Bioactive glycans in a microbiome-directed food for children with malnutrition.

Evidence is accumulating that perturbed postnatal development of the gut microbiome contributes to childhood malnutrition. Here we analyse biospecimens from a randomized, controlled trial of a microbiome-directed complementary food (MDCF-2) that produced superior rates of weight gain compared with a calorically more dense conventional ready-to-use supplementary food in 12-18-month-old Bangladeshi children with moderate acute malnutrition. We reconstructed 1,000 bacterial genomes (metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs)) from the faecal microbiomes of trial participants, identified 75 MAGs of which the abundances were positively associated with ponderal growth (change in weight-for-length Z score (WLZ)), characterized changes in MAG gene expression as a function of treatment type and WLZ response, and quantified carbohydrate structures in MDCF-2 and faeces.

Bioactive glycans in a microbiome-directed food for malnourished children.

Evidence is accumulating that perturbed postnatal development of the gut microbiome contributes to childhood malnutrition. Designing effective microbiome-directed therapeutic foods to repair these perturbations requires knowledge about how food components interact with the microbiome to alter its expressed functions. Here we use biospecimens from a randomized, controlled trial of a microbiome-directed complementary food prototype (MDCF-2) that produced superior rates of weight gain compared to a conventional ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF) in 12-18-month-old Bangladeshi children with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM)4.

ApoE isoform- and microbiota-dependent progression of neurodegeneration in a mouse model of tauopathy.

Tau-mediated neurodegeneration is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. Primary tauopathies are characterized by pathological tau accumulation and neuronal and synaptic loss. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE)-mediated neuroinflammation is involved in the progression of tau-mediated neurodegeneration, and emerging evidence suggests that the gut microbiota regulates neuroinflammation in an APOE genotype-dependent manner.