Publications by authors named "Britt M Hermes"

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune blistering disease that primarily affects the elderly. An altered skin microbiota in BP was recently revealed. Accumulating evidence points toward a link between the gut microbiota and skin diseases; however, the gut microbiota composition of BP patients remains largely underexplored, with only one pilot study to date, with a very limited sample size and no functional profiling of gut microbiota.

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Anorexia nervosa (AN), a psychiatric condition defined by low body weight for age and height, is associated with numerous dermatological conditions. Yet, clinical observations report that patients with AN do not suffer from infectious skin diseases like those associated with primary malnutrition. Cell-mediated immunity appears to be amplified in AN; however, this proinflammatory state does not sufficiently explain the lower incidence of infections.

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Introduction: Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is the most common autoimmune blistering disease. It predominately afflicts the elderly and is significantly associated with increased mortality. The observation of age-dependent changes in the skin microbiota as well as its involvement in other inflammatory skin disorders suggests that skin microbiota may play a role in the emergence of BP blistering.

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The intestinal microbiome is implicated as an important modulating factor in multiple inflammatory, neurologic and neoplastic diseases. Recent genome-wide association studies yielded inconsistent, underpowered and rarely replicated results such that the role of human host genetics as a contributing factor to microbiome assembly and structure remains uncertain. Nevertheless, twin studies clearly suggest host genetics as a driver of microbiome composition.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study explores the relationship between hosts and their microbiomes, viewing them as interconnected "metaorganisms" and examining their long-term associations across various species from sponges to humans and plants.
  • The researchers compared two main methods for profiling microbial communities—16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and metagenomic shotgun sequencing—across ten different host species to optimize analysis techniques.
  • The findings indicate that, despite skepticism surrounding 16S rRNA analyses, bacterial community characteristics remain consistent across methods, leading to recommendations for specific amplification procedures and revealing significant evolutionary insights regarding the transition of animals from aquatic to terrestrial environments.
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