Vegetarian diet duration's influence on women's gut environment

Diet quality and anxiety: a critical overview with focus on the gut microbiome

Anxiety disorders disproportionally affect females and are frequently comorbid with eating disorders. With the emerging field of nutritional psychiatry, focus has been put on the impact of diet quality in anxiety pathophysiology and gut microbiome underlying mechanisms. While the relationship between diet and anxiety is bidirectional, improving dietary habits could better facilitate the actions of pharmacological and psychological therapies, or prevent their use. A better understanding of how gut bacteria mediate and moderate such relationship could further contribute to develop personalized programs and inform probiotics and prebiotics manufacturing. To date, studies that look simultaneously at diet, the gut microbiome, and anxiety are missing as only pairwise relationships among them have been investigated. Therefore, this study aims at summarizing and integrating the existing knowledge on the dietary effects on anxiety with focus on gut microbiome. Findings on the effects of diet on anxiety are critically summarized and reinterpreted in relation to findings on (i) the effects of diet on the gut microbiome composition, and (ii) the associations between the abundance of certain gut bacteria and anxiety. This novel interpretation suggests a theoretical model where the relationship between diet and anxiety is mediated and/or modulated by the gut microbiome through multiple mechanisms. In parallel, this study critically evaluates methodologies employed in the nutritional field to investigate the effects of diet on anxiety highlighting a lack of systematic operationalization and assessment strategies. Therefore, it ultimately proposes a novel evidence-based approach that can enhance studies validity, reliability, systematicity, and translation to clinical and community settings.

Conjunctival microbiome changes in soft contact lens users and contact lens discomfort patients

INTRODUCTION

Contact lens discomfort (CLD) acts as a challenging problem, and the associated conjunctival microbiome changes were unclear.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Conjunctival sac swab samples were collected from 12 eyes of nonwearers (NW), 12 eyes of asymptomatic contact lens (ACL) wearers, and 11 eyes of CLD. The V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to investigate differences among three groups.

RESULTS

No differences in alpha diversity were observed among the three groups. The beta diversity showed a distinct microbiome composition between ACL and CLD group (P = 0.018) with principal coordinate analysis. The relative abundance of Firmicutes was significantly higher in CLD (48.18%) than in ACL (13.21%) group (P = 0.018). The abundance of Bacillus in patients with ACL (0.05%) or with CLD (0.02%) were significantly lower than that in the NW (1.27%) group (P = 0.024, 0.028, respectively). Moreover, the abundance of Firmicutes was positively correlated with the OSDI scores in CLD patients (r = 0.817, P < 0. 01, Spearman).

DISCUSSIONS

Patients with CLD have various degrees of bacterial microbiota imbalance in the conjunctival sac, compared with NW and ACL groups.

CONCLUSION

Firmicutes may serve as a potential biomarker for the CLD patients.

Characterization of Gut Microbiota Composition in Type 2 Diabetes Patients: A Population-Based Study

(1) Background: A clinical laboratory index to assess gut dysbiosis is the F/B ratio < 0.8. In fact, an elevated proportion of Firmicutes and a reduced population of Bacteroides in diabetes type 2 (T2D) subjects has been observed. This study aimed to detail the dysbiosis status in the Italian population, focusing on some pathogenic spectra (T2D) or metabolic disorders. (2) Material and methods: A quantity of 334 fecal samples was analyzed in order to perform genetic testing and sequencing. (3) Results: A trend in over imbalance was observed in the percentage of Proteobacteria (median value: 6.75%; interquartile range (IQR): 3.57−17.29%). A statistically significant association (χ2p = 0.033) was observed between type of dysbiosis and T2D, corresponding to an Odds Ratio (OR) of 1.86. It was noted that females with cystitis/candidiasis are significantly prevalent in T2D patients (p < 0.01; OR: 3.59; 95% CI: 1.43−8.99). Although, in non-diabetic males, a sugar craving is significantly associated with the rate of dysbiosis in non-diabetic males (p < 0.05; OR 1.07; 95% CI 1.00−1.16). (4) Conclusion: In T2D patients, the Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes ratio was biased in favor of Proteobacteria, to be expected due to the nutritional habits of the patients. Thus, T2D females had altered gut permeability favoring the development of infections in the vaginal tract.

Effects of physical distancing by COVID-19 pandemic on diet quality, neurological and immunological markers, and fecal microbiota of Brazilian older women

Physical distancing was used to prevent transmission of COVID-19, however there are concerns that this may promote harmful impacts on health, such as reduced levels of physical practice and changes in food intake and gut microbiota composition. This study evaluated the impacts of 6 months physical distancing on Brazilian older women upon body mass index (BMI), strength, physical activity level (IPAQ), eating habits, neurological markers (brain-derived neurotrophic factor-BDNF and cortisol), cytokines (IL-2, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, interferon-IFN-γ, tumor necrosis factor-TNF-α), aging-associated markers (vascular endothelial growth factor-VEGF, insulin-like growth factor-IGF-1, klotho and thymic stromal lymphopoietin-TSLP), besides specific groups of fecal microbiota. Fifteen women, over 60 years old, residents of São Paulo state (Brazil), were evaluated in March and in September 2020. The older adult women, with a mean age 66 ± 6.2 years presented significantly increased BMI and high effect size for non-protective foods consumption, reduced light physical activity and strength 6 months following the physical distancing. Furthermore, the serum concentration of IFN-γ, IGF-1, and IFN-γ/IL-5 were significantly higher, while lower concentration of IL-2 and IL-5 were observed 6 months after the physical distancing. Significant increase was noted only to Blautia spp. abundance after 6 months of physical distancing. Several correlations were observed at both before and after physical distancing, however, interestingly, many of them were lost or inverted 6 months following, while new ones emerged. Taken together, these results showed that lifestyle changes and stress conditions addressed by physical distancing from the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the health of older women included in the present study. Therefore, future follow-up studies are essential to propose interventions in order to restore the health conditions observed before the pandemic period, and thus to maintain the quality of life of older adults in different socioeconomic contexts.