Publications by authors named "Licht T"

Background And Aims: Chronic fatigue is common in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The gut microbiota, specifically, microbial diversity and butyrate-producing bacteria have been linked to the fatigue pathogenesis. High-dose oral thiamine reduces fatigue, potentially through gut microbiota modification.

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Oral antibiotic treatment is well known to be one of the main factors affecting gut microbiota composition by altering bacterial diversity. It decreases the abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria such as Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae, while increasing abundance of Enterobacteriaceae. The recovery time of commensal bacteria post-antibiotic treatment varies among individuals, and often, complete recovery is not achieved.

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The human gut microbiome is highly personal. However, the contribution of gut physiology and environment to variations in the gut microbiome remains understudied. Here we performed an observational trial using multi-omics to profile microbiome composition and metabolism in 61 healthy adults for 9 consecutive days.

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Article Synopsis
  • Human microbiomes play a crucial role in health by impacting metabolism, immune functions, and neurological processes, but their complete complexity is still not fully understood.
  • The definition of a "healthy" microbiome is controversial due to variations in microbial communities and the difficulty in establishing a standard definition for health across different individuals and conditions.
  • The article highlights progress in microbiome research and identifies gaps in knowledge, proposing a roadmap that utilizes epidemiological methods to better understand the relationship between microbiomes and health.
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  • Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) is a long-lasting chemical commonly found in various everyday products and is primarily ingested through food.
  • A study in rats compared the effects of high-fiber (HF) versus low-fiber (LF) diets on PFOS absorption and removal from the body, finding that HF reduced PFOS levels in the bloodstream while increasing its excretion in feces.
  • The findings indicate that a diet rich in soluble dietary fibers may enhance the elimination of PFOS and alter gut microbiota composition.
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  • The early life stages are very important for how the gut microbiome develops, affecting health later on.
  • Factors like using antibiotics, being born through C-section, and formula feeding can harm this development.
  • A new model called I-TIM-2 helps scientists study how different diets and ingredients, like human milk oligosaccharides, can change the gut bacteria in infants.
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  • Gut microbiome research over the last 20 years highlights its crucial role in influencing host health through microbial metabolites.
  • There is a lack of understanding regarding the molecular mechanisms behind how these metabolites are produced in the gut.
  • The article suggests that improving knowledge of microbial gene regulation, influenced by diet and gut conditions, is vital for developing effective interventions for health promotion and disease prevention.
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  • The gut microbiome plays a key role in ulcerative colitis (UC), leading researchers to explore probiotic therapies for reducing inflammation.
  • This study focuses on indole lactic acid (ILA) produced by a specific strain of E. coli (EcN aldh) and its effects on inflammation in a mouse model of colitis.
  • Findings indicate while both EcN strains had no significant impact during acute colitis, EcN aldh may promote recovery from intestinal inflammation after treatment ends.
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The sense of smell is tightly linked to emotions, a link that is thought to rely on the direct synaptic connections between the olfactory bulb (OB) and nuclei of the amygdala. However, there are multiple pathways projecting olfactory information to the amygdala, and their unique functions are unknown. The pathway via the nucleus of the lateral olfactory tract (NLOT) that receives input from olfactory regions and projects to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) is among them.

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Tryptophan is catabolized by gut microorganisms resulting in a wide range of metabolites implicated in both beneficial and adverse host effects. How gut microbial tryptophan metabolism is directed towards indole, associated with chronic kidney disease, or towards protective indolelactic acid (ILA) and indolepropionic acid (IPA) is unclear. Here we used in vitro culturing and animal experiments to assess gut microbial competition for tryptophan and the resulting metabolites in a controlled three-species defined community and in complex undefined human faecal communities.

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The rising prevalence of metabolic diseases calls for innovative treatments. Peptide-based drugs have transformed the management of conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Yet, challenges persist in oral delivery of these peptides.

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For patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), administration of the probiotic E. coli Nissle (EcN) holds promise for alleviation of disease symptoms. The mechanisms are unclear, but it has been hypothesised that a capacity of the probiotic to outcompete potentially detrimental UC-associated E.

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The olfactory bulb (OB) is a critical component of mammalian olfactory neuroanatomy. Beyond being the first and sole relay station for olfactory information to the rest of the brain, it also contains elaborate stereotypical circuitry that is considered essential for olfaction. Indeed, substantial lesions of the OB in rodents lead to anosmia.

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Background: Patient-reported outcomes are considered the gold standard for assessing subjective health status in oncology patients. Electronic assessment of patient-reported outcomes (ePRO) has become increasingly popular in recent years in both clinical trials and practice. However, there is limited evidence on how well older patients with cancer can complete ePRO assessments.

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Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) is a manmade legacy compound belonging to the group of persistent per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS). While many adverse health effects of PFOS have been identified, knowledge about its effect on the intestinal microbiota is scarce. The microbial community inhabiting the gut of mammals plays an important role in health, for instance by affecting the uptake, excretion, and bioavailability of some xenobiotic toxicants.

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Background: Diets rich in whole grains are associated with health benefits. Yet, it remains unclear whether the benefits are mediated by changes in gut function and fermentation.

Objective: We explored the effects of whole-grain vs.

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Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) are glycans with prebiotic properties known to drive microbial selection in the infant gut, which in turn influences immune development and future health. Bifidobacteria are specialized in HMO degradation and frequently dominate the gut microbiota of breastfed infants. However, some species of also degrade HMOs, which may prompt selection also of these species in the gut microbiota.

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The expanding knowledge of the health impacts of the metabolic activities of the gut microbiota reinforces the current interest in engineered probiotics. Tryptophan metabolites, in particular indole lactic acid (ILA), are attractive candidates as potential therapeutic agents. ILA is a promising compound with multiple beneficial effects, including amelioration colitis in rodent models of necrotizing enterocolitis, as well as improved infant immune system maturation.

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Cancer rehabilitation is thought to increase the quality of life (QOL) and functioning of cancer survivors. It remains, however, uncertain whether subgroups benefit equally from rehabilitation. We wished to investigate the outcomes of multimodal rehabilitation according to age, sex and functioning.

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AbstarctIn fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) against recurrent infection (CDI), clinical outcomes are usually determined after 8 weeks. We hypothesized that the intestinal microbiota changes earlier than this timepoint, and analyzed fecal samples obtained 1 week after treatment from 64 patients diagnosed with recurrent CDI and included in a randomized clinical trial, where the infection was treated with either vancomycin-preceded FMT ( = 24), vancomycin ( = 16) or fidaxomicin ( = 24). In comparison with non-responders, patients with sustained resolution after FMT had increased microbial alpha diversity, enrichment of Ruminococcaceae and Lachnospiraceae, depletion of Enterobacteriaceae, more pronounced donor microbiota engraftment, and resolution of gut microbiota dysbiosis.

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Drug-loaded electrospun nanofibers are potential drug carrier systems that may optimize disease treatment while reducing the impact on commensal microbes. The feasibility of streptomycin-loaded pullulan nanofibers fabricated from a green electrospinning procedure using water as the solvent was assessed. We conducted a rat study including a group treated with streptomycin-loaded nanofibers (STR-F, n = 5), a group treated with similar concentrations of streptomycin in the drinking water (STR-W, n = 5), and a non-treated control group (CTR, n = 5).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how gut microbiota influences energy extraction from food in overweight adults, focusing on stool energy density, intestinal transit time, and microbial community diversity.
  • Contrary to the initial hypothesis, slower intestinal transit is linked to higher stool energy density, with Bacteroides enterotype individuals showing lower energy density and shorter transit times than those with Ruminococcaceae enterotype.
  • These findings indicate that differences in gut microbiome structures and transit times affect energy harvesting, potentially informing obesity treatments based on microbiota management.
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Background: Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) effectively prevents the recurrence of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). Long-term engraftment of donor-specific microbial consortia may occur in the recipient, but potential further transfer to other sites, including the vertical transmission of donor-specific strains to future generations, has not been investigated. Here, we report, for the first time, the cross-generational transmission of specific bacterial strains from an FMT donor to a pregnant patient with CDI and further to her child, born at term, 26 weeks after the FMT treatment.

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