Ana E. Pérez-Cobas, Alejandro Artacho, Stephan J. Ott, Andrés Moya, María J. Gosalbes, Amparo Latorre
Abstract
Antibiotic therapy is a causative agent of severe disturbances in microbial communities. In healthy individuals, the gut microbiota prevents infection by harmful microorganisms through direct inhibition (releasing antimicrobial compounds), competition, or stimulation of the host's immune defenses. However, widespread antibiotic use has resulted in short- and long-term shifts in the gut microbiota structure, leading to a loss in colonization resistance in some cases. Consequently, some patients develop Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) after taking an antibiotic (AB) and, at present, this opportunistic pathogen is one of the main causes of antibiotic-associated diarrhea in hospitalized patients. Here, we analyze the composition and functional differences in the gut microbiota of C. difficile infected (CDI) vs. non-infected patients, both patient groups having been treated with AB therapy. To do so we used 16S rRNA gene and metagenomic 454-based pyrosequencing approaches. Samples were taken before, during and after AB treatment and were checked for the presence of the pathogen. We performed different analyses and comparisons between infected (CD+) vs. non-infected (CD-) samples, allowing proposing putative candidate taxa and functions that might protect against C. difficile colonization. Most of these potentially protective taxa belonged to the Firmicutes phylum, mainly to the order Clostridiales, while some candidate protective functions were related to aromatic amino acid biosynthesis and stress response mechanisms. We also found that CDI patients showed, in general, lower diversity and richness than non-infected, as well as an overrepresentation of members of the families Bacteroidaceae, Enterococcaceae, Lactobacillaceae and Clostridium clusters XI and XIVa. Regarding metabolic functions, we detected higher abundance of genes involved in the transport and binding of carbohydrates, ions, and others compounds as a response to an antibiotic environment.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 11. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 06 July 2016.
All research outputs
#3,038,272
of 23,498,099 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Microbiology
#2,781
of 25,939 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#30,826
of 228,961 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Microbiology
#27
of 182 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,498,099 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 87th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 25,939 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.3. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 228,961 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 182 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its contemporaries.
