Interactions between Parasitic Infections and the Human Gut Microbiome in Odisha, India

Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections and malaria are parasitic diseases with enormous global health burdens. Research has demonstrated a relationship between each of these parasites and the gut microbiome, suggesting that the gut microbiota may be implicated in governing host susceptibility to diverse pathogens, and perhaps even coinfection by different pathogens, through similar microbiome-influenced pathways. Here, we have derived a first microbiome community profile associated with STH infections in Odisha, India, and tested the hypothesis that the gut microbiome can modulate host susceptibility to multiple parasite infections through the same pathways. This study revealed several bacterial taxa negatively associated with specific STH infections, including Lactobacillus and Lachnospiracaea. Our results also suggest that relative abundance of Lactobacillus is driven by the STH infection status more so than by the Plasmodium infection status. This study contributes to efforts to understand the effects of the microbiome on host susceptibility to parasitic infections in endemic communities.