1.
Metabolic interactions in asthma.
Farraia, M, Cavaleiro Rufo, J, Paciência, I, Castro Mendes, F, Delgado, L, Laerte Boechat, J, Moreira, A
European annals of allergy and clinical immunology. 2019;(5):196-205
Abstract
Metabolomics can be used to explore altered metabolic pathways in asthma, giving insights into its pathophysiology. We aimed to review how metabolomics has been used to understand asthma by describing metabolic pathways under research and discussing clinical implications. The search was performed in PubMed, and studies published since 2000 using a metabolomics approach, were included. A total of 32 studies were analysed. Pathways related with cellular energy homeostasis, lipid metabolism and oxidative stress, immune and inflammatory processes and others were altered. Initial studies focused on biomarker discovery. But, metabolomics can be used to evaluate drug effects on specific pathways, to highlight pathways that can further develop in new targeted treatments and to identify differences according to asthma severity and phenotypes.
2.
A reverse metabolic approach to weaning: in silico identification of immune-beneficial infant gut bacteria, mining their metabolism for prebiotic feeds and sourcing these feeds in the natural product space.
Michelini, S, Balakrishnan, B, Parolo, S, Matone, A, Mullaney, JA, Young, W, Gasser, O, Wall, C, Priami, C, Lombardo, R, et al
Microbiome. 2018;(1):171
Abstract
BACKGROUND Weaning is a period of marked physiological change. The introduction of solid foods and the changes in milk consumption are accompanied by significant gastrointestinal, immune, developmental, and microbial adaptations. Defining a reduced number of infections as the desired health benefit for infants around weaning, we identified in silico (i.e., by advanced public domain mining) infant gut microbes as potential deliverers of this benefit. We then investigated the requirements of these bacteria for exogenous metabolites as potential prebiotic feeds that were subsequently searched for in the natural product space. RESULTS Using public domain literature mining and an in silico reverse metabolic approach, we constructed probiotic-prebiotic-food associations, which can guide targeted feeding of immune health-beneficial microbes by weaning food; analyzed competition and synergy for (prebiotic) nutrients between selected microbes; and translated this information into designing an experimental complementary feed for infants enrolled in a pilot clinical trial ( http://www.nourishtoflourish.auckland.ac.nz/ ). CONCLUSIONS In this study, we applied a benefit-oriented microbiome research strategy for enhanced early-life immune health. We extended from "classical" to molecular nutrition aiming to identify nutrients, bacteria, and mechanisms that point towards targeted feeding to improve immune health in infants around weaning. Here, we present the systems biology-based approach we used to inform us on the most promising prebiotic combinations known to support growth of beneficial gut bacteria ("probiotics") in the infant gut, thereby favorably promoting development of the immune system.