Abstract
Alteration in airway microbiota composition and perturbations in microbe-metabolites interactions have been proposed as markers of many diseases. Liu Shen (LS) capsule, a traditional Chinese medicine, was proved as favorable in treating respiratory diseases. However, the effects of the LS capsule in terms of regulating human microorganisms and metabolite profiles are not well known. This study aimed to define and compare the respiratory microbiota composition and circulating and fecal metabolite profiles before and after LS capsule administration. A total of 30 healthy volunteers were recruited. The pharyngeal swab samples were collected for 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The serum and fecal samples were collected to analyze the non-targeted ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry metabolomics. The airway microbial compositions were profoundly altered after LS capsule administration, as evidenced by increased microbial diversity and altered microbial taxa distribution. The increasing abundance of bacterial Bifidobacteria, and Lactobacillus characterized the after-administration groups, and the increasing of abundance bacterial Proteobacteria, Veillonella, Prevotella, Neisseria, and Actinomyces characterized the before-administration groups. Significant discriminations were observed in both serum and fecal metabolic profiles between the before- and after-administration groups. A total number of 134 and 71 significant HMDB taxonomic metabolites including glycerophospholipids, fatty acyls, and prenol lipids in the serum and fecal samples were identified respectively between the before- and after-administration groups. The integrated analysis showed that some altered airway microbiota phylum, such as Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria, significantly correlated with metabolites in serum and fecal. Hence, our study reported the alternations in the composition and functions of the airway microbial community and the changes in circulating and fecal metabolite profiles after LS capsule administration in healthy humans, thus providing a novel insight into the mechanisms underlying the role of LS capsule treating and preventing related diseases.
Highlights
The respiratory microbiota plays an essential role in the development, education of the immune system, and maintenance of the homeostasis
16S rRNA sequencing was performed in pharyngeal swab samples, and UPLC-MS/MS-based metabolomics was performed in serum and fecal samples collected from 30 healthy participants before and after Liu Shen (LS) capsule administration
Our results showed that the respiratory microbiota composition and function and serum/fecal metabolic phenotype were significantly different after LS capsule administration
Summary
The respiratory microbiota plays an essential role in the development, education of the immune system, and maintenance of the homeostasis. Previous studies found shrunk lungs and less mature alveoli development in germ-free rodents (Yun et al, 2014). Microbes and their products tune the immune system toward healthy homeostasis and provide local and systemic signals to the immune system to support the protective responses against diverse pathogens. The respiratory tract microbiome in asthma patients is associated with T-helper-17 (Th17) cell regulated inflammatory responses and disease severity (Huang et al, 2015). In sepsis and the acute respiratory distress syndrome patients, ltered lung microbiota was significantly correlated with alveolar TNF-α amd systemic inflammatory response (Dickson et al, 2016). Lung bacterial composition are correlated with lung concentrations of interleukin (IL)-1α and IL-4, which does not alter after the usage of IL-1 receptor blockade; supporting the concept that microbiota drives the immune phenotype (Dickson et al, 2018)
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