# Gut microbiome, enteric infections and child growth across a rurual urban gradient

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2020 · $713,998

## Abstract

Enteropathogen infections in the first two years of life—with or without acute symptoms—are associated with
serious morbidities, including diarrhea, gut impairment, growth faltering, and cognitive deficits. A critical current
question in the field of enteric diseases research is why some enteric infections are symptomatic and some are
asymptomatic. Characteristics of the infant gut microbiome may influence the course of enteric infections, but
the implications of microbiome-enteropathogen interactions are not well understood. Increasing data suggests
that cumulative enteropathogen infections early in life, even when asymptomatic for diarrhea, are associated
with chronic gut conditions, such as environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), that influence child health. In this
study, we will test the hypothesis that gut microbiome characteristics are associated with differential
responses to enteropathogen infections for acute and chronic child health outcomes by carrying out a
community-based birth cohort study of 360 newborn infants from three sites along a rural-urban gradient in
northern coastal Ecuador. This setting provides an ideal location to examine interactions between the gut
microbiome conditions and enteric infections, because we leverage a population where our team has worked
for 15 years that is a high enteric pathogen transmission setting with known variability in gut microbiome
characteristics yet relative similarity in other social, behavioral and genetic factors that might determine host
response to enteric infections. We will use state-of the-art diagnostic and genomic techniques to characterize
enteropathogen infections and gut microbial communities at multiple time points over their first two years of life,
controlling for other factors related to delivery mode, diet, and nutritional status that are known to be
associated with gut conditions. Through this approach, we will isolate the effects of the gut microbiome on the
health impacts of enteropathogen infection. The differences in microbiome diversity that we have previously
observed between urban and rural sites also provides the opportunity to examine the environmental
determinants of gut microbiome composition and development in infants. Our specific aims (SAs) are designed
to provide important insights into: SA1) how environmental conditions affect the developing infant gut
microbiome and pathobiome; SA2) whether the infant gut microbiome modifies the acute (diarrhea) and
chronic (EED and growth faltering) outcomes of enteric pathogen infection; and SA3) how the gut microbiome
responds and recovers from enteric pathogen infection. This project moves beyond the discovery phase of gut
microbiome studies by concurrently studying gut microbiome and health outcomes to gain insights into
functional implications of gut microbiome conditions. The results will guide environmental interventions and
development of preventative and therapeutic approaches to improve child health outcomes,...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10190627
- **Project number:** 7R01AI137679-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Joseph N. S. Eisenberg
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $713,998
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2018-01-24 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10190627

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10190627, Gut microbiome, enteric infections and child growth across a rurual urban gradient (7R01AI137679-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10190627. Licensed CC0.

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