Long-term alteration of intestinal microbiota in patients with ulcerative colitis by antibiotic combination therapy

PLoS One. 2014 Jan 29;9(1):e86702. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0086702. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Previous work has demonstrated that intestinal bacteria, such as Fusobacterium varium (F. varium), contribute to the clinical activity in ulcerative colitis (UC); thus, an antibiotic combination therapy (amoxicillin, tetracycline, and metronidazole (ATM)) against F. varium can induce and maintain UC remission. Therefore, we investigated whether ATM therapy induces a long-term alteration of intestinal microbiota in patients with UC. Patients with UC were enrolled in a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Biopsy samples at the beginning of the trial and again at 3 months after treatment completion were randomly obtained from 20 patients. The terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) in mucosa-associated bacterial components was examined to assess the alteration of the intestinal microbiota. Profile changes of T-RFLP in mucosa-associated bacterial components were found in 10 of 12 patients in the treatment group and in none of 8 in the placebo group. Dice similarity coefficients using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages (Dice-UPGMA) confirmed that the similarity of mucosal microbiota from the descending colon was significantly decreased after the ATM therapy, and this change was maintained for at least 3 months. Moreover, at 3 months after treatment completion, the F. varium/β-actin ratio, examined by real-time PCR using nested PCR products from biopsy samples, was reduced less than 40% in 8 of 12 treated patients, which was higher, but not significantly, than in 4 of 8 patients in the placebo group. Together, these results suggest that ATM therapy induces long-term alterations in the intestinal microbiota of patients with UC, which may be associated, at least in part, with clinical effects of the therapy.

Publication types

  • Multicenter Study
  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Actins / metabolism
  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Amoxicillin / therapeutic use
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / therapeutic use
  • Colitis, Ulcerative / drug therapy
  • Colitis, Ulcerative / microbiology*
  • Double-Blind Method
  • Drug Therapy, Combination
  • Female
  • Fusobacterium / genetics*
  • Fusobacterium / isolation & purification
  • Fusobacterium Infections / drug therapy
  • Fusobacterium Infections / microbiology*
  • Humans
  • Intestinal Mucosa / drug effects
  • Intestinal Mucosa / microbiology*
  • Male
  • Metronidazole / therapeutic use
  • Microbiota / genetics*
  • Middle Aged
  • Tetracycline / therapeutic use

Substances

  • Actins
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Metronidazole
  • Amoxicillin
  • Tetracycline

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.