Does Curcumin Have a Role in the Interaction between Gut Microbiota and Schistosoma mansoni in Mice?

Abstract

There is strong correlation between changes in abundance of specific bacterial species and several diseases including schistosomiasis. Several studies have described therapeutic effects of curcumin (CUR) which may arise from its regulative effects on intestinal microbiota. Thus, we examined the impact of CUR on the diversity of intestinal microbiota with/without infection by Schistosoma mansoni cercariae for 56 days. Enterobacteriaceae was dominating in a naive and S. mansoni infected mice group without CUR treatment, the most predominant species was Escherichia coli with relative density (R.D%) = 80.66% and the least one was Pseudomonas sp. (0.52%). The influence of CUR on murine microbiota composition was examined one week after oral administration of high (40) and low (20 mg/kg b.w.) CUR doses were administered three times, with two day intervals. CUR induced high variation in the Enterobacteriaceae family, characterized by a significant (p < 0.001) reduction in E. coli and asignificant (p < 0.001) increase in Pseudomonas sp. in both naïve and S. mansoni-infected mice, compared to untreated mice, in a dose-dependent manner. Additionally, our study showed the effects of high CUR doses on S. mansoni infection immunological and parasitological parameters. These data support CUR’s ability to promote Pseudomonas sp. known to produce schistosomicidal toxins and offset the sequelae of murine schistosomiasis.

Bacillus subtilis Attenuates Hepatic and Intestinal Injuries and Modulates Gut Microbiota and Gene Expression Profiles in Mice Infected with Schistosoma japonicum

“…Evidence suggests that gut microbiota composition is associated with Schistosoma mansoni infection burden in rodent models (Cortes et al, 2020). Our previous work and other reports revealed that schistosome infection decreases the alpha diversity and richness of beneficial bacteria of gut microbiota in mammals such as rodents (Anter et al, 2020;Cortes et al, 2020;Jenkins et al, 2018;Song et al, 2020;Zhang B. et al, 2020) and humans (Gui et al, 2021;Kay et al, 2015). Lack of host gut microbiota alters host immune responses to intestinal granuloma formation and hepatic fibrosis in infected mice (Holzscheiter et al, 2014).…”

Alterations in the Gut Microbiota of Tibetan Patients With Echinococcosis

“…When the liver is continually exposed to metabolites of intestinal microbiota, TLRs are activated in target cells by lipopolysaccharides and induce inflammatory signaling pathways that lead to repeated damage to liver cells, subsequently causing liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and even hepatocellular carcinoma ( Yooseph et al, 2015 ; Zhou et al, 2017 ). Anter et al (2020) found that there is a correlation between curcumin dosages and the species of gut microbiota in mice infected with S. mansoni .…”