Creative Biolabs offers targeted modification of gut microbiota communities by antibodies service to detect a specific species in a complex microbiota.

Gut Microbiota

The gut microbiota has been considered an “essential organ”, providing essential metabolic, immune, and physiological functions through their collective genome. The relative stability of the intestinal microbiota is achieved with the introduction of solid foods and the establishment of a relatively complex community dominated by obligate anaerobes. This relative stability environment is determined by several internal and external factors, including age, race, diet, maternal colonization, as well as exposure to xenobiotics and antibiotics. Additionally, stress, travel, or drug treatment also leads to quick changes in its composition.

The individual contribution of a species/strain to a given phenotype, condition, or disease was hampered due to the complexity of the gut microbiota. Therefore, it is necessary that the development of methods enabling the targeted modification of a microbiota is particularly focused on depleting a specific microbial group from a complex bacterial community. Traditionally, probiotics or prebiotics modification is the common method to restore the composition of the gut microbial community and modify the functions of the microbiome and the phenotype of the host. However, these approaches do not allow to study of the biological effect derived from the removal of a particular bacterium from the microbiota. As an excellent provider of microbiota-related services, Creative Biolabs has developed a novel technology that employs antibodies. The antibodies are raised specifically against selected particular protein markers from the target bacterial species.

Workflow of Targeted Modification of Gut Microbiota Communities Using Antibodies

The strategy allows the targeted modification of the gut microbiota by using antibodies raised against bacterial surface-associated proteins specific to the microorganism of interest.

Fig.1 Workflow of targeted modification of the gut microbiota using antibodies. (Creative Biolabs)

We have proved the applicability of this method to deplete complex human gut microbiotas from L. acidophilus in a single step. L. acidophilus interacts with other bacteria both in synthetic and in real microbiotas, as reflected by its concomitant depletion together with other species. Further optimization of the procedure including a trypsin step enabled to achieve the selective and complete isolation of this species.

Benefits

• Any bacteria presenting specific targets on their surface can be precisely depleted from gut microbiota.
• Understand the specific contribution of a single bacterium to a given phenotype or effect associated with a microbial community.
• Provide proof of concept for the detection, enrichment, and depletion of specific bacteria in bacterial communities without the requirement of possessing a fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) sorter in the research facilities.
• Employ these bacteria to deplete and/or enrich native microbiotas, eliminating specific E. coli strains associated with certain conditions, or enriching commensal beneficial bacteria.

Except for common methods for Gut Microbiota Engineering Service, Creative Biolabs also provides a targeted modification of gut microbiota communities by antibodies to help our customers’ microbe projects. If you are interested in our service, please feel free to contact us for more information.

Reference

1. Marcos-Fernández, R.; et al. Precision modification of the human gut microbiota targeting surface-associated proteins. Sci Rep. 2021, 11: 1270.

For Research Use Only | Not For Clinical Use