Scholars@Duke
Neeraj K Surana

Neeraj K Surana

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases
Box 103055, Durham, NC 27710
3 Genome Ct, MSRBIII Room 4126, Durham, NC 27710

Scholarly Works - Journal articles

Impact of fiber-containing enteral nutrition on microbial community dynamics in critically ill trauma patients: a pilot-randomized trial.

Journal article BMC Med · December 29, 2025 BACKGROUND: Gut microbial dysbiosis is common in the intensive care unit and certain derangements, like expansion of Enterobacteriaceae and other potential pathogens (pathobionts), are associated with increased morbidity. In other populations, dysbiosis is ... Full text Link to item Cite

Decreased Microbiota-Driven Tyrosine Metabolism Is Associated With Symptomatic COVID-19 in Children.

Journal article J Infect Dis · October 15, 2025 BACKGROUND: The gut microbiota has been implicated in driving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease severity, but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. We investigated the relationship between the gut microbiota and development of symptomatic COV ... Full text Link to item Cite

Dietary plant diversity predicts early life microbiome maturation.

Journal article medRxiv · May 14, 2025 Despite established links between the infant gut microbiome and health, how complementary feeding shapes colonization remains unclear. Using FoodSeq, a DNA-based dietary assessment technique, we surveyed food intake across 729 children (0-3 y) from North a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Commensal bacteria inhibit viral infections via a tryptophan metabolite.

Journal article bioRxiv · May 12, 2025 Clinical outcomes following viral exposures exhibit substantial interindividual variability. Although developing evidence suggests commensal bacteria modulate viral infections, the specific bacteria and mechanisms remain underexplored. Here we define a pat ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Call to Action: Urgently Strengthening the Future Physician-Scientist Workforce in Infectious Diseases.

Journal article J Infect Dis · March 14, 2024 Infectious diseases (ID) research is vital for global public health, typically led by physician-scientists. This Perspective addresses challenges in the ID workforce and suggests solutions. Physician-scientists have made key discoveries that have significa ... Full text Link to item Cite

Interplay between particle size and microbial ecology in the gut microbiome.

Journal article ISME J · January 8, 2024 Physical particles can serve as critical abiotic factors that structure the ecology of microbial communities. For non-human vertebrate gut microbiomes, fecal particle size (FPS) has been known to be shaped by chewing efficiency and diet. However, little is ... Full text Link to item Cite

Efficacy of probiotic treatment as post-exposure prophylaxis for COVID-19: A double-blind, Placebo-Controlled Randomized trial.

Journal article Clin Nutr · January 2024 BACKGROUND & AIMS: The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose unprecedented challenges to worldwide health. While vaccines are effective, additional strategies to mitigate the spread/severity of COVID-19 continue to be needed. Emerging evidence suggests susce ... Full text Link to item Cite

A binary module for microbiota-mediated regulation of γδ17 cells, hallmarked by microbiota-driven expression of programmed cell death protein 1.

Journal article Cell Rep · August 29, 2023 Little is known about how microbiota regulate innate-like γδ T cells or how these restrict their effector functions within mucosal barriers, where microbiota provide chronic stimulation. Here, we show that microbiota-mediated regulation of γδ17 cells is bi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Ruminococcus gnavus and Limosilactobacillus reuteri Regulate Reg3γ Expression through Multiple Pathways.

Journal article Immunohorizons · March 1, 2023 Epithelium-derived antimicrobial peptides represent an evolutionarily ancient defense mechanism against pathogens. Regenerating islet-derived protein 3 γ (Reg3γ), the archetypal intestinal antimicrobial peptide, is critical for maintaining host-microbe int ... Full text Link to item Cite

Low Cost Gastroschisis Silo for Sub-Saharan Africa: Testing in a Porcine Model.

Journal article World J Surg · February 2023 BACKGROUND: Gastroschisis mortality in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains high at 59-100%. Silo inaccessibility contributes to this disparity. Standard of care (SOC) silos cost $240, while median monthly incomes in SSA are < $200. Our multidisciplinary Ameri ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sutterella and its metabolic pathways positively correlate with vaccine-elicited antibody responses in infant rhesus macaques.

Journal article Front Immunol · 2023 INTRODUCTION: It is becoming clearer that the microbiota helps drive responses to vaccines; however, little is known about the underlying mechanism. In this study, we aimed to identify microbial features that are associated with vaccine immunogenicity in i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Enterococcus Intestinal Domination is Associated with Increased Mortality in the Acute Leukemia Chemotherapy Population.

Journal article Clin Infect Dis · December 20, 2021 Featured Publication BACKGROUND: Enterococcus intestinal domination (EID), a state of dysbiosis wherein enterococci comprise ≥30% abundance within the microbiota, has been associated with Enterococcus bacteremia, graft-versus-host disease, and mortality in the allogeneic hemat ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Modern-World View of Host-Microbiota-Pathogen Interactions.

Journal article J Immunol · October 1, 2021 Featured Publication The microbiota-the diverse set of commensal microbes that normally colonize humans-represents the first line of defense against infectious diseases. In this review, we summarize the direct and indirect mechanisms by which the microbiota modulates susceptib ... Full text Link to item Cite

Transcriptional and proteomic insights into the host response in fatal COVID-19 cases.

Journal article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · November 10, 2020 Featured Publication Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, has resulted thus far in greater than 933,000 deaths worldwide; yet disease pathogenesis remains unclear. Clinical and immunological features of patients with COVID-19 have high ... Full text Link to item Cite

Gut-Innervating Nociceptor Neurons Regulate Peyer's Patch Microfold Cells and SFB Levels to Mediate Salmonella Host Defense.

Journal article Cell · January 9, 2020 Gut-innervating nociceptor sensory neurons respond to noxious stimuli by initiating protective responses including pain and inflammation; however, their role in enteric infections is unclear. Here, we find that nociceptor neurons critically mediate host de ... Full text Link to item Cite

Moving Microbiome Science from the Bench to the Bedside: a Physician-Scientist Perspective.

Journal article mSystems · May 28, 2019 The recognition over the past decade that nearly all diseases are associated with changes in the microbiome has raised hope that microbiome-based therapeutics may cure many human ailments. Billions of dollars are being poured into microbiome-oriented biote ... Full text Link to item Cite

A single institutional review of pediatric Bacillus spp. bloodstream infections demonstrates increased incidence among children with cancer.

Journal article Pediatr Blood Cancer · April 2019 BACKGROUND: Bacillus species are known to cause severe infection in immunocompromised hosts. The incidence of Bacillus bloodstream infections and characteristics of infection among children with cancer or indication for hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) ... Full text Link to item Cite

Harnessing the microbiota to treat neurological diseases
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Journal article Dialogues Clin Neurosci · 2019 Studies over the last decade have transformed our previously simplistic view of microbes, having only a pathogenic role in disease to a more robust understanding that they are critical for maintaining human health. Indeed, our microbiota-the collection of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Moving beyond microbiome-wide associations to causal microbe identification.

Journal article Nature · December 14, 2017 Featured Publication Microbiome-wide association studies have established that numerous diseases are associated with changes in the microbiota. These studies typically generate a long list of commensals implicated as biomarkers of disease, with no clear relevance to disease pa ... Full text Link to item Cite

Type I interferon signaling restrains IL-10R+ colonic macrophages and dendritic cells and leads to more severe Salmonella colitis.

Journal article PLoS One · 2017 Type I interferons (IFNα, IFNβ) are key regulators of innate and adaptive immunity, modulating the severity of both viral and bacterial infections. While type I IFN signaling leads to improved outcomes in viral infections, its role in bacterial infections ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of Microbiota on Resistance to Ocular Pseudomonas aeruginosa-Induced Keratitis.

Journal article PLoS Pathog · September 2016 The existence of the ocular microbiota has been reported but functional analyses to evaluate its significance in regulating ocular immunity are currently lacking. We compared the relative contribution of eye and gut commensals in regulating the ocular susc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Isolation and Flow Cytometric Characterization of Murine Small Intestinal Lymphocytes.

Journal article J Vis Exp · May 8, 2016 The intestines - which contain the largest number of immune cells of any organ in the body - are constantly exposed to foreign antigens, both microbial and dietary. Given an increasing understanding that these luminal antigens help shape the immune respons ... Full text Link to item Cite

Intestinal Microbiota of Mice Influences Resistance to Staphylococcus aureus Pneumonia.

Journal article Infect Immun · October 2015 Th17 immunity in the gastrointestinal tract is regulated by the intestinal microbiota composition, particularly the presence of segmented filamentous bacteria (sfb), but the role of the intestinal microbiota in pulmonary host defense is not well explored. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Deciphering the tête-à-tête between the microbiota and the immune system.

Journal article J Clin Invest · October 2014 The past decade has witnessed an explosion in studies--both clinical and basic science--examining the relationship between the microbiota and human health, and it is now clear that the effects of commensal organisms are much broader than previously believe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Role of murine intestinal interleukin-1 receptor 1-expressing lymphoid tissue inducer-like cells in Salmonella infection.

Journal article PLoS One · 2013 Interleukin (IL)-1 signaling plays a critical role in intestinal immunology. Here, we report that the major population of intestinal lamina propria lymphocytes expressing IL-1 receptor 1 (IL-1R1) is the lymphoid tissue inducer (LTi)-like cell, a type of in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Gut immune maturation depends on colonization with a host-specific microbiota.

Journal article Cell · June 22, 2012 Gut microbial induction of host immune maturation exemplifies host-microbe mutualism. We colonized germ-free (GF) mice with mouse microbiota (MMb) or human microbiota (HMb) to determine whether small intestinal immune maturation depends on a coevolved host ... Full text Link to item Cite

The yin yang of bacterial polysaccharides: lessons learned from B. fragilis PSA.

Journal article Immunol Rev · January 2012 Over the past several years, there have been remarkable advances in our understanding of how commensal organisms shape host immunity. Although the full cast of immunogenic bacteria and their immunomodulatory molecules remains to be elucidated, lessons lear ... Full text Link to item Cite

Trimeric autotransporters require trimerization of the passenger domain for stability and adhesive activity.

Journal article J Bacteriol · August 2006 In recent years, structural studies have identified a number of bacterial, viral, and eukaryotic adhesive proteins that have a trimeric architecture. The prototype examples in bacteria are the Haemophilus influenzae Hia adhesin and the Yersinia enterocolit ... Full text Link to item Cite

Translocator proteins in the two-partner secretion family have multiple domains.

Journal article J Biol Chem · June 30, 2006 The two-partner secretion pathway in Gram-negative bacteria consists of a TpsA exoprotein and a cognate TpsB outer membrane translocator protein. Previous work has demonstrated that the TpsB protein forms a beta-barrel structure with pore forming activity ... Full text Link to item Cite

Structure of the outer membrane translocator domain of the Haemophilus influenzae Hia trimeric autotransporter.

Journal article EMBO J · June 7, 2006 Autotransporter proteins are defined by the ability to drive their own secretion across the bacterial outer membrane. The Hia autotransporter of Haemophilus influenzae belongs to the trimeric autotransporter subfamily and mediates bacterial adhesion to the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Trimeric autotransporters: a distinct subfamily of autotransporter proteins.

Journal article Trends Microbiol · May 2005 Autotransporter proteins are a large family of gram-negative bacterial extracellular proteins. These proteins have a characteristic arrangement of functional domains, including an N-terminal signal peptide, an internal passenger domain, and a C-terminal tr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Evidence for conservation of architecture and physical properties of Omp85-like proteins throughout evolution.

Journal article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · October 5, 2004 Omp85-like proteins represent a family of proteins involved in protein translocation, and they are present in all domains of life, except archaea. In eukaryotes, Omp85-like proteins have been demonstrated to form tetrameric pore-forming complexes that inte ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Haemophilus influenzae Hia autotransporter contains an unusually short trimeric translocator domain.

Journal article J Biol Chem · April 9, 2004 Gram-negative bacterial autotransporter proteins are a growing group of virulence factors that are characterized by their ability to cross the outer membrane without the help of accessory proteins. A conserved C-terminal beta-domain is critical for targeti ... Full text Link to item Cite

Directed evolution of the surface chemistry of the reporter enzyme beta-glucuronidase.

Journal article Nat Biotechnol · July 1999 The use of the Escherichia coli enzyme beta-glucuronidase (GUS) as a reporter in gene expression studies is limited due to loss of activity during tissue fixation by glutaraldehyde or formaldehyde. We have directed the evolution of a GUS variant that is si ... Full text Link to item Cite