Immunomagnetic capture of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii selectively modifies the fecal microbiota and its immunomodulatory profile

The aim of this work was to develop a strategy to modify the relative abundance of F. prausnitzii in fecal microbiotas, as a mean to evaluate its contribution to the immunomodulatory effect of intestinal microbiotas. We used a polyclonal antibody against the surface of F. prausnitzii M21 to capture the bacterium from complex samples using immunoseparation techniques. Its performance to deplete of/enrich for F. prausnitzii was evaluated on synthetic and human fecal microbiotas. The immunoseparation approach developed is an easy and affordable method, that in combination with appropriate models, will allow studying the contribution of a given species to a disease/phenotype.