Mucosal Immunity and the Gut-Microbiota-Brain-Axis in Neuroimmune Disease.

Recent advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have opened the door to a wellspring of information regarding the composition of the gut microbiota. Leveraging NGS technology, early metagenomic studies revealed that several diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, autism, and myalgic encephalomyelitis, are characterized by alterations in the diversity of gut-associated microbes. More recently, interest has shifted toward understanding how these microbes impact their host, with a special emphasis on their interactions with the brain.

Evaluation of four clinical laboratory parameters for the diagnosis of myalgic encephalomyelitis.

Background: Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is a complex and debilitating disease that often initially presents with flu-like symptoms, accompanied by incapacitating fatigue. Currently, there are no objective biomarkers or laboratory tests that can be used to unequivocally diagnosis ME; therefore, a diagnosis is made when a patient meets series of a costly and subjective inclusion and exclusion criteria. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the utility of four clinical parameters in diagnosing ME.

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in a cohort of significantly obese women without cardiometabolic diseases.

Background/objectives: Obesity is an important risk factor for the development of diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and dyslipidemia; however, a small number of individuals with long-standing obesity do not present with these cardiometabolic diseases. Such individuals are referred to as metabolically healthy obese (MHO) and potentially represent a subgroup of the general population with a protective genetic predisposition to obesity-related diseases. We hypothesized that individuals who were metabolically healthy, but significantly obese (BMI ≥ 35 kg/m) would represent a highly homogenous subgroup, with which to investigate potential genetic associations to obesity.

Nutritional modulation of the intestinal microbiota; future opportunities for the prevention and treatment of neuroimmune and neuroinflammatory disease.

The gut-brain axis refers to the bidirectional communication between the enteric nervous system and the central nervous system. Mounting evidence supports the premise that the intestinal microbiota plays a pivotal role in its function and has led to the more common and perhaps more accurate term gut-microbiota-brain axis. Numerous studies have identified associations between an altered microbiome and neuroimmune and neuroinflammatory diseases.

Humoral Immunity Profiling of Subjects with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Using a Random Peptide Microarray Differentiates Cases from Controls with High Specificity and Sensitivity.

Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is a complex, heterogeneous illness of unknown etiology. The search for biomarkers that can delineate cases from controls is one of the most active areas of ME research; however, little progress has been made in achieving this goal. In contrast to identifying biomarkers that are directly involved in the pathological process, an immunosignature identifies antibodies raised to proteins expressed during, and potentially involved in, the pathological process.