Cryptosporidium parvum is an apicomplexan protozoan parasite commonly causing
diarrhea, particularly in infants in developing countries. The research challenges faced in
the development of therapies against Cryptosporidium slow down the process of drug
discovery. However, advancement of knowledge towards the interactions of the intestinal
ecosystem and the parasite could provide alternative approaches to tackle the disease.
Under this perspective, the primary focus of this work was to study interactions between
Cryptosporidium parvum and the intestinal ecosystem in a mouse model. Mice were treated
with antibiotics with different activity spectra and the resulted perturbation of the native
gut microbiota was identified by microbiome studies. In particular, 16S amplicon
sequencing and Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) were used to determine the bacterial
composition and the genetic repertoire of the fecal microbial communities in the mouse
gut. Following alteration of the microbial communities of mice by application of antibiotic
treatment, Cryptosporidium parasites were propagated in mice with perturbed microbiota
and the severity of the infection was quantified. This approach enabled the prediction of
the functional capacity of the microbial communities in the mouse gut and led to the
identification of bacterial taxa that positively or negatively correlate in abundance with
Cryptosporidium proliferation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:kaust.edu.sa/oai:repository.kaust.edu.sa:10754/623721 |
| Date | 04 1900 |
| Creators | Douvropoulou, Olga |
| Contributors | Pain, Arnab, Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division, Gojobori, Takashi, Hong, Pei-Ying, Widmer, Giovanni |
| Source Sets | King Abdullah University of Science and Technology |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | 2018-05-25, At the time of archiving, the student author of this thesis opted to temporarily restrict access to it. The full text of this thesis became available to the public after the expiration of the embargo on 2018-05-25. |
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