Project description:Kombucha Tea (KT), a fermented tea with roots in traditional Chinese medicine, has surged in worldwide popularity due to its purported health benefits. KT contains a symbiotic culture of yeast and bacterial species, many of which are considered human probiotics. The molecular basis of the health benefits of KT has yet to be thoroughly explored in any animal model. We establishC. elegansas a model to query the molecular interactions between Kombucha-associated microbes (KTM) and the host. We find that worms have an established gut microbiome after consuming a KTM-exclusive diet that mirrors the microbial community found in the fermenting culture. Remarkably, animals consuming KTMs display strikingly reduced lipid levels, yet develop and reproduce similarly toE. coli-fed animals. Critically, consumption of a non-fermenting mix of KT microbial isolates (Kombucha microbe mix) resulted in elevated fat accumulation, suggesting that KTMs do not impair nutrient absorption. To identify the host metabolic pathways altered by KTMs, we performed mRNA-seq on KTM-fed animals, finding widespread changes in lipid metabolism genes. Specifically, we found that three lysosomal lipase genes are significantly upregulated in these animals. These lipases, LIPL-1-3, have been previously shown to promote lipophagy via catabolism of lipid droplets. Consistently, KTM-fed animals display reduced levels of triglycerides and smaller lipid droplet sizes. We propose that KTM-fed animals exhibit a fasting-like metabolic state, even in the presence of sufficient nutrient availability, possibly through induction of lipophagy. Elucidating the host metabolic response to KT consumption will provide unprecedented insight into how this popular fermented beverage may impact human health and inform its use in complementary healthcare plans.
2024-01-17 | GSE236037 | GEO
Project description:16S bacterial community profile of fermented millet-based drink
Project description:In the last decade, the interest in extracellular vesicles (EVs) as safe and biocompatible nano-transporters has risen dramatically, as these nanoparticles can be used to increase the delivery efficiency rate and reduce secondary effects. However, the difficulty for its obtention in large quantities represents a major drawback for its utilization. Also, EVs are currently mainly derived from immortalized cell lines, which may arise safety problems when administered to humans. Hence, the shift from cell lines to safer EVs sources would suppose a step ahead for its use as delivery vectors in the biotechnology and biomedical research fields. Here, we provide proteomics characterization of EVs isolated by molecular weight cut-off filtration (MWCO) from four different fermented food industry by-products (FFIBPs), including: i) yogurt whey (named as milk in the raw data files), symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) from kombucha fermented tea (named as Com in the raw data files), wine pomace (named as Wine in the raw data files) and brewer spend yeast (named as beer in the raw data files).This proteomics characterization will provide key information about composition of by-product derived EVs (BP-EV) uncovering a safe and sustainable EVs source with potential as functional EVs delivery vectors.
Project description:Aging is associated with declining immunity and inflammation as well as alterations in the gut microbiome with a decrease of beneficial microbes and increase in pathogenic ones. The aim of this study was to investigate aging associated gut microbiome in relation to immunologic and metabolic profile in a non-human primate (NHP) model. 12 old (age>18 years) and 4 young (age 3-6 years) Rhesus macaques were included in this study. Immune cell subsets were characterized in PBMC by flow cytometry and plasma cytokines levels were determined by bead based multiplex cytokine analysis. Stool samples were collected by ileal loop and investigated for microbiome analysis by shotgun metagenomics. Serum, gut microbial lysate and microbe-free fecal extract were subjected to metabolomic analysis by mass-spectrometry. Our results showed that the old animals exhibited higher inflammatory biomarkers in plasma and lower CD4 T cells with altered distribution of naïve and memory T cell maturation subsets. The gut microbiome in old animals had higher abundance of Archaeal and Proteobacterial species and lower Firmicutes than the young. Significant enrichment of metabolites that contribute to inflammatory and cytotoxic pathways was observed in serum and feces of old animals compared to the young. We conclude that aging NHP undergo immunosenescence and age associated alterations in the gut microbiome that has a distinct metabolic profile.
Project description:Opioids such as morphine have many beneficial properties as analgesics, however, opioids may induce multiple adverse gastrointestinal symptoms. We have recently demonstrated that morphine treatment results in significant disruption in gut barrier function leading to increased translocation of gut commensal bacteria. However, it is unclear how opioids modulate the gut homeostasis. By using a mouse model of morphine treatment, we studied effects of morphine treatment on gut microbiome. We characterized phylogenetic profiles of gut microbes, and found a significant shift in the gut microbiome and increase of pathogenic bacteria following morphine treatment when compared to placebo. In the present study, wild type mice (C57BL/6J) were implanted with placebo, morphine pellets subcutaneously. Fecal matter were taken for bacterial 16s rDNA sequencing analysis at day 3 post treatment. A scatter plot based on an unweighted UniFrac distance matrics obtained from the sequences at OTU level with 97% similarity showed a distinct clustering of the community composition between the morphine and placebo treated groups. By using the chao1 index to evaluate alpha diversity (that is diversity within a group) and using unweighted UniFrac distance to evaluate beta diversity (that is diversity between groups, comparing microbial community based on compositional structures), we found that morphine treatment results in a significant decrease in alpha diversity and shift in fecal microbiome at day 3 post treatment compared to placebo treatment. Taxonomical analysis showed that morphine treatment results in a significant increase of potential pathogenic bacteria. Our study shed light on effects of morphine on the gut microbiome, and its role in the gut homeostasis.