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Introduction
Dr. Peterson received her PhD in Immunology & Microbiology from the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at the George Washington University School of Medicine where she studied the gut microbiome in antibiotic-induced obesity. She is an Assistant Project Scientist at UCSD School of Medicine, where she completed her Post-Doctoral Fellowship, and engaged in Clinical Trials using Ayurvedic medicines and the therapeutic modulation of microbiomes in neurodegenerative disease and gut-related disorders.
Publications
Publications (58)
Introduction:
The prebiotic potential of herbal medicines has been scarcely studied.
Methods:
The authors therefore used anaerobic human fecal cultivation to investigate whether three herbal medicines commonly used in gastrointestinal health and disease in Ayurveda alter the growth and abundance of specific bacterial species.
Results:
Profilin...
Background:
Curcuma longa (common name: turmeric) and one of its biologically active constituents, curcumin, have received increased clinical attention. Insufficient data exist on the effects of curcumin and turmeric on the gut microbiota and such studies in humans are lacking.
Methods:
Turmeric tablets with extract of piperine (Bioperine) (n =...
The prebiotic potential of nervine herbal medicines has been scarcely studied. We therefore used anaerobic human fecal cultivation to investigate whether medicinal herbs commonly used as treatment in neurological health and disease in Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine modulate gut microbiota. Profiling of fecal cultures supplemente...
Several studies have examined the impact of prebiotics on gut microbiota and associated changes in host physiology. Here, we used the in vitro cultivation of human fecal samples stimulated with a series of chemically related prebiotics and medicinal herbs commonly used in Ayurvedic medicine, followed by 16S rRNA sequencing. We applied a genome-wide...
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons. Although the etiology of PD remains elusive, it has been hypothesized that initial dysregulation may occur in the gastrointestinal tract and may be accompanied by gut barrier defects. A strong clinical interest in developing therapeutics exist...
Background: Yoga is described as a system of physical and mental practices originating from India that connects mind, body, and spirit with techniques such as physical exercises, breathing, and meditation to promote health and well-being. Medical students experience an immense amount of stress that unfortunately continues throughout their residency...
Many studies have focused on the metabolic capacity of human gut microbiota to produce short-chain fatty acids and subsequent effects on host physiology. Given scarce data on how SCFAs produced by gut bacteria participate in cross-feeding to influence community structure and function, we evaluated the potential of SCFAs to modulate human gut microb...
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00315.].
Introduction:
COVID-19 poses a chronic threat to inflammatory systems, reinforcing the need for efficient anti-inflammatory strategies. The purpose of this review and analysis was to determine the efficacy of various interventions upon the inflammatory markers most affected by COVID-19. The focus was on the markers associated with COVID-19, not th...
Historically, the health benefits and immunomodulatory potential of medicinal herbs have been considered an intrinsic quality of the herb itself. We have hypothesized that the health benefits of medicinal herbs may be partially due to their prebiotic potential that alter gut microbiota leading to changes in short chain fatty acids and vitamin produ...
B group vitamins represent essential micronutrients for myriad metabolic and regulatory processes required for human health, serving as cofactors used by hundreds of enzymes that carry out essential functions such as energy metabolism, DNA and protein synthesis and other critical functions. B vitamins and their corresponding vitamers are universall...
Objectives:
Triphala (which contains Emblica officinalis, Terminalia bellerica, and Terminalia chebula) and manjistha (Rubia cordifolia), have received increased clinical attention. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of triphala, manjistha, or placebo dietary supplementation on gut microbiota as such studies in humans are lacking.
De...
There are many approaches to maintaining wellness, including taking a simple vacation to attending highly structured wellness retreats, which typically regulate the attendee's personal time and activities. In a healthy English-speaking cohort of 112 women and men (aged 30–80 years), this study examined the effects of participating in either a 6-day...
Recent data suggest gut microbiota dysbiosis as a contributing factor in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), and these pathologies may manifest via the microbiota-gut-brain-axis, which comprises bidirectional communication through neuroimmune, neuroendocrine, and direct neural pathways such as...
Although the impact of medicinal and culinary herbs on health and disease has been studied to varying extents, scarcely little is known about the impact of these herbs on gut microbiota and how such effects might contribute to their health benefits. We applied in vitro anaerobic cultivation of human fecal microbiota followed by 16S rRNA sequencing...
Background
As individuals are increasingly attending health and wellness courses outside of the conventional medical system, there is a need to obtain objective data on the effects of those programs on well-being.
Methods
In total, 154 men and women (mean age 54.7 years; range 25–83) participated in 3 different holistic wellness programs based on...
Putative consortium. Relative abundance of taxa in replicate cultures (n = 3–6). Ashwaganda, Bacopa, Gotu Kola, Jatamansi and Kapikacchu, A.i., M.s., B.n. and B.ol..
(TIF)
A. Putative consortium D. piger, B. ovatus and B. intestinalis. Relative abundance of taxa in replicate cultures (n = 3–6). Gotu Kola, Bhringaraj and Frankincense D.p. and B.o.. B. Bacopa and Shankhapushpi, B.i. and B.o., Gotu Kola and Frankincense, B.i., D.p. and B.o., Bhringaraj, D.p. and B.o., Shatavari, B.i. and D.p..
(TIF)
16S rDNA profiling data and statistical significance.
The significance of change in relative abundance of taxa was determined using Analysis of Composition of Microbiomes (ANCOM) methodology with a False Discover Rate adjusted p-value of 0.05 threshold for significance.
(XLSX)
Co-occurrence of taxa in prebiotic/herb cultures.
Taxa co-occurring among 279 cultures are shown. n00 indicates number of cultures where neither taxa were observed, n01 indicates the number of cultures where taxa 1 is absent but taxa 2 was detected, n10 indicates the number of cultures where taxa 1 is detected but taxa 2 was absent, n11 indicates t...
Reconstructed sugar transport and catabolic pathways in reference genomes.
(TIF)
A. Community phenotype indices. Presence (1) or absence (0) of sugar utilization pathways multiplied by relative abundance of taxa observed in each culture condition: pathways for glucose, galactose, glucuronate and galacturonate. B. Presence (1) or absence (0) of sugar utilization pathways multiplied by relative abundance of taxa observed in each...
A. Reconstructed metabolic pathways for butyrate synthesis in reference genomes. Four variants of butyrate biosynthesis (P1-P4) using pyruvate, succinate, glutamate or lysine. B. Reconstructed metabolic pathways for propionate synthesis in reference genomes. Four variants of propionate biosynthesis (P1-P4) using lactaldehyde/propanediol, lactate or...
Sugar utilization pathways of bacterial taxa.
The presence or absence of sugar utilization pathways was scored at the species level as 1 or 0, respectively. When corresponding reference genomes were unavailable for specific taxa genus and family level assignments were predicted. In instances where multiple genomes were available and analyzed, fract...
Taxa encoding GH gene families.
Taxa encoding (CAZy) or predicted to encode large number of GH are shown along with the fold change of each taxa in herb-supplemented cultures green (increased by >5-fold), yellow (unchanged, <5-fold) and red (decreased by >5-fold).
(XLSX)
Asaccharolytic taxa.
Taxa are displayed in descending order of herb-responsiveness along with predicted sugar utilization pathways and fold change of each taxa in herb-supplemented cultures green (increased by >5-fold), yellow (unchanged, <5-fold) and red (decreased by >5-fold).
(XLSX)
Taxa responsiveness to medicinal herbs.
Taxa displaying increased relative abundance in all 10, 9, 8, to 0 herb-supplemented cultures are shown in descending order together with predicted sugar utilization pathways and the fold change of each taxa in herb-supplemented cultures green (increased by >5-fold), yellow (unchanged, <5-fold) and red (decre...
Background:
According to Ayurveda, the traditional medical system of India, doshas are a combination of characteristics based on a five-element philosophy that drive our mental and physical tendencies. When the doshas, or functional principles, are out of balance in quality or quantity, wellbeing is adversely affected and symptoms manifest.
Objec...
Supplementary_Table_1 - Effects of Turmeric and Curcumin Dietary Supplementation on Human Gut Microbiota: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study
Heart failure (HF) is a major and costly public health concern, and its prognosis is grim—with high hospitalization and mortality rates. HF affects millions of individuals across the world, and this condition is expected to become “the epidemic” of the twenty-first century (Jessup et al., 2016). It is well documented that individuals with HF experi...
While the intention of Integrative Medicine (IM) is whole person medicine, it has for the most part remained driven by individual modalities. Like the practice of IM itself, IM research too has been driven primarily by studies on individual modalities. There are significant challenges to moving research on whole systems medicine forward, with fundi...
Objective:
This study examined the effects of a comprehensive mind-body program on sense of nondual awareness and spiritual awakening.
Design and intervention:
The study compared the effects of participation in an intensive 6-day Ayurveda-based mind-body program that addressed physical, emotional, and spiritual domains as compared with a control...
Context • Globally, more than 25% of individuals are affected by anxiety and depression disorders. Meditation is gaining popularity in clinical settings and its treatment efficacy is being studied for a wide array of psychological and physiological ailments. An exploration of stress physiology is an essential precursor to delineation of the mechani...
Stress-induced disorders such as anxiety represent the leading causes of adult disability worldwide. Previous studies indicate that yoga and other contemplative practices such as pranayama, or controlled yogic breathing techniques, may be effective in the treatment of mood disorders and stress. In this study, 142 individuals (mean age = 43 years; S...
Aim:
The aim of this article is to review the current literature on the therapeutic uses and efficacy of Triphala. Herbal remedies are among the most ancient medicines used in traditional systems of healthcare such as Ayurveda. Triphala, a well-recognized and highly efficacious polyherbal Ayurvedic medicine consisting of fruits of the plant specie...
Thirty-eight individuals (mean age: 34.8 years old) participating in a 3-month yoga and meditation retreat were assessed before and after the intervention for psychometric measures, brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), circadian salivary cortisol levels, and pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Participation in the retreat was found to be ass...
Scientific Reports 6 : Article number: 32609; 10.1038/srep32609 published online: 09 September 2016 ; updated: 10 October 2016 . In this Article additional disclosures should have been included in the Competing Financial Interests statement.
The effects of integrative medicine practices such as meditation and Ayurveda on human physiology are not fully understood. The aim of this study was to identify altered metabolomic profiles following an Ayurveda-based intervention. In the experimental group, 65 healthy male and female subjects participated in a 6-day Panchakarma-based Ayurvedic in...
Objective:
To examine the effects of a comprehensive residential mind-body program on well-being.
Design:
The Self-Directed Biological Transformation Initiative was a quasi-randomized trial comparing the effects of participation in a 6-day Ayurvedic system of medicine-based comprehensive residential program with a 6-day residential vacation at t...
In contrast to traditional singleplex assays that provide values for only a single analyte in a single biological sample, multiplex assays are a time- and resource-efficient high-throughput approach that provides the opportunity to determine numerous analytes within a single- and small-sample volume. In this editorial on an article by Dorn et al. i...
The distal gut harbors ∼1013 bacteria, representing the most densely populated ecosystem known. The functional diversity expressed by these communities is enormous and relatively unexplored. The past decade of research has unveiled the profound influence the resident microbial populations bestow to host immunity and metabolism. The evolution of the...
Obesity represents an important public health concern in the United States and throughout the world. The composition of the gut microbiome is fairly stable unless disturbed by outside variables such as antibiotic treatment. While farmers have exploited sub-therapeutic antibiotic treatment for growth promotion in livestock for over 50 years, the mec...
The potential for commensal microorganisms indigenous to a host (the 'microbiome' or 'microbiota') to alter infection outcome by influencing host-pathogen interplay is largely unknown. We used a multi-omics "systems" approach, incorporating proteomics, metabolomics, glycomics, and metagenomics, to explore the molecular interplay between the murine...
Expression of fuc genes in vivo following Salmonella infection. qRT-PCR analysis revealed increased expression of genes in the fuc regulon of S. Typhimurium during infection. Data presented as fold change over expression in uninfected animals.
(PDF)
Fucose and high mannose glycan detection in individual biological replicates. (A) Five fucosylated glycan moieties that were observed at each time point were selected for analysis. These fucosylated glycans increased during infection in both (B) experimental group 1 and (C) experimental group 2, in comparison to control animals. Data from infected...
All filter-passing protein identifications. (A) Mouse-derived, (B) microbiota-derived, and (C) Salmonella-derived protein identifications.
(PDF)
Selected mouse proteins identified during infection. The immune response to gastrointestinal S. Typhimurium infection in humans is characterized by an inflammatory response and neutrophil activation. Proteomic results support a similar host response in 129/SvJ mice, which includes (but is not limited to) expression of neutrophil-related proteins, c...
16S rDNA analysis of the Salmonella and other non-Salmonella Proteobacterial genera through time. (A) Raw data shows the proliferation of Salmonella during infection and clearance by day 28. (B) Other Proteobacteria are present at very low levels (note axis scale in A and B), and do not significantly contribute to observed Proteobacteria increase i...
S. Typhimurium infection induces metabolite changes in the gut environment. GC-MS metabolite analysis of soluble factors in fecal samples revealed that (A,B) the profile of metabolites in infected animals (right panel, red) is distinct from that of control animals (left panel, black). Chromatograms presented here, with early time points in the fore...
Inability to utilize fucose demonstrates in vivo phenotype. WT and Δfuc strains were mixed at a 1∶1 ratio and used to orally infect 129/SvJ mice. Quantification of each strain in the shed feces demonstrated a slight growth advantage in vivo of the Δfuc strain. Two replicate experiments were performed, shown in (A) and (B). Each filled circle repres...
Proteins determined to be statistically significantly different in control and infected mice.
(PDF)
Primer sequences used for 16s community profiling. Primer sequences are listed for each sample, including four experimental groups (control 1, control 2, infected 1, and infected 2), with eight time points per group (−1, 1, 3, 6, 10, 14, 21, and 18 days post-infection).
(XLSX)
Salmonella infection disrupts the commensal microbial community at the genus level. Presentation of the top 10 most abundant genera (each representing greater than 0.5% of the total population as determined by 16s rDNA sequencing) reveals a pre-infection microbial population composed of primarily Barnesiella (green), with a small fraction of Blauti...
Large forensic mtDNA databases which adhere to strict guidelines for generation and maintenance, are not available for many populations outside of the United States and western Europe. We have established a high quality mtDNA control region sequence database for urban Nairobi as both a reference database for forensic investigations, and as a tool t...
We have sequenced the entire mtDNA genome (mtGenome) of 241 individuals who match 1 of 18 common European Caucasian HV1/HV2 types, to identify sites that permit additional forensic discrimination. We found that over the entire mtGenome even individuals with the same HV1/HV2 type rarely match. Restricting attention to sites that are neutral with res...
