Assessment of the intestinal archaebiome in schizophrenia - studies on a rat model

            Project manager: dr Dominika Salamon
            Implementation period: 2023-2024
           

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a neurodevelopmental disorder of unknown etiology and a complex clinical picture. Inflammatory factors seem to play a role in its development, but also the gut-brain axis and factors influencing its functioning. Information about the relationship between the composition of the intestinal microbiota and the development of inflammatory processes influencing the development of SCZ appears more and more often in the literature. In addition, the intestinal microbiota can influence the synthesis and metabolism of neurotransmitters or produce them itself. These observations led to the assumption that perhaps the intestinal microbiome contributes to the development of SCZ. If the composition of the microbiota is analyzed, it most often concerns bacteria. However, the intestinal microbiome, much less known, but also plays a significant role, is the archaeobiome. Archaea are a group of microorganisms whose cultivation is extremely difficult and demanding, and often even impossible. Hence, modern molecular techniques, including sequencing, are more suitable for learning about them. The aim of this project is to assess the taxonomic composition of archaea colonizing the large intestine of animals constituting the MAM-E17 rat model of schizophrenia (offspring of females receiving MAM-methylazoxymethanol acetate) compared to the control group of these rodents. The results of the analysis carried out using next generation sequencing (NGS) may confirm the assumption that a change in the composition and/or number of intestinal archaea may influence the occurrence of schizophrenia, which is the research hypothesis of this project.