Gut and intraocular fluid dysbiosis in people with type 2 diabetes-related retinopathy in India: A case for further research.

Purpose: To explore the relationship between gut microbiome, gut mycobiome, and intraocular (aqueous humor) microbiome dysbiosis in people with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and diabetic retinopathy (DR).

Design: Multiple case-control studies.

Methods: We evaluated three groups of people: healthy controls (HC), people with T2DM without retinopathy, and those with DR.

The role of symptom reduction in improving health-related quality of life through brief cognitive behavioral therapy.

Unlabelled: Brief cognitive behavior therapy (bCBT) is effective in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders and improving health-related quality of life (HRQoL). However, the mechanisms through which cognitive behavior therapy impact HRQoL are not well understood. This study evaluated whether anxiety and depression symptom reduction is a mechanism of treatment for HRQoL outcomes.

Differential Susceptibility of Mixed Polymicrobial Biofilms Involving Ocular Coccoid Bacteria ( and ) and a Filamentous Fungus () on Ex Vivo Human Corneas.

Biofilms confer several advantages to the organisms associated with them, such as increased resistances to antibacterial and antifungal compounds compared to free living cells. Compared to monomicrobial biofilms involving a single microorganism, biofilms composed of microorganisms affiliated to bacterial and fungal kingdoms are predominant in nature. Despite the predominance of polymicrobial biofilms, and more so mixed polymicrobial biofilms, they are rarely studied.

Intraocular Microbiome in Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy: A Pilot Study.

Introduction: The objective of this study was to compare the microbiome in the aqueous humour and gut of people with diabetes mellitus (DM) with and without diabetic retinopathy (DR).

Methods: This was a prospective controlled study. The study included 17 people undergoing intraocular surgery in their naïve eyes.

Pancreatic Mass Characterization Using IVIM-DKI MRI and Machine Learning-Based Multi-Parametric Texture Analysis.

Non-invasive characterization of pancreatic masses aids in the management of pancreatic lesions. Intravoxel incoherent motion-diffusion kurtosis imaging (IVIM-DKI) and machine learning-based texture analysis was used to differentiate pancreatic masses such as pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET), solid pseudopapillary epithelial neoplasm (SPEN), and mass-forming chronic pancreatitis (MFCP). A total of forty-eight biopsy-proven patients with pancreatic masses were recruited and classified into pNET (n = 13), MFCP (n = 6), SPEN (n = 4), and PDAC (n = 25) groups.

Evidence Suggesting the Role of Gut Dysbiosis in Diabetic Retinopathy.

Purpose: Gut dysbiosis has been identified and tested in human trials for its role in diabetes mellitus (DM). The gut-retina axis could be a potential target for retardation of diabetic retinopathy (DR), a known complication of DM. This study reviews the evidence suggesting gut dysbiosis in DR.

Polymicrobial biofilms of ocular bacteria and fungi on ex vivo human corneas.

Microbes residing in biofilms confer several fold higher antimicrobial resistances than their planktonic counterparts. Compared to monomicrobial biofilms, polymicrobial biofilms involving multiple bacteria, multiple fungi or both are more dominant in nature. Paradoxically, polymicrobial biofilms are less studied.

Unconventional avenues to decelerate diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is an important microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus (DM), causing significant visual impairment worldwide. Current gold standards for retarding the progress of DR include blood sugar control and regular fundus screening. Despite these measures, the incidence and prevalence of DR and vision-threatening DR remain high.

Mycobiomes of the Ocular Surface in Bacterial Keratitis Patients.

Inflammation of the cornea is known as keratitis, and bacteria, fungi, protozoans, and viruses are the etiological agents of this disease. Delayed treatment of keratitis could result in loss of vision and, under certain severity conditions, the removal of an eye and its associated structures. In the current study, the ocular surface (conjunctiva and cornea) mycobiomes of individuals with bacterial keratitis were compared with the ocular mycobiome (conjunctiva) of healthy individuals, free of any ocular morbidity.

Characterising the tear bacterial microbiome in young adults.

Conjunctival swabs (CS) are the major source of sampling for ocular microbiome studies, however collecting CS from the diseased eyes is difficult and painful. In this study, as an alternative to CS, a less invasive approach of tear collection was used to establish the bacterial microbiome in healthy eyes. Tear bacterial microbiome was generated from the DNA of tears (n = 24; male = 16 and female = 8) of healthy volunteers aged from 20 to 52 years.

Understanding the science of fungal endophthalmitis - AIOS 2021 Sengamedu Srinivas Badrinath Endowment Lecture.

Fungal endophthalmitis is a potentially blinding condition. It is more often reported from Asia, including India. The incidence is lower than bacterial endophthalmitis.

Fungi of the human eye: Culture to mycobiome.

The focus of the current review is multi-fold and compares the diversity and abundance of fungi on the ocular surface by the conventional culture-based method with the more sensitive, high throughput, culture-independent NGS method. The aim is to highlight the existence of a core ocular mycobiome and explore the transition of the ocular fungal microbiota from the normal eye to the diseased eye. PubMed, Google Scholar and Medline were used to search for publications and reviews related to cultivable fungi and the mycobiome of the normal and diseased eye.

Intraocular Viral Communities Associated With Post-fever Retinitis.

The virome of ocular fluids is naive. The results of this study highlight the virome in the vitreous fluid of the eye of individuals without any ocular infection and compare it with the virome of the vitreous fluid of individuals with retinitis. A total of 1,016,037 viral reads were generated from 25 vitreous fluid samples comprising control and post-fever retinitis (PFR) samples.

DNMT1 and DNMT3B gene variants and their association with endometriosis in South Indian women.

Background: Endometriosis is a multifactorial estrogen dependent gynecological disease characterized by implantation of functional endometrial tissue at ectopic positions. Though this disease is benign, it is associated with an increased risk of malignant transformation. Epigenetic disruptions like aberrant DNA methylation, resulting changes in gene expression capacity, are important in tumor progression and malignant cellular transformation.

Dysbiosis in the Gut Microbiome in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetes Rats and Follow-Up During Retinal Changes.

Purpose: To analyze the gut bacterial microbiome of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and rats with retinal changes.

Methods: Induction of diabetes was confirmed by an increase in blood sugar (>150 mg/dL), and the progression of diabetes with retinal changes was assessed by histology and immunohistochemistry of retinal sections. Microbiomes were generated using fecal DNA, and the V3-V4 amplicons were sequenced and analyzed by QIIME and R.

Biofilm-Forming Potential of Ocular Fluid and on Ex Vivo Human Corneas from Attachment to Dispersal Phase.

The biofilm-forming potential of and , isolated from patients with Endophthalmitis, was monitored using glass cover slips and cadaveric corneas as substrata. Both the ocular fluid isolates exhibited biofilm-forming potential by the Congo red agar, Crystal violet and 2,3-bis (2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-5-(phenylamino) carbonyl-2H-tetra-zolium hydroxide (XTT) methods. Confocal microscopy demonstrated that the thickness of the biofilm increased from 4-120 h of biofilm formation.

A systematic review of gut microbiome and ocular inflammatory diseases: Are they associated?

The primary focus of this review was to establish the possible association of dysbiotic changes in the gut bacterial microbiomes with both intestinal and extra-intestinal diseases with emphasis on ocular diseases such as bacterial keratitis, fungal keratitis, uveitis, age-related macular degeneration, and ocular mucosal diseases. For this particular purpose, a systematic search was conducted using PubMed and Google Scholar for publications related to gut microbiome and human health (using the keywords: gut microbiome, ocular disease, dysbiosis, keratitis, uveitis, and AMD). The predictions are that microbiome studies would help to unravel dysbiotic changes in the gut bacterial microbiome at the taxonomic and functional level and thus form the basis to mitigate inflammatory diseases of the eye by using nutritional supplements or fecal microbiota transplantation.

Microbes of the human eye: Microbiome, antimicrobial resistance and biofilm formation.

Background: The review focuses on the bacteria associated with the human eye using the dual approach of detecting cultivable bacteria and the total microbiome using next generation sequencing. The purpose of this review was to highlight the connection between antimicrobial resistance and biofilm formation in ocular bacteria.

Methods: Pubmed was used as the source to catalogue culturable bacteria and ocular microbiomes associated with the normal eyes and those with ocular diseases, to ascertain the emergence of anti-microbial resistance with special reference to biofilm formation.

Alterations in the gut bacterial microbiome in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus and diabetic retinopathy.

Gut bacterial microbiome dysbiosis in type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) has been reported, but such an association with Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is not known. We explored possible link between gut bacterial microbiome dysbiosis and DR. Using fecal samples of healthy controls (HC) and people with T2DM with/without DR, gut bacterial communities were analysed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and data analysed using QIIME and R software.

Alterations in the conjunctival surface bacterial microbiome in bacterial keratitis patients.

Microbial keratitis is an infectious disease of the eye, in which the cornea is inflamed. Under severe conditions, keratitis can lead to significant loss of vision and enucleation of the eye. Ocular trauma is the major risk factor causing keratitis and microorganisms viz.

Gut mycobiomes are altered in people with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Diabetic Retinopathy.

Studies have documented dysbiosis in the gut mycobiome in people with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, it is not known whether dysbiosis in the gut mycobiome of T2DM patients would be reflected in people with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and if so, is the observed mycobiome dysbiosis similar in people with T2DM and DR. Gut mycobiomes were generated from healthy controls (HC), people with T2DM and people with DR through Illumina sequencing of ITS2 region.

Mycobiome changes in the vitreous of post fever retinitis patients.

Fungi have been associated with various diseases of the eye like keratitis, uveitis and endophthalmitis. Despite this fact, fungal microbiome (mycobiome) studies compared to the bacterial microbiome studies have remained neglected. In the present study, using metagenomic sequencing, the mycobiomes of the vitreous of healthy control individuals (VC, n = 15) and individuals with post fever retinitis + non-PFR uveitis (PFR+, n = 9) were analysed and compared.

Association of genetic variations in phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) gene with polycystic ovary syndrome in South Indian women: a case control study.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the association between gene phosphate and tensin homolog (PTEN) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and risk of developing polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in South Indian women. PTEN is one of the most important tumor suppressor genes that regulate cell proliferation, migration, and death. It is also involved in the maintenance of genome stability.

Investigating Mental Health Implications for Drug Court Participants.

Drug Court Treatment (DCT) Programs seek to integrate substance abuse treatment into the criminal justice system by providing a structured environment for offenders who engage in treatment in lieu of incarceration. DCT has shown successes in reducing drug/alcohol use, recidivism, and cost, but the impact of DCT on non-substance-related mental health outcomes is less clear. This study evaluated mental health correlates within a DCT sample through analyses of participants' pre-entry and pre-graduation Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Second Edition (MMPI-2) profiles.