P915 Uncovering the role of Archaea in the pathogenesis of Inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract

Abstract Background Microbial dysbiosis is a major factor that contributes to the course of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), a complex class of relapsing-remitting chronic inflammatory diseases. The body's overall homeostasis is significantly influenced by the human microbiota, which is a diverse population of bacteria, viruses, fungi, protists, and archaea. Recent research shows that archaea can affect both health and disease, by directly interacting with the host as well as other members of the microbial community. Although the role of bacteria, viruses, and fungi has already been studied, the archaeome remains the under-discovered part of the gut microbiota, especially in the context of IBD. Methods In this study, we profiled the gut archaea using archaeal 16S rRNA gene region in a cohort of pediatric patients with different forms of IBD including Ulcerative colitis (UC), Crohn’s disease (CD), unclassified IBD (IBDU) and healthy controls. We determined the compositional, diversity, and taxonomic alterations of archaea in pediatric patients with IBD and compared to healthy controls. Results Euryarchaeota, and Crenarchaeota, were the major archaeal phyla identified in our samples, other minor phyla identified were Halobacterota and Thermoplasmatota. At the genus level, Methanobrevibacter and Methanosphaera were the most abundant archaea, respectively. Overall, we did not observe any significant difference in the archeal alpha diversity within the various groups. There was however a significant difference between the overall community structure of the archaea between controls and IBD patients (p<0.05). Conclusion A thorough understanding of the role played by the archaea during the pathogenesis of IBD may open the door to the identification of new processes and, ultimately, the development of creative therapeutic targets that can complement the currently used treatments for IBD patients.