Jesus Garcia-Gil

University of Girona | UDG · Department of Biology

Background Monitoring Crohn's Disease (CD) endoscopic activity (EA) is crucial to identify disease progression and tailor treatment. Faecal calprotectin (FC) provides a non-invasive and cost-effective alternative to colonoscopy; however, it exhibits only a moderate correlation with EA in CD, highlighting the need for a non-invasive approach that ei...

The fecal immunochemical test (FIT) is the most widely used test for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. RAID-CRC Screen is a new non-invasive test based on fecal bacterial markers, developed to complement FIT by increasing its specificity. The test was previously clinically evaluated in FIT-positive patients (>20 μg of hemoglobin/g of feces, “FIT20...

Background and aims: Although there are several effective drugs for the treatment of Crohn’s disease (CD), almost 70% of patients will require surgical resection during their lifetime. This procedure is not always curative, as endoscopic recurrence occurs in 65%–90% of patients in the first year after surgery. The aetiology of the recurrence is unk...

Background The fecal immunochemical test (FIT) is the most widely used test for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. RAID-CRC Screen is a new non-invasive test based on fecal bacterial markers, developed to complement FIT by increasing its specificity. The test was previously clinically evaluated in FIT-positive patients (> 20 µg of hemoglobin/g of f...

Background The faecal immunochemical test (FIT) is the most widely used test for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. RAIDCRCScreen is a non-invasive test based on faecal biomarkers that complement FIT by increasing its specificity. It was previously clinically evaluated in FIT-positive patients (>20µg haemoglobin/g faeces, ‘FIT20’), in which it redu...

Background and Aims Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis evolve with alternate outbreaks and remissions of variable duration in both cases. Despite the advances, about 10-30% of patients do not respond to the treatment after the induction period. Besides, between 20% to 50% further patients need an optimization of the dose to respond the treatmen...

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including its two main categories (Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis), has been linked both to gut microbiota and to diet. Bread is a daily food that has a potential capacity as a prebiotic. Our aim was to evaluate different bread-making processes and their effect on fecal colonic microbiota in IBD patients. T...

Trace evidence is a type of physical evidence that can be transferred between two objects, helping to reconstruct the sequence of events of a crime. From a forensic perspective, the human skin is a key element for, and source of, microbial trace evidence due to the constant exposure and contact with surfaces and continuous interaction with the envi...

Background Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) are two intestinal disorders with unknown aetiology. IBD presents two main forms which are Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). It has been reported recently that bacterial communities present in the colon of patients with either IBD or IBS are structurally...

Background Although there are several effective drugs for the treatment of Crohn’s disease (CD), almost 80% of patients will end up needing a surgical resection throughout their lives. This procedure is not always curative, as the disease often reappears in the intestine. Endoscopic recurrence occurs in 65%-90% of patients after one year from surge...

Background Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) evolve with alternate outbreaks and remissions of variable duration. Tumour necrosis factor α antagonists (anti-TNFα) have enhanced the treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), improving the patient’s quality of life by reducing the number of surgeries and hospitalizati...

Background Dysbiosis is a widely used but unspecific term. It has been defined as any change in the composition of resident microbial communities relative to the ones found in healthy individuals. But it is still unclear which are the appropriate communities to define it and the reference values to measure it. Different studies have described dysbi...

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients have different faecal microbiota profiles compared to healthy controls. Prebiotics intake influences intestinal microbiota composition which in turn influence the growth of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) producing bacteria. This study aimed to evaluate the capacity of Prev...

Guidelines recommend routine screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) in asymptomatic adults starting at age 50. The most extensively used noninvasive test for CRC screening is the fecal immunochemical test (FIT), which has an overall sensitivity for CRC of approximately 61.0%-91.0%, which drops to 27.0%-67.0% for advanced adenomas. These figures cont...

Background Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a functional disorder affecting around 11% of the world population, which diagnostic is mainly based on clinical parameters. IBS shares many symptoms with other gastrointestinal disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which makes positive diagnosis a difficult task. Aim This work presents th...

Background: The challenges for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) diagnostics are to discriminate it from gut conditions with similar symptoms such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), to distinguish IBD subtypes, to predict disease progression, and to establish the risk to develop colorectal cancer (CRC). Alterations in gut microbiota have been propo...

Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is defined as a group of autoimmune diseases that affects the digestive tract by causing chronic inflammatory processes. Crohn’s disease (CD) is one of the major types of IBD. Although there are several efficient drugs for its treatment, almost 80% of patients will require an intestinal resection througho...

Background Crohn disease (CD) and Ulcerative colitis (UC) are characterised by episodes of exacerbations and remissions. Monitoring disease activity based on intestinal lesion is mandatory prior to any change in the therapeutic strategy. Colonoscopy is the gold standard technique to monitor the disease activity in IBD patients, but it is usually di...

Background Colorectal cancer is the second commonest cause of cancer mortality. Some countries are implementing colorectal cancer screening to detect lesions at an early stage using non‐invasive tools like the faecal immunochemical test. Despite affordability, this test shows a low sensitivity for precancerous lesions and a low positive predictive...

Background Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are characterised by episodes of exacerbations and remissions. Monitoring disease activity based on intestinal lesion is mandatory prior to any change in the therapeutic strategy. Colonoscopy is the gold standard technique to monitor the disease activity in IBD patients, but it is usually...

Background The irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional disorder affecting up to 20% of world population. So far, there is not a specific diagnostic test. Diagnosis is based on the characteristic symptoms systematized in the Rome IV criteria and excluding main organic diseases. However, the overlap of IBS symptoms with other intestinal diseas...

Akkermansia muciniphila and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, cohabitants in the intestinal mucosa, are considered members of a healthy microbiota and reduction of both species occurs in several intestinal disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease. Little is known however about a possible link between the reduction in quantity of these species, a...

Adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) have been involved in Crohn's disease (CD). Currently, AIEC are identified by time-consuming techniques based on in vitro infection of cell lines to determine their ability to adhere to and invade intestinal epithelial cells as well as to survive and replicate within macrophages. Our aim was to find signatu...

Background Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a functional disorder affecting up to 10% of world population. Diagnostics is mainly based on clinical parameters. However inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can share IBS symptomatology, which complicates the correct diagnosis. Colonoscopy, is the gold standard for differential diagnosis in spite of costs...

Understanding human decomposition is critical for its use in postmortem interval (PMI) estimation, having a significant impact on forensic investigations. In recognition of the need to stablish the scientific basis for PMI estimation, several studies on decomposition have been carried out in the last years. The aims of the present study were: (i) t...

Oral cavity harbors one of the most diverse microbiomes in the human body. It has been shown to be the second most complex in the body after the gastro- intestinal tract. Upon death, the indigenous microorganisms lead the decomposition of the carcass. Therefore, oral cavity and gastro-intestinal tract microbiomes, play a key role in human decomposi...

Background Both, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (Fpra), and Fpra phylogroups (PGH-I and PHG-II), combined with Escherichia coli (Ecoli), are an accurate biomarker to distinguish healthy (H) from diseased, and also among different clinical manifestations and disease locations (Lόpez-Siles et al, 2016). The purpose of this study was to verify this cap...

Background: Calprotectin (CP) faecal concentration is widely used as a non-invasive marker of inflammation of the intestinal mucosa, to assess the disease activity. In faecal samples, the abundance of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (Fpra) and Fpra phylogroups (PGH-I and PHG-II), combined with Escherichia coli (Eco) seems to be an accurate biomarker t...

There is an increasing interest in Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, one of the most abundant bacterial species found in the gut, given its potentially important role in promoting gut health. Although some studies have phenotypically characterized strains of this species, it remains a challenge to determine which factors have a key role in maintaining...

Background: Faecalibacterium prausnitzii comprises 2 phylogroups, whose abundance in healthy and diseased gut and in conjunction with Escherichia coli has not yet been studied. This work aims to determine the contribution of F. prausnitzii phylogroups I and II in intestinal disease and to assess their potential diagnostic usefulness as biomarkers...

Faecalibacterium prausnitzii depletion in intestinal diseases has been extensively reported, but little is known about intra-species variability. This work aims to determine if subjects with gastrointestinal disease host different mucosa-associated F. prausnitzii populations from healthy individuals. A new species-specific polymerase chain reaction...

The composition of the intestinal microbiota is altered in Crohn's disease (CD) patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the qualitative and quantitative changes in the microbiota of CD patients in three months of treatment with adalimumab (ADA), and determine whether or not these changes are produced towards the recovery of the normal...

Escherichia coli (E. coli), and particularly the adherent invasive E. coli (AIEC) pathotype, has been increasingly implicated in the ethiopathogenesis of Crohn's disease (CD). E. coli strains with similar pathogenic features to AIEC have been associated with other intestinal disorders such as ulcerative colitis, colorectal cancer, and coeliac disea...

Background: Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) diagnosis requires comprehensive examination of the patient. Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Escherichia coli have been reported as representatives of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) dysbiosis. The aim was to determine whether quantification of these species can be used as a complementa...

Objective: To construct a model of factors predicting mortality in severe community-acquired pneumonia (SCAP) with data on the first 24h after admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). Design: A prospective, observational study was carried out. Setting: The ICU of a university hospital. Patients: ICU-admitted patients with SCAP were studie...

Campylobacter is a microaerophilic, spiral shaped, Gram-negative bacterium comprising 16 species. Although many of these species are thermotolerant, i.e. able to grow at 42ºC, C. jejuni, C. coli, C lari, and C. upsaliensis are the most prevalent foodborne pathogens. The need for a fast detection of these bacteria in foodstuff has fostered the deve...

In this study, a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method was designed for the fast detection of Cronobacter spp. (a newly proposed genus formerly known as Enterobacter sakazakii) in infant formula. The real-time PCR was positively tested with 70 Cronobacter strains, including members of all the species of this genus, and 88 non-Crono...

The presence of Cronobacter or Salmonella in powdered infant formulae represents a serious health risk when fed to newborn infants. The detection of these pathogens by standard food analysis methods takes around 3–6 days to provide an accurate result. In order to reduce the time of analysis to less than 24 h, a real-time PCR-based method for the si...

Faecalibacterium prausnitzii is one of the most abundant commensal bacteria in the healthy human large intestine, but information on genetic diversity and substrate utilization is limited. Here, we examine the phylogeny, phenotypic characteristics, and influence of gut environmental factors on growth of F. prausnitzii strains isolated from healthy...

The adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) pathotype, which has been associated with Crohn's disease, shows similar traits to human and animal extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) with respect to their phylogenetic origin and virulence gene profiles. Here, we demonstrate that animal ExPEC strains generally do not share the AIEC phenotype....

In this study, we have developed a rapid method for the simultaneous detection of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella spp. in foods, combining culture enrichment and a multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The assay used two pre-existing primer-probe sets, labelled with different reporter dyes to enable the direct distinction of th...

... All Rights Reserved. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi: 10.1128 / AEM . 02614 - 10 AEM Accepts, published online ahead of print on 24 June 2011 Page 2. 2 Abstract 22 The Adherent-Invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) pathotype, which has been associated with Crohn's 23 ...

Phosphorus deficiency was analysed in the oxic-anoxic gradient of the karstic sulphurous lakes Vilar and Sisó during the stratification period. The distribution of planktonic photosynthetic populations along a vertical gradient coincided with an increase in alkaline phosphatase activity (APA). A multiple stepwise correlation analysis of data yielde...

Objectives: Due to its difficult diagnostic, Legionella pneumophila (LP) incidence might be underrated. An early diagnostic is crucial to apply an appropriate antibiotic therapy. The main goal of this work was to assess the accuracy of a newly developed real time quantitative PCR method (RTi-PCR) specific for all known serogroups of LP as a routine...

Jesús García Gil, vicerector de Projectes Estratègics i Economia de la Universitat refelxiona sobre el concepte d'excel·lència universitària i explica la participació de la UdG en la segona convocatòria del Campus d'Excel·lència Internacional

Abstract Background and aim: Streptococci are a heterogeneous group that includes more than 30 different species. Most of the species are usual components of the human flora and some are important human pathogens. To date, molecular tools have not been developed for studying the diversity of the genus Streptococcus in clinical samples. We have deve...

Crohn's disease (CD) is a high morbidity chronic inflammatory disorder of unknown aetiology. Adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) has been recently implicated in the origin and perpetuation of CD. Because bacterial biofilms in the gut mucosa are suspected to play a role in CD and biofilm formation is a feature of certain pathogenic E. coli str...

Background: Escherichia coli, particularly the adherent-invasive E. coli (AIEC) pathovar, has been increasingly implicated in the ethiopathogenesis of Crohn's disease (CD). We describe the richness, abundance, diversity, and pathogenic features of E. coli and AIEC strains that colonize the intestinal mucosa. Methods: Approximately 100 E. coli co...

A new rapid method based on real-time PCR was developed to detect four thermophilic Campylobacter species (Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter coli, Campylobacter lari, and Campylobacter upsaliensis) in food samples. The assay targeted the bipA gene for C. upsaliensis and C. lari, whereas the gene encoding the ATP-binding protein CJE0832 was used t...

Our aim was to evaluate the usefulness of the monoclonal antibody Das-1 as a premalignant marker of gastric intestinal metaplasia (GIM) associated with gastric cancer and its association with mucin expression. We evaluated Das-1 and mucin expression in 4 groups: 1 (n = 50), gastric carcinoma, paired samples of the cancer area and GIM away from the...

Acute diarrhea disease is the second cause of death among all infectious diseases in children younger than 5 years of age worldwide. The aim of this study was to employ a combination of biochemical, microbiological and molecular diagnostic techniques to investigate the stools of Iranian children with acute diarrhea for bacterial enteropathogens. Di...

Adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) pathovar strains, which are associated with Crohn's disease, share many genetic and phenotypic features with extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) strains, but little is known about the level of genetic similarity between the two pathovars. We aimed to determine the frequency of strains with the "AIEC...

A straightforward real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay was designed and evaluated for the detection of Salmonella spp. in food and water samples. This new assay is based on the specific detection of the bipA gene of Salmonella, which encodes a protein of the guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-binding elongation family that displays globa...