BioProject

Background Chagas disease is still prevalent in rural areas of South America. More...

Background Chagas disease is still prevalent in rural areas of South America. In endemic areas of Bolivia, school children are screened for the program of Chagas eradication of the Ministry of Health, and positive children are treated. Here we compared the fecal, oral and skin microbiomes of children with or without Chagas disease, and before and after eradication treatment of infected children. Methods A total of 543 Bolivian children (5-14 years old) were tested for Chagas disease, and 20 positive children were treated with Benznidazole. Fecal samples and oral and skin swabs were obtained before and after treatment, together with samples from a group of 35 uninfected controls. The 16SrRNA genes were sequenced and analyzed using Qiime to determine alpha diversity differences and community distances, and linear discriminatory analyses to determine discriminatory taxa by infection status or treatment. Results Of 543 children, 20 tested positive for Chagas, and were included in the study together with 35 control children that were negative for Chagas. Fecal samples, oral and skin swabs were taken at the beginning of the study and after the anti-protozoa therapy with Benznidazole to the Chagasic children. Chagas was present in 3.7% of the children screened. Infected children had higher fecal Firmicutes -Streptococcus, Roseburia, Butyrivibrio, and Blautia-, and lower Bacteroides and also showed some skin -but not oral- microbiota differences. Treatment eliminated the fecal microbiota differences from control children, increasing Dialister (class Clostridia) and members of the Enterobacteriaceae, and decreasing Prevotella and Coprococcus, with minor effects on the oral and skin bacterial diversity. Conclusions The results of this study show that there are differences in the fecal microbiota associated with Chagas infection in children, and that treatment normalizes fecal microbiota (makes is more similar to that in controls), but is associated with oral and skin microbiota differences from control children. Since microbiota impacts in children can lead to It is important to determine the effect of drugs on the children microbiota, since impacts could lead to physiological effects, and might be avoidable with microbiota restoration interventions. Less...