A complex and diverse community of bacteria reside on human skin. Abundant experimental evidence now exists in cell culture systems and mouse models that shows many of these commensal bacteria residing on healthy subjects can be beneficial. These bacteria perform essential functions such as inhibiting survival of pathogenic bacteria, limiting skin inflammation and enhancing skin innate immune defense. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that the bacteria that normally inhabit human skin could be exploited to benefit us. However, clinical proof in humans of this hypothesis is lacking because of the lack of a rational controlled approach to test this. This exploratory and developmental clinical trial proposal seeks to study the effect of a series of simple interventions to better understand the potential benefits of transplant of commensal bacteria part of the microbiome on human skin. The design of our approach will test specific hypotheses related to key concepts inherent to microbiome transplant such as the function, duration and effects on other microbes. This proposal will provide answers to key unknown questions about the microbiome of human skin that will be relevant to a wide range of skin disorders.
Our specific aims are:
Aim1 : Evaluate the capacity of an autologous microbiome transplant to decrease S. aureus colonization.
Aim 2 : Determine the duration of survival of transplanted bacteria on the skin surface.
Aim3 : Measure the influence of the transplanted bacteria on the local microbiome.
The commensal microbial community includes a diverse collection of bacteria that produce factors of benefit to human health. This proposal seeks to test defined interventions that will help understand variables in the host and microbe that can enable transplant of commensal bacteria to the skin.
| Nakatsuji, Teruaki; Chen, Tiffany H; Narala, Saisindhu et al. (2017) Antimicrobials from human skin commensal bacteria protect against Staphylococcus aureus and are deficient in atopic dermatitis. Sci Transl Med 9: |
| Gallo, Richard L; Hultsch, Thomas; Farnaes, Lauge (2016) Recognizing that the microbiome is part of the human immune system will advance treatment of both cancer and infections. J Am Acad Dermatol 74:772-4 |
| Nakatsuji, Teruaki; Chen, Tiffany H; Two, Aimee M et al. (2016) Staphylococcus aureus Exploits Epidermal Barrier Defects in Atopic Dermatitis to Trigger Cytokine Expression. J Invest Dermatol 136:2192-2200 |
