Publications by authors named "Iebba V"

Background: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is characterized by a methionine-related metabolic disorder involving reduced plasma levels of hydrogen sulfide (HS) and increased lanthionine. The gut microbiota influences methionine metabolism, potentially impacting sulfur metabolite dysfunctions in CKD. We evaluated whether gut microbiota dysbiosis contributes to HS and lanthionine metabolic alterations in CKD.

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  • The study investigated the significance of metabolic tumor volume (tMTV) in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) undergoing immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy, using 18F-FDG-PET/CT scans.
  • It involved 518 patients across multiple institutions and found that those with high tMTV had poorer overall survival when treated with ICBs alone compared to those with low tMTV.
  • The research suggests that high tMTV is associated with increased systemic inflammation and genomic instability, making it a potential biomarker for determining treatment strategies in NSCLC patients with positive PD-L1 expression.
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The human body represents the habitat of trillions of symbiotic microorganisms, collectively known as human microbiota, approximately half of which residing in the gut. The development of next-generation sequencing techniques has boosted the profiling of human microbiota in recent years. A growing body of evidence seems to support a strict relationship between the disruption of the mutualistic relationship between the microbiota and the host (i.

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  • * The study found that the transferrin receptor CD71 is increased in Tregs in liver cancer, and its deficiency caused severe health issues in mice due to impaired Treg expansion during early life.
  • * CD71 deficiency led to iron overload in the liver, changes in gut microbiota, and suggests that Tregs may contribute to nutritional balance by competing for iron during early bacterial colonization.
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  • The gut microbiota plays a significant role in how cancer patients respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), but there’s no clear definition of harmful dysbiosis.* -
  • Researchers analyzed fecal samples from 245 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, identifying specific bacterial species groups associated with either resistance or response to ICIs, resulting in the creation of a topological score (TOPOSCORE).* -
  • This TOPOSCORE was further validated in additional patient cohorts and transformed into a 21-bacterial probe set for qPCR scoring, suggesting it could serve as a dynamic tool for diagnosing intestinal dysbiosis and tailoring microbiota-focused treatments.*
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Formyl peptide receptor-1 (FPR1) is a pattern recognition receptor that is mostly expressed by myeloid cells. In patients with colorectal cancer (CRC), a loss-of-function polymorphism (rs867228) in the gene coding for FPR1 has been associated with reduced responses to chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. Moreover, rs867228 is associated with accelerated esophageal and colorectal carcinogenesis.

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Background: Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)4/6-inhibitors with endocrine therapy represent the standard of treatment of hormone receptor-positive(HR+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Gut microbiota seems to predict treatment response in several tumour types, being directly implied in chemotherapy resistance and development of adverse effects. No evidence is available on gut microbiota impact on efficacy of HR+ breast cancer treatment.

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Gut microorganisms and the products of their metabolism thoroughly affect host brain development, function and behavior. Since alterations of brain plasticity and cognition have been demonstrated upon motor, sensorial and social enrichment of the housing conditions, we hypothesized that gut microbiota and metabolome could be altered by environmental stimuli, providing part of the missing link among environmental signals and brain effects. In this preliminary study, metagenomic and metabolomic analyses of mice housed in different environmental conditions, standard and enriched, identify environment-specific microbial communities and metabolic profiles.

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Aside from PD-L1 expression, biomarkers of response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are needed. In a previous retrospective analysis, we documented that fecal Akkermansia muciniphila (Akk) was associated with clinical benefit of ICI in patients with NSCLC or kidney cancer. In the current study, we performed shotgun-metagenomics-based microbiome profiling in a large cohort of patients with advanced NSCLC (n = 338) treated with first- or second-line ICIs to prospectively validate the predictive value of fecal Akk.

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  • Gut dysbiosis is linked to both intestinal and extraintestinal cancers; however, the relationship between cancer development and changes in the microbiome is still unclear.
  • The study found that cancer can cause damage to the ileal mucosa, leading to changes in gut permeability and a rise in Clostridium species, which are associated with dysbiosis.
  • Interventions like β-adrenergic receptor blockers or antibiotics helped prevent the detrimental gut changes linked to tumors, suggesting stress ileopathy is an important condition in cancer that needs targeted treatment.
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The presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been recently demonstrated in the sputum or saliva, suggesting how the shedding of viral RNA outlasts the end of symptoms. Recent data from transcriptome analysis show that the oral cavity mucosa harbors high levels of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane protease, serine 2 (TMPRSS2), highlighting its role as a double-edged sword for SARS-CoV-2 body entrance or interpersonal transmission. Here, we studied the oral microbiota structure and inflammatory profile of 26 naive severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients and 15 controls by 16S rRNA V2 automated targeted sequencing and magnetic bead-based multiplex immunoassays, respectively.

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Treatment with combined immune checkpoint blockade (CICB) targeting CTLA-4 and PD-1 is associated with clinical benefit across tumor types, but also a high rate of immune-related adverse events. Insights into biomarkers and mechanisms of response and toxicity to CICB are needed. To address this, we profiled the blood, tumor and gut microbiome of 77 patients with advanced melanoma treated with CICB, with a high rate of any ≥grade 3 immune-related adverse events (49%) with parallel studies in pre-clinical models.

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A deviated repertoire of the gut microbiome predicts resistance to cancer immunotherapy. Enterococcus hirae compensated cancer-associated dysbiosis in various tumor models. However, the mechanisms by which E.

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  • The study investigates the role of the intestinal microbiome in early breast cancer prognosis using shotgun metagenomics on fecal samples from patients before and after chemotherapy.
  • It finds that certain gut bacteria that are more abundant in breast cancer patients may negatively affect prognosis and are influenced by chemotherapy, potentially worsening side effects like weight gain and neurological issues.
  • The research emphasizes the need for further validation of these findings in larger prospective studies to confirm the gut microbiome's impact on breast cancer treatment outcomes.
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Infertile couples undergoing the use of assisted reproductive technology are a good study model to evaluate the microbiological signatures affecting reproductive health. We tested vaginal lavages, follicular fluids, embryo culture mediums, and seminal fluids from 47 couples for their microbiome composition and HPV infection. Twenty-five infertile couples were diagnosed with unexplained infertility, whereas 22 were diagnosed with explained infertility.

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Limited experimental evidence bridges nutrition and cancer immunosurveillance. Here, we show that ketogenic diet (KD) - or its principal ketone body, 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB), most specifically in intermittent scheduling - induced T cell-dependent tumor growth retardation of aggressive tumor models. In conditions in which anti-PD-1 alone or in combination with anti-CTLA-4 failed to reduce tumor growth in mice receiving a standard diet, KD, or oral supplementation of 3HB reestablished therapeutic responses.

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Ileal epithelial cell apoptosis and the local microbiota modulate the effects of oxaliplatin against proximal colon cancer by modulating tumor immunosurveillance. Here, we identified an ileal immune profile associated with the prognosis of colon cancer and responses to chemotherapy. The whole immune ileal transcriptome was upregulated in poor-prognosis patients with proximal colon cancer, while the colonic immunity of healthy and neoplastic areas was downregulated (except for the Th17 fingerprint) in such patients.

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Intestinal microbiota have been proposed to induce commensal-specific memory T cells that cross-react with tumor-associated antigens. We identified major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-binding epitopes in the tail length tape measure protein (TMP) of a prophage found in the genome of the bacteriophage Mice bearing harboring this prophage mounted a TMP-specific H-2K-restricted CD8 T lymphocyte response upon immunotherapy with cyclophosphamide or anti-PD-1 antibodies. Administration of bacterial strains engineered to express the TMP epitope improved immunotherapy in mice.

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Microbiota are microorganismal communities colonizing human tissues exposed to the external environment, including the urogenital tract. The bacterial composition of the vaginal microbiota has been established and is partially related to obstetric outcome, while the uterine microbiota, considered to be a sterile environment for years, is now the focus of more extensive studies and debates. The characterization of the microbiota contained in the reproductive tract (RT) of asymptomatic and infertile women, could define a specific RT microbiota associated with implantation failure.

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Objective: HIV-1-associated dysbiosis is most commonly characterized by overall decreased diversity, with abundance of the genus Prevotella, recently related to inflammatory responses.

Design: A pilot study including 10 antiretroviral therapy-treated HIV-1-infected men and 50 uninfected controls was performed to identify the main gut dysbiosis determinants (e.g.

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  • The prognosis of colon cancer is influenced by tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and the effectiveness of immune responses triggered by chemotherapy.
  • Research indicates that gut microbiota plays a role in determining whether intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) undergo tolerogenic or immunogenic cell death, affecting T cell accumulation in colon cancer patients and mice.
  • Specific gut microbes, like Bacteroides fragilis, enhance protective immune responses against colon cancer by promoting apoptotic IECs and activating PD-1 T cells in an interleukin-dependent manner.
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  • The study investigates how the composition of stool bacteria in kidney cancer patients affects the effectiveness of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy, specifically nivolumab, which has been shown to improve treatment outcomes in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).
  • Researchers collected fecal samples from 69 advanced RCC patients and analyzed these alongside samples from healthy volunteers to find correlations between gut bacteria and treatment responses, while also examining the impact of antibiotics and tyrosine kinase inhibitors on microbiota.
  • The findings suggest that recent antibiotic use significantly reduces response rates to ICB therapy, emphasizing the importance of gut bacteria in predicting patient outcomes and highlighting a potential area for improving cancer treatment strategies.
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This short communication reports the preliminary results of Fecal Microbial Transplantation (FMT) impact on microbiota, microbial translocation (MT), and immune activation in four recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (R-CDI) patients. After FMT a restore of gut microbiota composition with a significant increase of fecal acetyl-putrescine and spermidine and fecal acetate and butyrate, a decrease of immune activation of T cells CD4+ and CD8+levels, and of LPS binding protein (LBP) level, were observed. Preliminary results indicate that FMT seems to be helpful not only as a CDI radical cure, with an impact on fecal microbiota and metabolome profiles, but also on MT and immune activation.

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A microbial ecosystem in which bacteria no longer live in a mutualistic association is called dysbiotic. Gut microbiota dysbiosis is a condition related with the pathogenesis of intestinal illnesses (irritable bowel syndrome, celiac disease, and inflammatory bowel disease) and extra-intestinal illnesses (obesity, metabolic disorder, cardiovascular syndrome, allergy, and asthma). Dysbiosis status has been related to various important pathologies, and many therapeutic strategies aimed at restoring the balance of the intestinal ecosystem have been implemented.

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