The Role of Obesity and Related Intestinal Microbiota in GvHD

• Grant number: 15/14370-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: November 02, 2015
• End date: November 01, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Immunology - Applied Immunology
• Principal Investigator: Niels Olsen Saraiva Câmara
• Grantee: Marina Burgos da Silva
• Supervisor: Marcel Rudolf Maria Van Den Brink
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/23347-3 - Role of Adiponectin and Obesity in the Rejection of Allogeneic Transplants., BP.DR

Abstract

Despite intense research, graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) continues to be one of the major complications to allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. This disease is mainly caused by allogeneic T cell responses between donor cells and the recipient immune system. Nevertheless, recent studies have indicated innate immunity can have major role in disease initiation and development. In this contexto, a recent study by van den Brink et. al. highlighted the intestinal microbiota as a key player in GvHD progression. Previous data obtained in our lab suggest obesity has a damaging role in GvHD. Moreover, increasing evidence indicates that obesity is also directly linked to intestinal dysbiosis. Hence, we postulate that obesity-related microbiota dysbiosis is an important factor in the aggravation of GvHD. Therefore, our aim, with this collaboration, is to distinguish the role of intestinal dysbiosis and obesity in GvHD progression. This will be done associating specific obesity-related enterotypes to disease evolution using metagenomic and immunophenotyping assays. This study should elucidate the role of obesity and its related gut microbiota in GvHD and potentially indicate specific enterotypes associated with disease complication. In consequence this could clarify new biomarkers of disease progression and possibly indicate therapeutic measures to reduce GvHD.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

STAFFAS, ANNA; DA SILVA, MARINA BURGOS; VAN DEN BRINK, MARCEL R. M.. The intestinal microbiota in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant and graft-versus-host disease. Blood, v. 129, n. 8, p. 927-933, FEB 23 2017. (15/14370-0)