Linking the effects of helminth infection, diet and the gut microbiota with human whole-blood signatures
Fig 1
This study consists of a cross-sectional and a longitudinal phase. The cross-sectional phase compared between data sets generated from urban participants and Orang Asli participants. Eighteen residents of Kuala Lumpur, who served as urban control participants, provided stool specimens for microbial 16S rRNA profiling, blood specimens (for measurements of clinically relevant indices and whole-blood transcriptional profiling) and nutritional survey data. Forty-nine Orang Asli responded to a nutritional questionnaire and provided a blood specimen (for measurements of clinically relevant indices and/or whole-blood transcriptional profiling, depending on the volume of blood specimen collected). Forty of these Orang Asli participants also provided a stool specimen. During the longitudinal phase, Orang Asli participants were treated with 400mg albendazole daily over three days, with blood and/or stool specimen collection again 20–21 days post-deworming. We were able to follow up with 42 Orang Asli participants and obtained paired blood specimens (pre- and post-deworming) for whole blood transcriptional profiling. Approximately 70% of these 42 dewormed Orang Asli participants provided additional blood and/or stool specimen(s) for longitudinal analysis of clinically relevant blood indices and/or 16S rRNA profiles. Variation in the number of samples for each analysis are detailed in S2 Table.