Project description:Improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer has revealed the long-term side effects of chemotherapeutics, particularly cardiotoxicity. Current clinical measures to track cardiotoxicity are insufficient to diagnose damage before it has been done, necessitating new, early biomarkers of cardiotoxicity. Here, we collected paired transcriptomics and metabolomics data characterizing in vitro cardiotoxicity to three compounds: 5-fluorouracil, acetaminophen, and doxorubicin. Standard gene enrichment and metabolomics approaches identify some commonly affected pathways and metabolites but are not able to readily identify mechanisms of cardiotoxicity. Here, we integrate this paired data with a genome-scale metabolic network reconstruction (GENRE) of the heart to identify shifted metabolic functions, unique metabolic reactions, and changes in flux in metabolic reactions in response to these compounds. Using this approach, we are able to confirm known mechanisms of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity and provide hypotheses for mechanisms of cardiotoxicity for 5-fluorouracil and acetaminophen.
Project description:Symbiotic bacteria inhabiting the distal human gut have evolved under intense pressure to utilize complex carbohydrates, predominantly plant cell wall glycans abundant in our diets. These substrates are recalcitrant to depolymerization by digestive enzymes encoded in the human genome, but are efficiently targeted by some of the ~103-104 bacterial species that inhabit this niche. These species augment our comparatively narrow carbohydrate digestive capacity by unlocking otherwise unusable sugars and fermenting them into host-absorbable forms, such as short-chain fatty acids. We used phenotype profiling, whole-genome transcriptional analysis and molecular genetic approaches to investigate complex glycan utilization by two fully sequenced and closely related human gut symbionts: Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and Bacteroides ovatus. Together these species target all of the common glycosidic linkages found in the plant cell wall, as well as host polysaccharides, but each species exhibits a unique ‘glycan niche’: in vitro B. thetaiotaomicron targets plant cell wall pectins in addition to linkages contained in host N- and O-glycans; B. ovatus uniquely targets hemicellulosic polysaccharides along with several pectins, but is deficient in host glycan utilization.
Project description:Symbiotic bacteria inhabiting the distal human gut have evolved under intense pressure to utilize complex carbohydrates, predominantly plant cell wall glycans abundant in our diets. These substrates are recalcitrant to depolymerization by digestive enzymes encoded in the human genome, but are efficiently targeted by some of the ~103-104 bacterial species that inhabit this niche. These species augment our comparatively narrow carbohydrate digestive capacity by unlocking otherwise unusable sugars and fermenting them into host-absorbable forms, such as short-chain fatty acids. We used phenotype profiling, whole-genome transcriptional analysis and molecular genetic approaches to investigate complex glycan utilization by two fully sequenced and closely related human gut symbionts: Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and Bacteroides ovatus. Together these species target all of the common glycosidic linkages found in the plant cell wall, as well as host polysaccharides, but each species exhibits a unique ‘glycan niche’: in vitro B. thetaiotaomicron targets plant cell wall pectins in addition to linkages contained in host N- and O-glycans; B. ovatus uniquely targets hemicellulosic polysaccharides along with several pectins, but is deficient in host glycan utilization.
Project description:Symbiotic bacteria inhabiting the distal human gut have evolved under intense pressure to utilize complex carbohydrates, predominantly plant cell wall glycans abundant in our diets. These substrates are recalcitrant to depolymerization by digestive enzymes encoded in the human genome, but are efficiently targeted by some of the ~103-104 bacterial species that inhabit this niche. These species augment our comparatively narrow carbohydrate digestive capacity by unlocking otherwise unusable sugars and fermenting them into host-absorbable forms, such as short-chain fatty acids. We used phenotype profiling, whole-genome transcriptional analysis and molecular genetic approaches to investigate complex glycan utilization by two fully sequenced and closely related human gut symbionts: Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and Bacteroides ovatus. Together these species target all of the common glycosidic linkages found in the plant cell wall, as well as host polysaccharides, but each species exhibits a unique ‘glycan niche’: in vitro B. thetaiotaomicron targets plant cell wall pectins in addition to linkages contained in host N- and O-glycans; B. ovatus uniquely targets hemicellulosic polysaccharides along with several pectins, but is deficient in host glycan utilization. Bacteroides ovatus bacteria were grown either in vitro on defined complex glycan sources, or in vivo in the intestinal tract of gnotobiotic mice fed variable diets. Increased in vitro gene expression was used to indicate the genes required for metabolism of complex glycans and compared to in vivo transcriptional activity to determine expression in the mouse gut.
Project description:Contamination with enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 (EHEC) is a worldwide problem but there is no effective therapy available for EHEC infection. Biofilm formation is closely related with EHEC infection and is one of the mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance. Antibiofilm screening of 560 plant secondary metabolites against EHEC shows that ginkgolic acids C15:1 and C17:1 at 5 μg/ml and Ginko biloba extract at 100 μg/ml significantly inhibited EHEC biofilm formation on the surface of polystyrene, nylon membrane, and glass. Importantly, the working concentration of ginkgolic acids and G. biloba extract did not affect bacterial growth and has been known to be non-toxic to human. Transcriptional analyses showed that ginkgolic acid C15:1 repressed curli genes and prophage genes in EHEC, which were corroborated by reduced fimbriae production and biofilm reduction in EHEC. Interestingly, ginkgolic acids and G. biloba extract did not inhibit the biofilm formation of commensal E. coli K-12 strain. The current study suggests that plant secondary metabolites are important resource of biofilm inhibitors, as well as other bioactive compounds.