Role of gut microbiota in intestinal inflammation caused by Toxoplasma gondii infection
Toxoplasma gondii can infect all warm blooded animals, causing severe zoonoticdiseases. At present, there is lack of safe and effective anti Toxoplasma drug.Oral infection of cysts is the main transmission route of Toxoplasma and cystsinfection will significantly alter the gut microbiota of host, which in turn willaffect the process of Toxoplasma infection. Recent studies have shown that the use of probiotics can effectively cure T. gondii infection. However, the currentresearch on the excavation and mechanism of anti Toxoplasma gut microbiota isquite limited. In our previous study, it was found that the severity of avirulent knockout and ME49 cyst infection was closely related to the gut microbiota by fecal transplantation. In addition, mice transplanted with the feces of mice infected with knockout cysts can resist Toxoplasma infection. Accordingly,we speculate that there may exist anti Toxoplasma gut microbiota in mice infectedwith knockout cysts. This project intends to further analyze and identify the gutmicrobiota associated with avirulent knockout cyst infection using a multi omicsapproach combining 16S rRNA genome, metagenomic and metabolomics. And we also try to elucidate the influence and mechanism of gut microbiota on T. gondii infection, which will provide important guiding significance for the development the drugs of anti Toxoplasma infection.