
van de Wouw, M., Rojas, L., Vaghef-Mehrabani, E., Wang, Y., Fichter, C., Workentine, M. L., Dewey, D., Arrieta, M. C., Reimer, R. A., Tomfohr-Madsen, L., & Giesbrecht, G. F. (2023). Neuroscience letters.
Highlights
The relationship between the gut microbiome and cognition at 3–4 years of life is unclear.
Gut microbiota diversity correlated negatively with verbal comprehension.
Stool paraxanthine was negatively correlated with verbal comprehension scores.
There is limited evidence of a link between the gut microbiota and cognition.
Mercer, E. M., & Arrieta, M. C. (2023). Gut microbes.
Keywords: Gut microbiome; early life; microbial succession; microbiome maturation; neonatal intensive care; prematurity; preterm infants; probiotic.
Abstract
Gut microbiome maturation in infants born prematurely is uniquely influenced by the physiological, clinical, and environmental factors surrounding preterm birth and early life, leading to altered patterns of microbial succession relative to term infants during the first months of life...
Heirali, A., Moossavi, S., Arrieta, M. C., & Coburn, B. . (2023) Open forum infectious diseases.
Keywords: antimicrobial drugs; microbiome; non-antimicrobial drugs; pharmacoecology; pharmacomicrobiomics.
ABSTRACT
Interactions between the microbiome and medical therapies are distinct and bidirectional. The existing term “pharmacomicrobiomics” describes the effects of the microbiome on drug distribution, metabolism, efficacy, and toxicity...
Rojas, L., van de Wouw, M., Wang, Y., Vaghef-Mehrabani, E., Dewey, D., Reimer, R. A., Letourneau, N., Campbell, T., Arrieta, M. C., & Giesbrecht, G. F. (2023) Psychoneuroendocrinology.
Keywords: Alberta pregnancy outcomes and nutrition (APrON) study; Child; Cortisol; Distress; Gut microbiota; Prenatal stress.
Highlights
The effects of prenatal stress on the child gut microbiome at 3–4 years is unclear.
Prenatal distress is associated with increased child gut microbial diversity.
Prenatal cortisol correlates with diversity in a trimester-dependent manner.
Stress associations with taxa and metabolites are measure- and trimester-dependent.
These findings provide novel insights into the biological embedding of stress.
The global human gut microbiome: genes, lifestyles, and diet.
Parizadeh, M., & Arrieta, M. C. (2023). Trends in molecular medicine.
Highlights
The human gut hosts highly diverse microbial communities that display differences across the human societies studied to date, with the most striking changes linked to industrialization levels.
Urban, western living is associated with reduced bacterial diversity and loss of native species (e.g., Prevotella) and fiber-degrading functions. These differences may contribute to increased rates in noncommunicable immune, metabolic, and neurological disorders.
FINDINGS
Among the many lifestyle and genetic factors studied (geographic location, genetic relatedness, diet, ethnicity, built-in environments, family composition, etc.), dietary and lifestyle practices emerge as the most influential in shaping gut microbial communities.
Human migration represents a unique window on how the gut microbiome can contribute to the detrimental health consequences caused by newly adopted lifestyles.
Samara J, Moossavi S, Alshaikh B, Ortega VA, Pettersen VK, Ferdous T, Hoops SL, Soraisham A, Vayalumkal J, Dersch-Mills D, Gerber JS, Mukhopadhyay S, Puopolo K, Tompkins TA, Knights D, Walter J, Amin H, Arrieta MC. (2022). Cell Host Microbe.
Study shows that probiotic supplements can help form a healthy microbiome in the gut of premature infants who are born without a fully formed gut microbiome. The study found that a specific mix (five species) of probiotic supplement accelerated the maturation of the microbiome into a term-like state and reduced intestinal inflammation in extremely preterm infants.
Questioning the fetal microbiome illustrates pitfalls of low-biomass microbial studies.
Kennedy, K. M., de Goffau, M. C., Perez-Muñoz, M. E., Arrieta, M. C., Bäckhed, F., Bork, P., Braun, T., Bushman, F. D., Dore, J., de Vos, W. M., Earl, A. M., Eisen, J. A., Elovitz, M. A., Ganal-Vonarburg, S. C., Gänzle, M. G., Garrett, W. S., Hall, L. J., Hornef, M. W., Huttenhower, C., Konnikova, L., … Walter, J. (2023). Nature.
ABSTRACT
Whether the human fetus and the prenatal intrauterine environment (amniotic fluid and placenta) are stably colonized by microbial communities in a healthy pregnancy remains a subject of debate. Here we evaluate recent studies that characterized microbial populations in human fetuses from the perspectives of reproductive biology, microbial ecology, bioinformatics, immunology, clinical microbiology and gnotobiology, and assess possible mechanisms by which the fetus might interact with microorganisms. Our analysis indicates that the detected microbial signals are likely the result of contamination during the clinical procedures to obtain fetal samples or during DNA extraction and DNA sequencing. Furthermore, the existence of live and replicating microbial populations in healthy fetal tissues is not compatible with fundamental concepts of immunology, clinical microbiology and the derivation of germ-free mammals...
Arrieta M.C. , Arévalo, A., Stiemsma, L., Dimitriu, P., Chico, M.E., Loor, S., Vaca, M., Boutin, R.C., Morien, E., Jin, M., Turvey, S.E. (2017)
Given that asthma is the most prevalent childhood chronic disease and that early-life gut microbial changes (dysbiosis) have been shown to affect asthma development, this paper discusses effects of gut microbial dysbiosis on atopic wheeze in a population living in a distinct developing world environment. The authors show that fungal and bacterial microbiota play a crucial role during the first 100 days of life on the development of atopic wheeze and provide additional support for considering modulation of the gut microbiome as a primary asthma prevention strategy.
Hygiene Hypothesis in Asthma Development: Is Hygiene to Blame?
van Tilburg Bernardes, E. & Arrieta M.C. (2017)
This review in Archives in Medical Research summarizes up-to-date information on genetic and environmental factors associated with asthma in different human populations, and presents evidence that calls for caution when associating hygiene with the pathogenesis of asthma and other allergic conditions.
Laforest-Lapointe, I. & Arrieta M.C. (2017)
This review in Frontiers in Immunology highlights the recent findings on the interactions between the human gut microbial community and host immune system through the lenses of community ecology theory.
Perez-Muñoz M.E., Arrieta M.C., Ramer-Tait A. & Walter, J. (2017)
This recent review in the Open Access journal Microbiome discusses the importance of methodology when working with the "rare microbiome", especially when studying human organs that are scientifically believed to be sterile.
This work serves as a reminder of the importance of negative controls, test of bacterial viability, and use of appropriate molecular techniques when studying "low biomass" microbial samples.
Click here to see a synthesis of our paper explained on Youtube.
A humanized microbiota mouse model of ovalbumin-induced lung inflammation
Arrieta, M.C., Sadarangani M., Brown, E.M., Russell, S.L., Nimmo, M., Dean, J., Turvey, S.E., Chan, E.S. & Finlay, B. (2016)
This addendum, published in the journal Gut Microbes as a follow-up to Arrieta et al. (2015) in Science Translational Medicine, provide additional data on the use of a humanized gut microbiota mouse model to study the development of asthma in children, highlighting the differences in immune development between germ-free mice colonized with human microbes compared to those colonized with mouse gut microbiota.
Early infancy microbial and metabolic alterations affect risk of childhood asthma
Arrieta, M.C., Stiemsa, L.T., Dimitriu, P.A., Thorson, L., Russell, S., Yurist-Doutsch, S., Kuzeljevic, B., Gold, M.J., Britton, H.M., Lefebvre, D.L., Subbarao, P., Mandhane, P., Becker, A., McNagny, K.M., Sears, M.R., Kollmann, T., The CHILD Study Investigators, Mohn, W.W., Turvey, S.E. & Finlay, B.B. (2015)
This article involves the CHILD Study cohort, which highlights research on a prospective longitudinal birth cohort study. This means that CHILD researchers are actively following the Study participants over time as they grow and develop—from mid-pregnancy into childhood and adolescence. CHILD is designed this way so it can collect information at time points that are considered to be especially critical to the health and development of children.
