The close relationship between epilepsy and autoimmune diseases and the fact that the cause of epilepsy is idiopathic in 60% of cases suggest that intestinal microbiota may play a role in the etiology of epilepsy. In this study, we analyzed and compared the intestinal microbiota composition of patients with idiopathic focal epilepsy (n = 30) and healthy volunteer group (n = 10) by 16s ribosomal DNA sequencing. Proteobacteria phylum was found to be higher in patients with epilepsy (25.4%) than in healthy volunteers group (1.5%). The genera of Campylobacter, Delftia, Haemophilus, Lautropia, Neisseria among Proteobacteria phylum were found to be statistically significantly higher in patients with epilepsy than in healthy volunteers (p < 0.05). Fusobacteria phylum was detected in 10.6% of the patients with epilepsy but not in the healthy volunteer group. The genus of the Fusobacteria phylum was found as Leptotrichia and Fusobacterium. In our study, taxonomic drift and significant differences in the intestinal microbiota of patients with epilepsy according to healthy volunteer group showed that autoimmune mechanisms and inflammation may have a role in the etiology of epilepsy. Our data should be supported by other studies as to the role of the intestinal microbiome in the prevention and treatment of epilepsy.

Patients with inflammation in the terminal ileum have high morbidity. In genetically susceptible hosts, chronic intestinal inflammation targeting the resident intestinal microbiota develops, but the microbial signature of the terminal ileum is poorly studied. To improve understanding of the mechanisms underlying the high prevalence of terminal ileum inflammation, we used 16S rRNA sequencing to analyse the mucosa-associated microbiota of the terminal ileum under intestinal homeostasis and inflammation conditions. Mucosal biopsy is the most commonly used sampling technique for assessing microbial communities associated with the intestinal mucosa. Thirty patients (15 with terminal ileum inflammation and 15 controls) underwent colonoscopy and biopsies were taken from the terminal ileum. Diagnosis depended on a combination of endoscopic and histological factors. To determine the composition and diversity of the microbiota, the 16S rRNA was analysed, and a variety of bioinformatics analyses were performed. Among the patients, composition analysis showed that the most abundant phyla identified in the terminal ileum samples were Fusobacteria, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria. At the phylum level, the relative proportion of Bacteroidetes was lower in patients with inflammation than in control patients. In addition, there was an increase in the abundance of the phyla Proteobacteria and Lentisphaerae in patients with inflammation. The abundances of the dominant microbes in the terminal ileum were not significantly different between patients in an inflammatory state and controls. These results confirm that partial dysbiosis of the intestinal mucosa-associated microbiota composition is associated with terminal ileum inflammation.

HPV persistent infection is a main event leading to the development of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cervical cancer. Earlier to distinguish HPV persistent and transient infection is meaningful but the methods are limited. This study used 16S rDNA sequencing to determine the cervicovaginal microbiota of HPV persistent infection, transient infection and health women. Sequences analysis was performed and according to subsequent statistical analysis, the structure of cervicovaginal microbiota of healthy and transient infection individuals is relatively single, Firmicutes occupy the main composition. However, that of the HPV persistent infection presented a complicated trend and the abundance of Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Fusobacteria was higher. The significance p-values of the average species abundance of Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Bacteroides between HPV persistent and transient infection groups were 0.003, 0.018 and 0.005, respectively. The study also found 36 biomarkers of cervicovaginal microbiota dysbiosis for LDA score>4 among different groups. At genus level, Prevotella, Sphingomonas and Anaerococcus correlated with HPV persistent infection. At species level, Lactobacillus iners correlated with HPV transient infection. Besides, local immune microenvironment was changed with cervicovaginal microbiota dysbiosis. Interleukin-6 and TNF-α were significantly upregulated in cervical secretions from HPV persistent infection compared with those from transient infection and healthy women. Peripheral blood Regulatory T cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells in patients with HPV persistent infection were also significantly increased. In conclusion, this study identified cervicovaginal microbiota dysbiosis closely related to HPV persistent infection, which provided a new idea and method for the prevention of cervical cancer.

This study explored the range of bacterial taxa present within healthy subgingival (below the gum-line) niches in the horse oral cavity using 16S rRNA gene amplicon pyrosequencing. Pooled subgingival plaque samples were collected from approximately 200 sulcus sites from two horses (EQ1, EQ2) for analysis. A total of 14,260 quality-filtered pyrosequencing reads were obtained, which were assigned to 3875 operational taxonomic units (OTUs; 99% identity cut-off); 1907 OTUs for EQ1 and 2156 OTUs for EQ2. Diverse taxa from 12 phyla were identified, including Actinobacteria (3.17%), Bacteroidetes (25.11%), Chloroflexi (0.04%), Firmicutes (27.57%), Fusobacteria (5.15%), Proteobacteria (37.67%), Spirochaetes (0.15%), Synergistetes (0.22%), Tenericutes (0.16%), GN02 (0.19%), SR1 (0.01%) and TM7 (0.37%). Many OTUs were not closely related to known phylotypes, and may represent 'equine-specific' taxa. Phylotypes corresponding to Gammaproteobacteria were abundant, including Actinobacillus spp. (8.75%), unclassified Pasteurellaceae (9.90%) and Moraxella spp. (9.58%). PCR targeting the Synergistetes and Spirochaetes phyla was performed, and resultant plasmid libraries of 16S rRNA gene amplicons (ca. 1480 bp) were Sanger sequenced. Twenty-six Spirochaetes OTUs, and 16 Synergistetes OTUs were identified (99% identity cut-off). These 'species-level' OTUs were assigned Equine Oral Taxon (EOT) numbers, whose phylogenies and taxonomy were comprehensively investigated, in conjunction with corresponding Synergistetes and Spirochaetes OTUs identified by pyrosequencing. The vast majority of Spirochaetes taxa belonged to the genus Treponema, which corresponded to 7 of the 10 human oral treponeme phylogroups. Other Spirochaetes taxa belonging to the Leptospiraceae family were observed; but many treponemes commonly implicated in animal hoof/foot and non-oral soft tissue infections; e.g. Treponema phagedenis, Treponema pedis, Treponema refringens, Treponema calligyrum; were not identified here. Diverse Synergistetes taxa corresponding to oral clusters A and B were identified, which included Fretibacterium fastidiosum and Pyramidobacter piscolens. Taken together, our data reveals that equine subgingival plaque microbiota shares many similarities with the human, canine and feline oral microbiomes.

This study aims to highlight the effects (8 weeks) of dietary antimicrobial peptides (AMPs, a compound of 6 kDa and 5 kDa from intestine) on intestinal morphological functions and health status in grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus). Fish were supplemented with various gradient concentrations of AMPs, including M0 (0 mg/kg), M1 (100 mg/kg), M2 (200 mg/kg), M3 (400 mg/kg), M4 (800 mg/kg) and M5 (1600 mg/kg). Our results showed that amylase, lipase, chymotrypsin enzymatic levels, and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) were significantly increased (p < 0.05), while malondialdehyde (MDA) content was significantly decreased in the intestines of the AMP treated groups compared to the M0. Histological analysis revealed villus height and crypt depth of foregut and midgut in the M4 group were significantly different (p < 0.05) compared to the M0. In the M3 group, the gene expression levels of IL-1β were significantly up-regulated, while levels of IL10 and TGF-β were significantly down-regulated than other treated and control groups. The abundance of Firmicutes was significantly increased (p < 0.05), while the Planctomycetes abundance was decreased at phylum level in M1-M5 groups. Subsequent to the AMP treatment, fish were injected with Aeromonas. hydrophila to assess disease resistant potential. In A. hydrophila injected M3-group, the gene expressions of IL-1β, IL8, and TNF-α were significantly down-regulated while that of TGF-β was significantly up-regulated, and IL10 showed no significant difference compared to the control. Further, AMPs also increased the abundance of the Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Patescibacteria, and decreased the abundance of the Fusobacteria and Firmicutes. Therefore, dietary AMPs (400-800 mg/kg) boosted intestinal health by promoting intestinal morphology, digestive and antioxidant capacities, immunity, and intestinal microbiota in C. idellus.