%0 Journal Article %A Pratikshya Ray %A Palok Aich %T Effects of gut microbiota perturbation on Th1- and Th2-biased mice following treatment with Vancomycin %D 2019 %R 10.1101/516898 %J bioRxiv %P 516898 %X Use and abuse of antibiotics not only cause microbial resistance but also influence abundance and diversity of gut microbiota. Gut microbiota not only are the largest reservoir of beneficial microbes in mammals but also play major role in maintaining health and homeostasis. To understand the role of gut microbiota and mechanism by which they maintain health, one major tool is to perturb the microbial population. Antibiotics are important and potent perturbing agents for microbiota to study the role of gut microbes in maintaining various host physiology. In this study, we screened four antibiotics (amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, neomycin, and vancomycin) and finally selected vancomycin for further studies to establish the effects on host immunity and metabolism in Th2-(BALB/c) and Th1- (C57BL/6) biased mice models. The screening study revealed that vancomycin was the most effective perturbing agent. We found that initial doses of vancomycin caused reduction in abundance of phylum Firmicutes and Bacteroides in contrast to significant increase in the phylum Proteobacteria in the gut. These changes in microbial profile could be correlated with observed increase in inflammation and permeability of gut and cecal index in oppose to a decrease in the rate of glucose metabolism, and change in SCFA metabolic profile of the host. Interestingly, at later stages (day 5 onwards) of vancomycin treatment we observed significant increase in the phylum Verrucomicrobia for the genus Akkermansia that led to restoration of gut environment by decreased inflammation and increased rate of glucose metabolism. The effects of Akkermansia was more pronounced in C57BL/6 than BALB/c. %U https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2019/01/10/516898.full.pdf