Hierarchical modelling of immunoglobulin coated bacteria in dogs with chronic enteropathy shows reduction in coating with disease remission but marked inter-individual and treatment-response variability

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 19;16(8):e0255012. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255012. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Chronic enteropathies are a common problem in dogs, but many aspects of the pathogenesis remain unknown, making the therapeutic approach challenging in some cases. Environmental factors are intimately related to the development and perpetuation of gastrointestinal disease and the gut microbiome has been identified as a contributing factor. Previous studies have identified dysbiosis and reduced bacterial diversity in the gastrointestinal microbiota of dogs with chronic enteropathies. In this case-controlled study, we use flow cytometry and 16S rRNA sequencing to characterise bacteria highly coated with IgA or IgG in faecal samples from dogs with chronic enteropathy and evaluated their correlation with disease and resolution of the clinical signs. IgA and IgG-coated faecal bacterial counts were significantly higher during active disease compared to healthy dogs and decreased with the resolution of the clinical signs. Characterisation of taxa-specific coating of the intestinal microbiota with IgA and IgG showed marked variation between dogs and disease states, and different patterns of immunoglobulin enrichment were observed in dogs with chronic enteropathy, particularly for Erysipelotrichaceae, Clostridicaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, Prevotellaceae and Bacteroidaceae, families. Although, members of these bacterial groups have been associated with strong immunogenic properties and could potentially constitute important biomarkers of disease, their significance and role need to be further investigated.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bacteria / metabolism*
  • Chronic Disease
  • Dogs / microbiology*
  • Gastrointestinal Diseases / microbiology*
  • Gastrointestinal Diseases / veterinary*
  • Immunoglobulin A / metabolism
  • Immunoglobulin G / metabolism
  • Immunoglobulins / metabolism*
  • Models, Biological
  • Treatment Outcome

Substances

  • Immunoglobulin A
  • Immunoglobulin G
  • Immunoglobulins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the International and Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) from The Australian Government 2014 (LM). This work was funded by The Comparative and Gastroenterology Society/Waltham Grant 2016 (LM) [https://vetmed.tamu.edu/cgs/about/] and Early Career Researcher funding through the University of Melbourne 2018 (CM). The sponsors played no role in study design, data collection/analysis and were not involved in preparation of the publication or decision to publish.