PMID- 36544819
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20221223
IS  - 2405-8440 (Print)
IS  - 2405-8440 (Electronic)
IS  - 2405-8440 (Linking)
VI  - 8
IP  - 12
DP  - 2022 Dec
TI  - The Maleth program: Malta's first space mission discoveries on the microbiome of 
      diabetic foot ulcers.
PG  - e12075
LID - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12075 [doi]
LID - e12075
AB  - The purpose of the Maleth Program, also known as Project Maleth, is Malta's first 
      space program to evaluate human skin tissue microbiome changes in type 2 diabetes 
      mellitus (T2DM) patients afflicted with diabetic foot ulcers (DFU). This was 
      carried out in both ground-based models and spaceflight. The first mission 
      (Maleth I) under this program was carried out to uncover the effects of 
      spaceflight, microgravity and radiation on human skin tissue microbiome samples 
      from six T2DM patients recruited into the study. Each patient human skin tissue 
      sample was split in three, with one section processed immediately for genomic 
      profiling by 16S typing and the rest were processed for longer term 
      ground-control and spaceflight experiments. Ground-control and spaceflight human 
      skin tissue samples were also processed for genomic profiling upon mission 
      re-entry and completion. Maleth I's overall objective was achieved, as human skin 
      tissue samples with their microbiomes travelled to space and back yielding 
      positive results by both standard microbiology techniques and genetic typing 
      using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Preliminary findings of this mission are 
      discussed in light of its innovative approach at DFU microbiome research, and the 
      clinical implications that may emerge from this and other future similar studies.
CI  - (c) 2022 The Author(s).
FAU - Gatt, Christine
AU  - Gatt C
AD  - Department of Applied Biomedical Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, University 
      of Malta, Msida MSD, 2080, Malta.
FAU - Tierney, Braden T
AU  - Tierney BT
AD  - Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, 
      NY, 10065, USA.
FAU - Madrigal, Pedro
AU  - Madrigal P
AD  - European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, 
      EMBL-EBI, Hinxton CB10 1SD, UK.
FAU - Mason, Christopher E
AU  - Mason CE
AD  - Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, 
      NY, 10065, USA.
AD  - The HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud Institute for 
      Computational Biomedicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, USA.
AD  - WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction, Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, 
      USA.
AD  - The Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, 
      USA.
FAU - Beheshti, Afshin
AU  - Beheshti A
AD  - KBR, Space Biosciences Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 
      94035, USA.
AD  - Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 
      Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA.
FAU - Telzerow, Anja
AU  - Telzerow A
AD  - Genomics Core Facility, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, 
      Germany.
FAU - Benes, Vladimir
AU  - Benes V
AD  - Genomics Core Facility, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, 
      Germany.
FAU - Zahra, Graziella
AU  - Zahra G
AD  - Molecular Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases, Department of Pathology, Mater Dei 
      Hospital, Msida, Malta.
FAU - Bonett, Jurgen
AU  - Bonett J
AD  - Ministry for Health, Primary HealthCare, Floriana, Malta.
FAU - Cassar, Kevin
AU  - Cassar K
AD  - Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta, 
      Valletta, Malta.
FAU - Borg, Joseph
AU  - Borg J
AD  - Department of Applied Biomedical Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, University 
      of Malta, Msida MSD, 2080, Malta.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20221205
PL  - England
TA  - Heliyon
JT  - Heliyon
JID - 101672560
PMC - PMC9761711
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - 16S typing
OT  - Bacteria
OT  - Diabetes
OT  - International space station
OT  - Malta
OT  - Microbiome
OT  - Microgravity
OT  - Space
COIS- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
EDAT- 2022/12/23 06:00
MHDA- 2022/12/23 06:01
PMCR- 2022/12/05
CRDT- 2022/12/22 02:23
PHST- 2022/06/14 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2022/10/21 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2022/11/25 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2022/12/22 02:23 [entrez]
PHST- 2022/12/23 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2022/12/23 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2022/12/05 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - S2405-8440(22)03363-1 [pii]
AID - e12075 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12075 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Heliyon. 2022 Dec 5;8(12):e12075. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12075. eCollection 
      2022 Dec.