Correlation of mollicutes and their viruses with multiple sclerosis and other demyelinating diseases

Integrated Information for Pathogenicity and Treatment of Spiroplasma

Spiroplasma, belonging to the class Mollicutes, is a small, helical, motile bacterium lacking a cell wall. Its host range includes insects, plants, and aquatic crustaceans. Recently, a few human cases of Spiroplasma infection have been reported. The diseases caused by Spiroplasma have brought about serious economic losses and hindered the healthy development of agriculture. The pathogenesis of Spiroplasma involves the ability to adhere, such as through the terminal structure of Spiroplasma, colonization, and invasive enzymes. However, the exact pathogenic mechanism of Spiroplasma remains a mystery. Therefore, we systematically summarize all the information about Spiroplasma in this review article. This provides a reference for future studies on virulence factors and treatment strategies of Spiroplasma.

Rubidium chloride modulated the fecal microbiota community in mice

Background

The microbiota plays an important role in host health. Although rubidium (Rb) has been used to study its effects on depression and cancers, the interaction between microbial commensals and Rb is still unexplored. To gain the knowledge of the relationship between Rb and microbes, 51 mice receiving RbCl-based treatment and 13 untreated mice were evaluated for their characteristics and bacterial microbiome changes.

Results

The 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing of fecal microbiota showed that RbCl generally maintained fecal microbial community diversity, while the shifts in fecal microbial composition were apparent after RbCl exposure. RbCl significantly enhanced the abundances of Rikenellaceae, Alistipes, Clostridium XlVa and sulfate-reducing bacteria including Deltaproteobacteria, Desulfovibrionales, Desulfovibrionaceae and Desulfovibrio, but significantly inhibited the abundances of Tenericutes, Mollicutes, Anaeroplasmatales, Anaeroplasmataceae and Anaeroplasma lineages. With regarding to the archaea, we only observed two less richness archaea Sulfolobus and Acidiplasma at the genus level.

Conclusions

Changes of fecal microbes may in part contribute to the anticancer or anti-depressant effects of RbCl. These findings further validate that the microbiome could be a target for therapeutic intervention.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12866-021-02095-4.