Integration of a Metagenomic Analysis in the Transcriptome of Crohn's Disease Post-Operative Recurrent Patients
Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease characterized by discontinuous transmural lesions and complications such as fistulas and intestinal occlusions due to fibrosis. Patients with complicated or intractable disease often require intestinal resection. However, surgery is not curative, with up to 90% of patients experiencing post-operative recurrence within the first year. This recurrence, typically presenting as new lesions in the neo-terminal ileum, poses a significant clinical challenge, frequently necessitating repeated surgeries and worsening long-term prognosis. The pathogenesis of Crohn's disease is influenced by genetic susceptibility, immune dysregulation, and alterations in the gut microbiome. Dysbiosis, marked by a decrease in beneficial microbes like Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and an increase in pathobionts such as adherent-invasive Escherichia coli, has been linked to both disease severity and post-operative recurrence. The gut microbiota not only interacts with the host immune system but also influences gene expression through epigenetic modifications. This project aims to investigate the role of dysbiotic bacterial taxa in post-operative recurrence by integrating host gut transcriptomic and metagenomic analyses. By sequencing both the transcriptome and metagenome and applying strict correlation analyses, we seek to predict the enriched functions altered by specific bacterial taxonomic groups, shedding light on the mechanisms underlying recurrence and potential predictive biomarkers.