Blastocystis in the faeces of children from six distant countries: prevalence, quantity, subtypes and the relation to the gut bacteriome

Parasites & Vectors

Hanan Mekki¹  Bashir Mukhtar Elwasila Elmahi²  Mohammed Ahmed Abdullah²  Lenka Kramná³  Jan Lebl³  Katerina Polackova³  Ondrej Cinek³  MaryAnn Ugochi Ibekwe⁴  Abeer Alassaf⁵  Rasha Odeh⁵  Gunduz Ahmadov⁶  Sami Oikarinen⁷  Edna Siima Majaliwa⁸ 

[1] Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Khartoum, Faculty of Medicine, Khartoum, Sudan;Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Khartoum, Faculty of Medicine, Khartoum, Sudan;Sudan Childhood Diabetes Center, Khartoum, Sudan;Department of Pediatrics, 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague and University Hospital Motol, V Uvalu 84, Prague 5, Czech Republic;Department of Pediatrics, Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria;Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan;Endocrine Centre Baku, Str. I. Hashimov 4A, AZ1114, Baku, Azerbaijan;Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland;Muhimbili National Hospital, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania;

关键词: Blastocystis;    Bacteriome;    Type 1 diabetes;    Asia;    Africa;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13071-021-04859-3

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundBlastocystis is a human gut symbiont of yet undefined clinical significance. In a set of faecal samples collected from asymptomatic children of six distant populations, we first assessed the community profiles of protist 18S rDNA and then characterized Blastocystis subtypes and tested Blastocystis association with the faecal bacteriome community.MethodsStool samples were collected from 244 children and young persons (mean age 11.3 years, interquartile range 8.1–13.7) of six countries (Azerbaijan 51 subjects, Czechia 52, Jordan 40, Nigeria 27, Sudan 59 and Tanzania 15). The subjects showed no symptoms of infection. Amplicon profiling of the 18S rDNA was used for verification that Blastocystis was the most frequent protist, whereas specific real-time PCR showed its prevalence and quantity, and massive parallel amplicon sequencing defined the Blastocystis subtypes. The relation between Blastocystis and the stool bacteriome community was characterized using 16S rDNA profiling.ResultsBlastocystis was detected by specific PCR in 36% (88/244) stool samples and was the most often observed faecal protist. Children from Czechia and Jordan had significantly lower prevalence than children from the remaining countries. The most frequent subtype was ST3 (49%, 40/81 sequenced samples), followed by ST1 (36%) and ST2 (25%). Co-infection with two different subtypes was noted in 12% samples. The faecal bacteriome had higher richness in Blastocystis-positive samples, and Blastocystis was associated with significantly different community composition regardless of the country (p < 0.001 in constrained redundancy analysis). Several taxa differed with Blastocystis positivity or quantity: two genera of Ruminococcaceae were more abundant, while Bifidobacterium, Veillonella, Lactobacillus and several other genera were undrerrepresented.ConclusionsAsymptomatic children frequently carry Blastocystis, and co-infection with multiple distinct subtypes is not exceptional. Prevalence and quantity of the organism clearly differ among populations. Blastocystis is linked to bothfaecal bacteriome diversity and its composition.Graphical Abstract

【 授权许可】

CC BY