Effect of Entamoeba histolytica infection on gut microbial diversity and composition in diarrheal patients from New Delhi

Abstract

During amoebiasis, colonization of the gut by Entamoeba histolytica can lead to alterations of the host microbiota. In this study, we have compared the gut microbiota of patients of amoebiasis with healthy controls using 16S rRNA gene variable regions, (V1-V3) and (V3-V5), of the bacterial genome. From this 16S rRNA gene amplicon data, one paired-end and two single-end datasets were selected and compared by the number of OTUs obtained, sequence count, and diversity analysis. Our results showed that the V1-V3-paired-end dataset gave the maximum number of OTUs in comparison to the two single-end datasets studied. The amoebiasis samples showed a significant drop in richness in the alpha diversity measurements and lower intra group similarity compared to the healthy controls. Bacteria of genus Prevotella, Sutterella, and Collinsella were more abundant in healthy controls whereas Escherichia, Klebsiella, and Ruminococcus were more abundant in the E. histolytica-positive patients. All the healthy controls harbored bacteria belonging to Faecalibacterium, Prevotella, Ruminococcus, Subdoligranulum, and Escherichia genera while all the E. histolytica-positive patient samples contained genus Enterobacter. The compositional changes in the gut microbiome observed in our study indicated a higher prevalence of pathogenic bacteria along with a depletion of beneficial bacteria in E. histolytica-infected individuals when compared with healthy controls. These results underline the interplay between E. histolytica and the human gut microbiome, giving important inputs for future studies and treatments.

Keywords: 16S rRNA variable regions; Amoebiasis; Entamoeba histolytica; Gut microbiota.