scholarly journals Identification of a Shared Microbiomic and Metabolomic Profile in Systemic Autoimmune Diseases

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bellocchi ◽  
Fernández-Ochoa ◽  
Montanelli ◽  
Vigone ◽  
Santaniello ◽  
...  

Dysbiosis has been described in systemic autoimmune diseases (SADs), including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sjögren’s syndrome (SjS), and primary anti-phosholipid syndrome (PAPS), however the biological implications of these associations are often elusive. Stool and plasma samples from 114 subjects, including in SLE (n = 27), SjS (n = 23), PAPs (n = 11) and undifferentiated connective tissue (UCTD, n = 26) patients, and geographically-matched healthy controls (HCs, n = 27), were collected for microbiome (16s rRNA gene sequencing) and metabolome (high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry) analysis to identify shared characteristics across diseases. Out of 130 identified microbial genera, a subset of 29 bacteria was able to differentiate study groups (area under receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) = 0.730 ± 0.025). A fair classification was obtained with a subset of 41 metabolic peaks out of 254 (AUROC = 0.748 ± 0.021). In both models, HCs were well separated from SADs, while UCTD largely overlapped with the other diseases. In all of the SADs pro-tolerogenic bacteria were reduced, while pathobiont genera were increased. Metabolic alterations included two clusters comprised of: (a) members of the acylcarnitine family, positively correlating with a Prevotella-enriched cluster and negatively correlating with a butyrate-producing bacteria-enriched cluster; and (b) phospholipids, negatively correlating with butyrate-producing bacteria. These findings demonstrate a strong interaction between intestinal microbiota and metabolic function in patients with SADs.

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 2079-2085
Author(s):  
LIN-HU NAN ◽  
◽  
YI-SHENG CHEN ◽  
HUI-CHUNG WU ◽  
YU-CHING SU ◽  
...  

Lychee is a popular fruit in China and southeastern Asia. Although it is very popular, the microbiota of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) associated with lychee remains poorly described. Lychee samples from seven different markets located in three cities in Taiwan were collected and a total of 104 LAB were isolated. Through RFLP analyses of 16S rDNA and rpoA genes for grouping and 16S rRNA gene sequencing, these isolates were finally divided into 6 groups (A to F). The most common genera of LAB in lychee samples were Weissella and Leuconostoc. Weissella confusa strain E was found to produce a bacteriocin active against Listeria monocytogenes and some other Gram-positive bacteria. Mass spectrometry analysis revealed the bacteriocin mass to be approximately 3426.77 Da, which is different to other known Weissella bacteriocins. In addition, strain MB7 included in the genus Leuconostoc was identified as potential novel species or subspecies on the basis of phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA, rpoA and pheS gene sequences. Thus, this is the first report describing the distribution and varieties of LAB associated with lychee fruits. In addition, one potential novel LAB species or subspecies and one potential novel bacteriocin were also reported in this study.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1804
Author(s):  
Izabela Perkowska ◽  
Joanna Siwinska ◽  
Alexandre Olry ◽  
Jérémy Grosjean ◽  
Alain Hehn ◽  
...  

Coumarins are phytochemicals occurring in the plant kingdom, which biosynthesis is induced under various stress factors. They belong to the wide class of specialized metabolites well known for their beneficial properties. Due to their high and wide biological activities, coumarins are important not only for the survival of plants in changing environmental conditions, but are of great importance in the pharmaceutical industry and are an active source for drug development. The identification of coumarins from natural sources has been reported for different plant species including a model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. In our previous work, we demonstrated a presence of naturally occurring intraspecies variation in the concentrations of scopoletin and its glycoside, scopolin, the major coumarins accumulating in Arabidopsis roots. Here, we expanded this work by examining a larger group of 28 Arabidopsis natural populations (called accessions) and by extracting and analysing coumarins from two different types of tissues–roots and leaves. In the current work, by quantifying the coumarin content in plant extracts with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a mass spectrometry analysis (UHPLC-MS), we detected a significant natural variation in the content of simple coumarins like scopoletin, umbelliferone and esculetin together with their glycosides: scopolin, skimmin and esculin, respectively. Increasing our knowledge of coumarin accumulation in Arabidopsis natural populations, might be beneficial for the future discovery of physiological mechanisms of action of various alleles involved in their biosynthesis. A better understanding of biosynthetic pathways of biologically active compounds is the prerequisite step in undertaking a metabolic engineering research.


Antioxidants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 380
Author(s):  
Katja Kramberger ◽  
Zala Jenko Pražnikar ◽  
Alenka Baruca Arbeiter ◽  
Ana Petelin ◽  
Dunja Bandelj ◽  
...  

Helichrysum arenarium (L.) Moench (abbrev. as HA) has a long tradition in European ethnomedicine and its inflorescences are approved as a herbal medicinal product. In the Mediterranean part of Europe, Helichrysum italicum (Roth) G. Don (abbrev. as HI) is more common. Since infusions from both plants are traditionally used, we aimed to compare their antioxidative potential using in vitro assays. Two morphologically distinct HI plants, HIa and HIb, were compared to a commercially available HA product. Genetic analysis using microsatellites confirmed a clear differentiation between HI and HA and suggested that HIb was a hybrid resulting from spontaneous hybridization from unknown HI subspecies. High-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis showed the highest amounts of hydroxycinnamic acids and total arzanol derivatives in HIa, whereas HIb was richest in monohydroxybenzoic acids, caffeic acids, and coumarins, and HA contained the highest amounts of flavonoids, especially flavanones. HIa exhibited the highest radical scavenging activity; it was more efficient in protecting different cell lines from induced oxidative stress and in inducing oxidative stress-related genes superoxide dismutase 1, catalase, and glutathione reductase 1. The antioxidative potential of HI was not only dependent on the morphological type of the plant but also on the harvest date, revealing important information for obtaining the best possible product. Considering the superior properties of HI compared to HA, the evaluation of HI as a medicinal plant could be recommended.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vassilis L. Souliotis ◽  
Nikolaos I. Vlachogiannis ◽  
Maria Pappa ◽  
Alexandra Argyriou ◽  
Panagiotis A. Ntouros ◽  
...  

The DNA damage response and repair (DDR/R) network, a sum of hierarchically structured signaling pathways that recognize and repair DNA damage, and the immune response to endogenous and/or exogenous threats, act synergistically to enhance cellular defense. On the other hand, a deregulated interplay between these systems underlines inflammatory diseases including malignancies and chronic systemic autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Patients with these diseases are characterized by aberrant immune response to self-antigens with widespread production of autoantibodies and multiple-tissue injury, as well as by the presence of increased oxidative stress. Recent data demonstrate accumulation of endogenous DNA damage in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from these patients, which is related to (a) augmented DNA damage formation, at least partly due to the induction of oxidative stress, and (b) epigenetically regulated functional abnormalities of fundamental DNA repair mechanisms. Because endogenous DNA damage accumulation has serious consequences for cellular health, including genomic instability and enhancement of an aberrant immune response, these results can be exploited for understanding pathogenesis and progression of systemic autoimmune diseases, as well as for the development of new treatments.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel R. Glasser ◽  
Ryan C. Hunter ◽  
Theodore G. Liou ◽  
Dianne K. Newman ◽  

SummaryPseudomonas aeruginosalung infections are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients (1, 2). Our laboratory has studied a class of small molecules produced byP. aeruginosaknown as phenazines, including pyocyanin and its biogenic precursor phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA). As phenazines are known virulence factors (3), we and others have explored the possibility of using phenazine concentrations as a marker for disease progression (4–6). Previously, we reported that sputum concentrations of pyocyanin and PCA negatively correlate with lung function in cystic fibrosis patients (6). Our study used high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to quantify phenazines by UV–vis absorbance after extraction from lung sputum. Since our initial study, methods for metabolite analysis have advanced considerably, aided in large part by usage of mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Because a more recent study employing LC-MS/MS revealed a surprising decoupling ofP. aeruginosametabolites in sputum and the detection ofP. aeruginosathrough culturing or microbiome profiles (4), we decided to check whether we could reproduce our previous findings by analyzing sputum samples from a different patient cohort with a new LC-MS instrument in our laboratory. Our new samples were provided by the Mountain West CF Consortium Sputum Biomarker study (7). In the course of performing our new analyses, comparison of our old HPLC data to our new LC-MS data led us to realize that the peak previously assigned to PCA instead originates from heme, and the peak assigned to pyocyanin originates from an as-yet unknown compound. This correction only affects the measurements of phenazines in sputum, and we are confident in the phenazine measurements from isolated cultures and the 16S rRNA gene sequencing data from that study (6). Here we outline the basis for our correction and present additional data showing that heme concentration negatively correlates with lung function in cystic fibrosis patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 985-992
Author(s):  
Hymavati Muppalla ◽  
Kiranmayi Peddi

The presence of pesticide residues in primary and derived agricultural products raises serious health concerns for consumers across the globe. The aim of the present study was to assess the level of pesticide residues in Okra in India. A multi-residue method for the quantification of fifty-four pesticides in okra is described in this work. The present study employed a modified quick, easy cheap, effective rugged and safe (QuEChERS) extraction procedure followed by UHPLC-MS/MS (Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to Tandem Mass Spectrometry) analysis. Validation of the method was according to the guidelines given by European Union SANCO/12571/2013. The levels of validation were 10.0, 50.0 and 100 µg kg-1. The following parameters such as linearity, the limit of detection (LOD) (nearer to 0.005 mg kg-1) and limit of quantification (LOQ) (nearer to 0.01 mg kg-1) were set to be acceptable. The trueness of the method for 54 pesticides in all Okra commodities was between 80-110% with satisfactory repeatability and within-run reproducibility except for the pesticide residues such as Thiamethoxam and Fenamidone. The measurement of uncertainty for each of the pesticide was below 50% and was estimated to be in the range of 5.37% - 10.71%, which meets the criteria established in the SANCO/12571/2013 document (European Union, 2013). This method is concluded to be applicable for the determination of pesticide residues in Okra.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document