Divine Aleru, Microbiome Medicine Research Coordinator

This study reveals how the human immune protein calprotectin (CP) sequesters zinc, facilitating manganese binding to bacterial solute-binding proteins. This interaction prevents zinc toxicity and supports bacterial virulence, offering new insights into metal ion competition between host and pathogen.

This review examines how iron, copper, zinc, and manganese affect gut microbiota composition and function, highlighting their regulatory role in health and disease. It discusses both the effects of metal deficiencies and supplementation on microbial balance and associated health outcomes.

This study maps the metallophore synthesis and uptake potential across the Staphylococcus genus, revealing species-specific production and utilization of metallophores. These findings provide insights into microbial cooperation, competition, and potential therapeutic targets for infections caused by S. aureus and other staphylococcal species.

This study reveals how S. aureus uses staphylopine (StP) to acquire transition metals, with CntA playing a central role in metal recognition and transport. The findings highlight new potential therapeutic targets to disrupt metal acquisition and reduce bacterial virulence.

This study reveals that the ArlRS two-component system in S. aureus enables resistance to host-imposed manganese starvation by modulating metabolism, particularly by promoting amino acid utilization. These findings provide insights into how bacterial metabolic flexibility aids in overcoming nutritional immunity and suggest potential therapeutic targets.

This study reveals that S. aureus uses the Cnt-StP system to acquire zinc during infection, enabling it to compete with the host’s immune defenses. This zinc acquisition pathway is critical for pathogen survival and virulence, offering new targets for antimicrobial therapy.

This review summarizes bacterial Mn sensing and homeostasis mechanisms, highlighting key regulators like MntR and the yybP-ykoY riboswitch. It discusses newly identified Mn exporters and their roles in protecting against Mn toxicity, with implications for antimicrobial strategies targeting bacterial metal regulation.

This study examines the roles of MntS and MntP in regulating manganese levels in E. coli, highlighting their importance in preventing manganese toxicity and supporting enzyme activation. The findings offer insights into bacterial metal homeostasis and potential therapeutic strategies targeting manganese regulation in pathogens.

This study explores how the MntR metalloregulator in Bacillus subtilis coordinates Mn(II) uptake and efflux systems to maintain Mn homeostasis and prevent toxicity, offering insights into bacterial metal regulation and potential therapeutic targets for controlling metal imbalance in infections.

This study identifies the essential roles of manganese and iron transporters (mntH, sitABCD, and feoB) in Salmonella enterica Typhimurium virulence. These transporters are required for bacterial survival inside macrophages and for successful infection, highlighting potential targets for antimicrobial therapy.

This review provides an in-depth analysis of the speciation and fractionation of manganese (Mn) across various environmental and biological matrices, including water, soil, plants, animals, and polluted environments. It discusses the methods used for manganese determination, such as extraction techniques, spectroscopic methods, and the challenges associated with analyzing manganese species in complex […]

This study highlights the role of MntE in Mn detoxification and its crucial impact on S. aureus’s resistance to oxidative stress and virulence. Disrupting MntE leads to Mn accumulation, reduced fitness, and increased sensitivity to host immune responses, suggesting MntE as a potential antimicrobial target.

This study highlights calprotectin’s role in sequestering manganese and zinc to disrupt bacterial superoxide defenses, making S. aureus more vulnerable to neutrophil-mediated killing, providing insights into potential therapeutic strategies targeting bacterial metal acquisition.

This review examines the essential role of manganese in human health, highlighting its involvement in enzyme activation and neurotransmitter function. It underscores the dangers of Mn dysregulation, especially its link to neurodegenerative diseases, and advocates for better monitoring and prevention strategies for Mn toxicity.

Magnesium (Mg) is a vital metal that not only supports critical cellular functions in both humans and microbes but also plays a significant role in shaping microbial pathogenesis. By regulating microbial growth, virulence factor expression, and competition for nutrients, magnesium directly influences infection outcomes. Understanding how magnesium interacts with microbial communities and the host immune system provides novel insights into therapeutic strategies that modulate microbial behavior, potentially improving infection management and microbiome health.

This review explains why magnesium deficiency is common and overlooked in blood cancers. It links magnesium to immune control of EBV, inflammation, and DNA repair pathways, and it highlights XMEN disease as proof that impaired magnesium transport can raise lymphoma risk.

This review explains why magnesium testing often misses true deficiency, especially in critical illness. It compares blood and urine methods, highlights drug-related magnesium loss, and shows how urine indices and free magnesium may improve diagnosis and treatment decisions.

This trial shows magnesium supplementation changes colorectal-adjacent microbes in a TRPM7 genotype-dependent way, especially in rectal swabs. In people with typical TRPM7 function, magnesium increased Carnobacterium maltaromaticum and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, microbes linked to local vitamin D activity.

This review links magnesium, especially magnesium orotate, to gut–brain axis modulation in functional GI disorders with anxiety or depression. It summarizes evidence that magnesium status can shift microbiome diversity, inflammation, and neuroactive pathways, and it highlights early pilot work combining magnesium orotate with SSRIs and probiotics.

This review explains how magnesium supports immune signaling and controls inflammation. It links magnesium deficiency to higher cytokine activity, oxidative stress, infection risk, and cancer progression. It also highlights magnesium-dependent T-cell function pathways and notes that microbiome links appear through inflammaging, not consistent taxa signatures.

This study shows that Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus can internalize magnesium from its environment, making it a potential probiotic carrier for improving magnesium absorption in the gut. The findings suggest that this could address magnesium deficiency through nutribiotic strategies.

This study explores how dietary magnesium supplementation can alleviate murine colitis by modulating the gut microbiota, improving microbiota richness, and reducing inflammation.

This study examined the role of metals in regulating antibiotic resistance in bacteria, particularly focusing on how metals, such as copper, zinc, and iron, can induce resistance mechanisms against antibiotics. The research explored various mechanisms like co-resistance, cross-resistance, and co-regulation, shedding light on how metal ions act as signals to induce antibiotic […]

Magnesium restriction in mice caused hypomagnesemia, increased inflammation, and altered the gut microbiome. These changes impacted immune function and highlighted the importance of magnesium in maintaining gut health and immune homeostasis.