ROLE OF GUT MICROBIOME AND MICROBIAL EPITOPE IN ROTAVIRUS INFECTION AMONG MALAYSIAN CHILDREN

Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) can be caused by either viral or bacterial infection with rotavirus (RV) remaining a primary viral AGE pathogen in children under 5 years old. The gut microbiome plays an important role in immune system development and helps regulate responses to pathogen exposure, often limiting disease severity. This study seeks to understand the role of the gut microbiome and identify specific microbial epitopes associated with RV and non-RV AGE in Malaysian children. By employing shotgun metagenomic sequencing (WGS), this research able to obtain a higher-resolution analysis beyond taxonomic assignment. This approaches facilitates a comprehensive of microbial diversity (alpha and beta) alongside the profiling of microbial metabolic functions, providing a deeper insights into the biochemical pathways within the microbial community.