Intestinal microbial metabolites are conjectured to affect mucosal integrity through an incompletely characterized mechanism. Here we showed that microbial-specific indoles regulated intestinal ...barrier function through the xenobiotic sensor, pregnane X receptor (PXR). Indole 3-propionic acid (IPA), in the context of indole, is a ligand for PXR in vivo, and IPA downregulated enterocyte TNF-α while it upregulated junctional protein-coding mRNAs. PXR-deficient (Nr1i2−/−) mice showed a distinctly “leaky” gut physiology coupled with upregulation of the Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling pathway. These defects in the epithelial barrier were corrected in Nr1i2−/−Tlr4−/− mice. Our results demonstrate that a direct chemical communication between the intestinal symbionts and PXR regulates mucosal integrity through a pathway that involves luminal sensing and signaling by TLR4.
•Pregnane X receptor (PXR) is a physiologic regulator of intestinal permeability•Microbial-derived indoles can regulate intestinal barrier function through PXR•PXR regulates intestinal barrier function through TLR4•Specific indole-producing bacteria can reduce intestinal inflammation
How commensal microbial metabolites affect mucosal integrity and barrier function is unclear. Mani and colleagues show that indole 3 propionic acid regulates intestinal barrier permeability through the PXR-TLR4 pathway.
The symbiotic gut microbiota modulate health and disease of the host through a series of transgenomic metabolic and immune regulatory axes. We explore connections between microbiome composition and ...function related to individual metabolic phenotypes and consider these interactions as possible targets for developing new personalized therapies and clinical management strategies.
Evidence is growing that the gut microbiota modulates the host response to chemotherapeutic drugs, with three main clinical outcomes: facilitation of drug efficacy; abrogation and compromise of ...anticancer effects; and mediation of toxicity. The implication is that gut microbiota are critical to the development of personalized cancer treatment strategies and, therefore, a greater insight into prokaryotic co-metabolism of chemotherapeutic drugs is now required. This thinking is based on evidence from human, animal and in vitro studies that gut bacteria are intimately linked to the pharmacological effects of chemotherapies (5-fluorouracil, cyclophosphamide, irinotecan, oxaliplatin, gemcitabine, methotrexate) and novel targeted immunotherapies such as anti-PD-L1 and anti-CLTA-4 therapies. The gut microbiota modulate these agents through key mechanisms, structured as the 'TIMER' mechanistic framework: Translocation, Immunomodulation, Metabolism, Enzymatic degradation, and Reduced diversity and ecological variation. The gut microbiota can now, therefore, be targeted to improve efficacy and reduce the toxicity of current chemotherapy agents. In this Review, we outline the implications of pharmacomicrobiomics in cancer therapeutics and define how the microbiota might be modified in clinical practice to improve efficacy and reduce the toxic burden of these compounds.
The composition and activity of the gut microbiota codevelop with the host from birth and is subject to a complex interplay that depends on the host genome, nutrition, and life-style. The gut ...microbiota is involved in the regulation of multiple host metabolic pathways, giving rise to interactive host-microbiota metabolic, signaling, and immune-inflammatory axes that physiologically connect the gut, liver, muscle, and brain. A deeper understanding of these axes is a prerequisite for optimizing therapeutic strategies to manipulate the gut microbiota to combat disease and improve health.
The human gut microbiome is known to be associated with various human disorders, but a major challenge is to go beyond association studies and elucidate causalities. Mathematical modeling of the ...human gut microbiome at a genome scale is a useful tool to decipher microbe-microbe, diet-microbe and microbe-host interactions. Here, we describe the CASINO (Community And Systems-level INteractive Optimization) toolbox, a comprehensive computational platform for analysis of microbial communities through metabolic modeling. We first validated the toolbox by simulating and testing the performance of single bacteria and whole communities in vitro. Focusing on metabolic interactions between the diet, gut microbiota, and host metabolism, we demonstrated the predictive power of the toolbox in a diet-intervention study of 45 obese and overweight individuals and validated our predictions by fecal and blood metabolomics data. Thus, modeling could quantitatively describe altered fecal and serum amino acid levels in response to diet intervention.
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•Community And Systems-level INteractive Optimization toolbox•Modeling the effect of diet and gene richness on the gut microbiota•Revealing altered amino acid and SCFA levels after diet interventions
Shoaie et al. describe a computational platform designed to elucidate the complex metabolic interactions between gut microbes, host, and diet. The model predictions are validated in humans and reveal how microbial gene richness and diet affect gut microbiota composition, as well as amino acid and SCFA levels.
The human gut harbors more than 100 trillion microbial cells, which have an essential role in human metabolic regulation via their symbiotic interactions with the host. Altered gut microbial ...ecosystems have been associated with increased metabolic and immune disorders in animals and humans. Molecular interactions linking the gut microbiota with host energy metabolism, lipid accumulation, and immunity have also been identified. However, the exact mechanisms that link specific variations in the composition of the gut microbiota with the development of obesity and metabolic diseases in humans remain obscure owing to the complex etiology of these pathologies. In this review, we discuss current knowledge about the mechanistic interactions between the gut microbiota, host energy metabolism, and the host immune system in the context of obesity and metabolic disease, with a focus on the importance of the axis that links gut microbes and host metabolic inflammation. Finally, we discuss therapeutic approaches aimed at reshaping the gut microbial ecosystem to regulate obesity and related pathologies, as well as the challenges that remain in this area.
Analyzing metabolites (small molecules <1 kDa) in body fluids such as urine and plasma using various spectroscopic methods provides information on the metabotype (metabolic phenotype) of individuals ...or populations, information that can be applied to personalized medicine or public healthcare.
Obtaining comprehensive, untargeted metabolic profiles for complex solid samples, e.g., animal tissues, requires sample preparation and access to information-rich analytical methodologies such as ...mass spectrometry (MS). Here we describe a practical two-step process for tissue samples that is based on extraction into 'aqueous' and 'organic' phases for polar and nonpolar metabolites. Separation methods such as ultraperformance liquid chromatography (UPLC) in combination with MS are needed to obtain sufficient resolution to create diagnostic metabolic profiles and identify candidate biomarkers. We provide detailed protocols for sample preparation, chromatographic procedures, multivariate analysis and metabolite identification via tandem MS (MS/MS) techniques and high-resolution MS. By using these optimized approaches, analysis of a set of samples using a 96-well plate format would take ~48 h: 1 h for system setup, 8-10 h for sample preparation, 34 h for UPLC-MS analysis and 2-3 h for preliminary/exploratory data processing, representing a robust method for untargeted metabolic screening of tissue samples.
Gut microbiota composition and function are symbiotically linked with host health and altered in metabolic, inflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders. Three recognised mechanisms exist by which ...the microbiome influences the gut-brain axis: modification of autonomic/sensorimotor connections, immune activation, and neuroendocrine pathway regulation. We hypothesised interactions between circulating gut-derived microbial metabolites, and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) also contribute to the gut-brain axis. Propionate, produced from dietary substrates by colonic bacteria, stimulates intestinal gluconeogenesis and is associated with reduced stress behaviours, but its potential endocrine role has not been addressed.
After demonstrating expression of the propionate receptor FFAR3 on human brain endothelium, we examined the impact of a physiologically relevant propionate concentration (1 μM) on BBB properties in vitro. Propionate inhibited pathways associated with non-specific microbial infections via a CD14-dependent mechanism, suppressed expression of LRP-1 and protected the BBB from oxidative stress via NRF2 (NFE2L2) signalling.
Together, these results suggest gut-derived microbial metabolites interact with the BBB, representing a fourth facet of the gut-brain axis that warrants further attention.
The role of urinary metabolic profiling in systems biology research is expanding. This is because of the use of this technology for clinical diagnostic and mechanistic studies and for the development ...of new personalized health care and molecular epidemiology (population) studies. The methodologies commonly used for metabolic profiling are NMR spectroscopy, liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). In this protocol, we describe urine collection and storage, GC/MS and data preprocessing methods, chemometric data analysis and urinary marker metabolite identification. Results obtained using GC/MS are complementary to NMR and LC/MS. Sample preparation for GC/MS analysis involves the depletion of urea via treatment with urease, protein precipitation with methanol, and trimethylsilyl derivatization. The protocol described here facilitates the metabolic profiling of ∼400-600 metabolites in 120 urine samples per week.
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