Project description:Mealworms and crickets are edible protein-dense insects that can be produced more sustainably than animal proteins from livestock, and are therefore promising alternative protein sources for human consumption. The protein amount provided by a food source is, however, dependent on the protein digestibility. To evaluate hydrolysis of insect proteins compared to the highly digestible chicken breast, mealworms and crickets that underwent different food preparation and processing steps (blanching, oven-drying, freeze-drying and dechitinization) were subjected to the static INFOGEST in vitro digestion protocol. Peptide patterns were created by sampling in vitro digesta multiple times throughout the in vitro digestion protocol (one sample in the oral phase, and ten in the gastric as well as the intestinal phase). Peptides in digesta were isolated, and samples from the different time points were measured by LC-MS analysis.
Project description:Host-microbiome-dietary interactions play crucial roles in regulating human health, yet direct functional assessment of their interplays, cross-regulations and downstream disease impacts remains challenging. We adopted metagenome-informed metaproteomics (MIM), in both mice and humans, to simultaneously explore host, dietary, and species-level microbiome interactions across diverse scenarios, including commensal and pathogen colonization, nutritional modifications, and antibiotic-induced perturbations. Implementation of MIM in murine auto-inflammation and in human IBD characterized a ‘compositional dysbiosis’ and a concomitant, species-specific ‘functional dysbiosis’ driven by suppressed commensal responses to inflammatory host signals. Microbiome transfers unraveled early-onset kinetics of these host-commensal cross-responsive patterns, while predictive analyses identified candidate fecal host-microbiome IBD biomarker protein pairs outperforming S100A8/S100A9 (calprotectin). Importantly, a simultaneous fecal nutrient assessment enabled determination of IBD-related consumption patterns, dietary treatment compliance and small-intestinal digestive aberrations. Collectively, a parallelized dietary-bacterial-host MIM assessment functionally uncovers trans-kingdom interactomes shaping gastrointestinal ecology, while offering personalized diagnostic and therapeutic insights into microbiome-associated disease.