Publications

Selected Publications From the McCoy Lab

This review discusses the results of recent studies on how microbial metabolites coordinate immune responses during cancer immunotherapies. 
In this study, the authors studied the metabolomes of germ-free, gnotobiotic, and specific pathogen-free mice and found that the microbiota and mouse age were the main drivers of change in the metabolome at multiple body sites. Mouse sex played a less significant role but still had a significant impact on the metabolome at all evaluated body sites except for the ileum. 
This review discusses the different approaches used to modulate microbial complexity that are available to study host-microbe interactions, and describes how different mouse models have been used to answer distinct biological questions, covering the entire microbial spectrum, from germ-free to wild.
In this study, the authors used flow cytometry, whole-mount imaging, microscopy, mass spectrometry, and transcriptomics to determine that eosinophils help facilitate mutualistic interactions between host and gut microbes, maintaining gut homeostasis.
This article preview highlights a recent publication by Lam et al. (2021) that investigated how the microbiome regulates innate immunity to promote an anti-tumour response.

Microbiota and Microglia Interactions in ASD

Davoli-Ferreira, Thomson, & McCoy. Frontiers in Immunology. 05/2021  

In this review, the authors evidence that the intestinal microbiota, and their interactions with microglia, are implicated in the behavioural changes associated with Autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

The Role of Mom's Microbes During Pregnancy

Thomson & McCoy. The Scientist. 08/2021

Illustration by  BONNIE HOFKIN          

This article discusses how the maternal microbiome can affect pregnancy and influence immune development of offspring. The article was written for a generalist audience.
In this study, the authors identified microbial D-lactate, as a modulator of an intravascular immune firewall that protects against the spread of bacterial infections via the bloodstream.
Using an interdisciplinary approach, the authors identified three bacterial species that significantly enhanced the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in four mouse models of cancer! This promising study "identifies a novel microbial metabolite-immune pathway that may be exploited to develop microbial-based adjuvant therapies."
In this intercontinental research effort between Switzerland, Norway, Germany and Canada, Dr. H. Li, colleagues and international collaborators notably Dr. McCoy, used “localized time-limited exposures of defined doses of single benign microbial taxa in germ-free mice” to “address how the B cell repertoire is shaped by microbiota exposure at mucous membranes or in systemic lymphoid tissues, and how interactions between different exposure sites or subsequent exposures to different taxa affect the outcome”.

Microbiota-derived peptide mimics drive lethal inflammatory cardiomyopathy                                        

C. Gil-Cruz et al. Science. 07/2019           

Using a mouse model of spontaneous autoimmune myocarditis, we show that progression of myocarditis to lethal heart disease depends on cardiac myosin–specific TH17 cells imprinted in the intestine by a commensal Bacteroides species peptide mimic ...The ability to restrain cardiotoxic T cells through manipulation of the microbiome thereby transforms inflammatory cardiomyopathy into a targetable disease.

Immunological roles of intestinal mesenchymal cells

Thomson et al. Immunology. 03/2020

Here we report that mice colonized with a combination of bacterial species with specific characteristics is required to inhibit IgE levels... inhibition of IgE induction can be mediated by specific microbes and their associated metabolic pathways and immunogenic properties.
Here we report that mice colonized with a combination of bacterial species with specific characteristics is required to inhibit IgE levels... inhibition of IgE induction can be mediated by specific microbes and their associated metabolic pathways and immunogenic properties.
Through effects on early-life colonization, immune development, and neurodevelopment, the maternal microbiota regulates susceptibility to a number of childhood illnesses and can vertically transmit dysbiosis-mediated pathologies.

Not All Lymph Nodes Are Created Equal

Thomson & McCoy. Immunity. 07/2019

Appropriate priming of tolerogenic or effector immune responses is crucial for intestinal homeostasis. Esterhazy et al. (Nature, 2019) reveal how compartmentalization of lymphatic drainage to functionally distinct lymph nodes facilitates the simultaneous induction of tolerogenic and effector responses.

The microbiome and immune memory formation

McCoy, Burkhard, & Geuking. Immunology & Cell Biology. 05/2019

The microbiota plays an important role in regulating both the innate and adaptive immune systems. This review highlight the role of the microbiota in the induction of immune memory with a focus on both adaptive and innate memory as well as vaccine efficacy.

Click the links below for a full list of publications from the McCoy Lab

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