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Microbiomes, consisting of bacteria, archaea, viruses, or unicellular eukaryotes, and their metabolites, interact with the human body in many ways. While many metabolic capacities of human-associated microbes are already known through multiomics studies, the molecular and biochemical mechanisms of host-microbe interactions are often not well understood. Here we invite authors to submit their latest studies, perspectives or reviews on mechanistic insights how microbes interact with the human host via molecules, pathways or cellular connections.
Tumor microbiota from hepatocellular carcinoma impair synaptic tagging and capture, a mechanism that is important for cellular associative memory. This mechanism occurs via hippocampal induction of IL1 beta.
An 18-member and a 4-member community consisting of commensal bacterial strains protected mice against C. difficile infection. The benefit of the 4-member community is mediated by secreted product(s) and not only by the bacteria, by proteolyzing clostridial toxins.
Priming macrophages with A. muciniphila enhances intracellular survival and diminishes pro- and anti-inflammatory signals. Transcriptional analysis of macrophages shows upregulation of genes related to phagocytic capacity and metabolic adjustments.
Periodontitis is closely linked with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and may have overlapping characteristics. Here the authors show that a periodontal pathogen P. gingivalis promotes intestinal inflammation by affecting the microbiome metabolite linoleic acid and Th17/Treg cell balance in the intestine.
Allosteric modulation is crucial in metabolic regulation but unexplored in gut microbehost interactions. Here the authors show gut microbe-derived phenylacetylglutamine acts as a negative allosteric modulator of β2-adrenergic receptors, impacting heart function.
Here, the authors show that oral administration of an oncolytic reovirus (RC402) elicits robust suppression of multifocal tumor lesions and antitumor immunity through extensive rewiring of the host immunity and the gut microbiome.