In the past decade, gut microbiota has been shown to be associated with a number of human diseases including metabolic syndrome, obesity-related diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, and colorectal cancer. In this project, we plan to study human microbiome in primary antibody immune deficiencies, common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) and selective IgA deficiency (IgAD). In both diseases, IgA production is seriously affected. Since IgA is the dominant mucosal immunoglobulin and plays a central role in maintaining intestinal homeostasis, it is expected that i) the gut microbiome reflects changes in host mucosal immune system. In addition, since there is a significant portion of patients without clinical symptoms or with very mild symptoms, it is likely that ii) the microbiome composition is of importance in these inapparent disease cases. To determine microbiome composition, 16S rRNA gene sequences from the gut microbiome will be examined in all DNA samples (n =50) isolated from patients and healthy controls. In addition, analysis of gut metagenome by whole-metagenome shotgun sequencing and subsequent analysis of gut metabolome will be performed in 6-10 samples previously characterized by the analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences. This will allow characterization of microbial communities present in the samples and determination of alpha and beta diversity of the samples. In addition, functional characterization of human microbiome will be performed together with determination of the host’s metabolome in a number of selected samples.

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