Shafiqul Alam Sarker, Shamima Sultana, Gloria Reuteler, D Moine et al.
BACKGROUND: Antibiotic resistance is rising in important bacterial pathogens. Phage therapy (PT), the use of bacterial viruses infecting the pathogen in a species-specific way, is a potential alternative. METHOD: T4-like coliphages or a commercial Russian coliphage product or placebo was orally give...
Jeanette L. Gehrig, Siddarth Venkatesh, Hao-Wei Chang, Matthew C. Hibberd et al.
To examine the contributions of impaired gut microbial community development to childhood undernutrition, we combined metabolomic and proteomic analyses of plasma samples with metagenomic analyses of fecal samples to characterize the biological state of Bangladeshi children with severe acute malnutr...
Shawna McCallin, Shafiqul Alam Sarker, Caroline Barretto, Shamima Sultana et al.
Phage therapy has a long tradition in Eastern Europe, where preparations are comprised of complex phage cocktails whose compositions have not been described. We investigated the composition of a phage cocktail from the Russian pharmaceutical company Microgen targeting Escherichia coli/Proteus infect...
Shafiqul Alam Sarker, Shawna McCallin, Caroline Barretto, Bernard Berger et al.
The genomic diversity of 99 T4-like coliphages was investigated by sequencing an equimolar mixture with Illumina technology and screening them against different databases for horizontal gene transfer and undesired genes. A 9-phage cocktail was given to 15 healthy adults from Bangladesh at a dose of ...
Shafiqul Alam Sarker, Thomas Casswall, Dilip Mahalanabis, NUR H. ALAM et al.
BACKGROUND: Oral ingestion of immunoglobulins in humans has been shown to be effective as prophylaxis against enteric infections. However, its therapeutic effect in children with infectious diarrhea has hitherto not been proven. We treated children with rotavirus diarrhea with immunoglobulins extrac...
Robert Y. Chen, Vanderlene L. Kung, Subhasish Das, Md. Shabab Hossain et al.
BACKGROUND: Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is an enigmatic disorder of the small intestine that is postulated to play a role in childhood undernutrition, a pressing global health problem. Defining the incidence of this disorder, its pathophysiological features, and its contribution to impai...
Michael J. Barratt, Sharika Nuzhat, Kazi Ahsan, Steven A. Frese et al.
Disrupted development of the gut microbiota is a contributing cause of childhood malnutrition. Bifidobacterium longum subspecies infantis is a prominent early colonizer of the infant gut that consumes human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). We found that the absolute abundance of Bifidobacterium infanti...
Shafiqul Alam Sarker, Shamima Sultana, George J. Fuchs, Nur Alam et al.
BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that selected strains of lactobacilli that are administered orally result in a modest reduction of diarrhea duration. However, duration alone is not considered optimal for therapeutic evaluation of any agent in diarrhea. OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of a n...
Shafiqul Alam Sarker, Thomas Casswall, Lekh Raj Juneja, Enamul Hoq et al.
BACKGROUND: Hyperimmunized bovine colostrum containing antibodies has been shown to be effective in the treatment of rotavirus diarrhea. Antibodies derived from eggs of immunized hens may be a less expensive and more practical alternative. In this study, children with proven rotavirus diarrhea were ...
Shafiqul Alam Sarker, Bernard Berger, Ying Deng, Silas Kieser et al.
A T4-like coliphage cocktail was given with different oral doses to healthy Bangladeshi children in a placebo-controlled randomized phase I safety trial. Fecal phage detection was oral dose dependent suggesting passive gut transit of coliphages through the gut. No adverse effects of phage applicatio...
Nur Alam, Rémy Meier, Heinz Schneider, Shafiqul Alam Sarker et al.
BACKGROUND: Partially hydrolyzed guar gum (Benefiber; Novartis Nutrition, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.) is fermented by colonic bacteria liberating short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which accelerate colonic absorption of salt and water. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of Benefiber (BF...
Shawna McCallin, Shafiqul Alam Sarker, Shamima Sultana, Frank Oechslin et al.
Bacteriophage therapy is a commonly used treatment for Staphylococcus aureus infections in countries of the former Soviet Union, using both single phages and phage cocktails. The scarce data available on Eastern phage cocktails prompted an investigation into commercially-available Pyophage cocktails...
Shafiqul Alam Sarker, Lena Davidsson, Hasan Mahmud, Thomas Walczyk et al.
Background Nonheme-iron absorption requires an acidic milieu. Reduced gastric acid output as a consequence of Helicobacter pylori infection could be an important limiting factor for iron absorption. Objective We measured gastric acid output and iron absorption from a non-water-soluble iron compound ...
Shafiqul Alam Sarker, Hasan Mahmud, Lena Davidsson, Nur Alam et al.
Background & aims We investigated Helicobacter pylori (H pylori)-infection as a cause of iron deficiency (ID) and iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) or treatment failure of iron supplementation. Methods We randomized 200 Hp-infected children (positive urea breath test) 2-5 years of age with IDA (hemoglobi...
Tommi Vatanen, Qi Yan Ang, Léa Siegwald, Shafiqul Alam Sarker et al.
The gut microbiome has an important role in infant health and development. We characterized the fecal microbiome and metabolome of 222 young children in Dhaka, Bangladesh during the first two years of life. A distinct Bifidobacterium longum clade expanded with introduction of solid foods and harbore...