Detecting eukaryotic microbiota with single-cell sensitivity in human tissue.
Authors
Publication Date
2018-09-01Journal Title
Microbiome
ISSN
2049-2618
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Volume
6
Issue
1
Pages
151
Language
eng
Type
Article
Physical Medium
Electronic
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Lager, S., de Goffau, M., Sovio, U., Peacock, S., Parkhill, J., Charnock-Jones, S., & Smith, G. (2018). Detecting eukaryotic microbiota with single-cell sensitivity in human tissue.. Microbiome, 6 (1), 151. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-018-0529-x
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Fetal growth restriction, pre-eclampsia, and pre-term birth are major adverse pregnancy outcomes. These complications are considerable contributors to fetal/maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide. A significant proportion of these cases are thought to be due to dysfunction of the placenta. However, the underlying mechanisms of placental dysfunction are unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether adverse pregnancy outcomes are associated with evidence of placental eukaryotic infection. RESULTS: We modified the 18S Illumina Amplicon Protocol of the Earth Microbiome Project and made it capable of detecting just a single spiked-in genome copy of Plasmodium falciparum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or Toxoplasma gondii among more than 70,000 human cells. Using this method, we were unable to detect eukaryotic pathogens in placental biopsies in instances of adverse pregnancy outcome (n = 199) or in healthy controls (n = 99). CONCLUSIONS: Eukaryotic infection of the placenta is not an underlying cause of the aforementioned pregnancy complications. Possible clinical applications for this non-targeted, yet extremely sensitive, eukaryotic screening method are manifest.
Keywords
Placenta, Humans, Toxoplasma, Plasmodium falciparum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Pregnancy Complications, Pregnancy Outcome, Pregnancy, Adult, Female, Young Adult, Eukaryota
Sponsorship
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (Women’s Health theme)
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Funder references
Medical Research Council (MR/K021133/1)
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) (146281)
Medical Research Council (G1100221)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-018-0529-x
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/283076
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