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Microbiome engineering could select for more virulent pathogens

Luke McNally, Pedro F. Vale, Sam P. Brown
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/027854
Luke McNally
1Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3FL, UK
2Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3FL, UK
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  • For correspondence: luke.mcnally@ed.ac.uk
Pedro F. Vale
1Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3FL, UK
2Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3FL, UK
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Sam P. Brown
1Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3FL, UK
2Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3FL, UK
3School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA
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Abstract

Recent insights into the human microbiome offer the hope of manipulating its composition to help fight infectious diseases1–7. While this strategy has shown huge potential, its consequences for pathogen evolution have not been explored. Here we show that manipulating the microbiome to increase the competition that pathogens face could lead to the evolution of increased production of virulence factors that pathogens use to combat commensals, an evolutionary response that can increase total disease induced mortality in the long-term. However, if treatment with microbiome engineering is sufficiently aggressive this evolutionary response can be avoided and the pathogen eradicated. Furthermore, we show that using damage limitation therapies8 (e.g. antivirulence and anti-inflammatory drugs) in combination with microbiome manipulation increases the potential for pathogen eradication. While manipulating our microbiota offers a promising alternative to antibiotics, our results show that these treatments must be designed with careful consideration of the potential evolutionary responses of target pathogens.

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Posted September 30, 2015.
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Microbiome engineering could select for more virulent pathogens
Luke McNally, Pedro F. Vale, Sam P. Brown
bioRxiv 027854; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/027854
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Microbiome engineering could select for more virulent pathogens
Luke McNally, Pedro F. Vale, Sam P. Brown
bioRxiv 027854; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/027854

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