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Browsing by Subject "bacterial therapy"

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  • Suutarinen, Maiju (2019)
    Imbalance of intestinal microbiota is called dysbiosis. Signs of dysbiosis are altered abundance of different bacterial species and reduced diversity together with altered interactions between bacterial species and microbiota and the host. Dysbiosis of intestinal microbiota is connected to many intestinal diseases and today many studies are focused to find so called “next generation” probiotics to be used for the alleviation of dysbiosis instead of traditional antibiotic treatments. The study was made in the Human Microbiome Research Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki. Aim of the study was to isolate spore-forming bacterial species for the treatment of intestinal inflammation and infections with bacterial therapy. For this purpose, feces from a healthy adult who had acted as a donor for fecal microbiota transplantation was used to isolate spore-forming commensal bacteria. The isolated bacteria were identified and their ability to adhere into intestinal epithelium and strengthen it was investigated. Also anti-inflammatory potential of these isolated bacterial strains was investigated. For isolating bacteria three different heat treatments and ethanol and methanol treatments were used as a pre-treatment step. Pre-treated samples were cultivated on YCFA-media and isolates were picked from plates at different growth points for further cultivation. Selected isolates were purified, their DNA was isolated and they were identified by partial 16S rRNA -gene sequencing. From these identified isolates four isolates were chosen for further investigation and their full length 16S rRNA -gene was sequenced. These isolates were studied also by using API and aerotolerance tests. Potential anti-inflammatory and adhesion properties of the isolates were investigated by attenuation, adhesion and TER-experiments. In the isolation, the effect of different pre-treatments on the recovery of isolates was clear and based on sequencing isolates that were spore-forming anaerobic bacteria were selected for further investigation. Three of the isolates were Clostridium butyricum and one Blautia wexlerae species. Anti- and pro-inflammatory properties of these isolates were very different depending on isolate and one of them was potentially anti-inflammatory. Isolates also adhered differentially and two of them possibly strengthened gut epithelial barrier so they are promising for further research and in the future investigation with these isolates continues. Experience and results with different cultivation methods can be used to for further development of cultivation for anaerobic intestinal bacteria.
  • Pakola, Ida (2017)
    Dysbiosis is a condition where gut microbiota’s diversity and stability are decreased and the composition of bacterial community is altered as compared to healthy microbiota. Dysbiosis can cause serious harm to host’s immune system and it is linked to inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). In IBD, the immune system is disturbed and there is a constant inflammation of the gut. Currently IBD is treated by antibiotics and immunomodulators, but it could be preferable to use treatments which aim to restore a healthy microbiota, because dysbiosis has been found to play role in maintaining the continuous inflammation in gut. One potential treatment to restore the healthy microbiota is bacterial therapy. Anti-inflammatory bacterial species of healthy gut could be potential components of bacterial therapy product for IBD-targeted drug. The aim of this study was to isolate spore-forming anti-inflammatory bacteria from fecal material that had been used previously in fecal microbiota transplantation. The aim was to isolate intestinal bacteria, which could be used as a treatment for IBD in the future. Anti-inflammatory properties of spore-formers were an object of interest because the aim was to study could bacterial spores be used in IBD-targeted bacterial therapy. For isolating bacterial spores from the sample, two selection methods were used, ethanol-treatment and heat shock. Treated samples were cultivated on six different media. Bacterial isolates were picked from the plates followed by anti-inflammatory screening to select potentially anti-inflammatory isolates. In anti-inflammatory screening the effect of an isolate on lipopolysaccharide induced IL-8-production of HT-29-cell line was measured. Potentially anti-inflammatory isolates were purified to pure cultures followed by sequencing of their 16S rRNA gene (rDNA). Anti-inflammatory effect of pure cultures on HT-29-cells were tested again with three parallel reactions. Selection methods didn’t work out as well as expected. Based on the 16S rDNA sequences of bacterial populations collected from different media, two treatments managed to select a good portion of Firmicutes, but none of the potentially anti-inflammatory pure culture isolates were spore-formers. According to the 16S rDNA sequences most of the purified strains belonged to the genera Staphylococcus or Enterococcus. Only a small proportion of the potentially anti-inflammatory isolates were confirmed as anti-inflammatory. In this study, six anti-inflammatory Enterococcus faecalis -strains were isolated and purified. In the future, these strains need to be studied further to assess their potential in bacteriotherapeutic applications and clinical use. The methods and results of this study can be used to further optimize the procedures to isolate various intestinal bacteria.