2008年3月5日，NATURE CHINA网站对上海交通大学系统生物医学研究院与兄弟单位合作完成的肠道菌群影响人体代谢的工作做了点评。

 

全文如下：

Gut microbiota: Scanning the belly

肠道菌群：扫描肚子

Humans have intimate symbiotic relationships with a diverse range of gut microbes (a microbiome) residing in their intestines. Variations in the microbiome composition can influence an individual's health and metabolism. There are many factors that shape the microbiome, such as genetics, drugs and the environment. The microbiome then influences the metabolism through interactive pathways — 'metabolic connectivities'. An international research team1 covering several disciplines has taken a 'transgenomic' approach to map the gut microbiome.

人体肠道内定植的大量的微生物（即微生物组），与人体有着密不可分的互利共生关系。肠道菌群结构的变化能够影响个体的健康及代谢。遗传背景、药物、环境等诸多因素都会影响肠道菌群的形成。而同样，肠道菌群也通过互作途径影响着宿主的代谢－即菌群与宿主存在代谢关联。一个多学科的国际合作团队近日建立了一个“跨基因组方法”，对肠道菌群进行了深入的刻画。

The researchers collected faecal and urinary samples from seven Chinese individuals from the same family and applied statistical tools to analyse and model their microbial–host metabolic connectivities. Although these individuals were genetically related, and had been raised in the same environment, the microbiome of each individual was unique. At the species level, the Chinese family gut microbiomes were found to be structurally different from those of Americans, as reported previously. The finding shows that microbiome variation is an important factor that should be taken into account in drug design.

研究者们采集一个中国家庭7位成员的粪便和尿液样品，通过统计学方法分析并对肠道菌群与宿主的代谢相关性进行建模。尽管这些个体遗传背景彼此相关，在相同的生活环境成长，但是他们的肠道菌群却具有独特的个体专一性。而且在种的水平上，中国人的肠道菌群结构与已报道的美国人的肠道菌群数据有着显著的差异。这一发现也提示了在今后的药物设计中需要考虑肠道菌群差异这一重要的影响因素。

By using functional metagenomics — the characterization of key functional members of the microbiome that have the most influence on an individual's metabolism, and hence health — the researchers have identified several key microbes and their interactive pathways. For example, the microbe Faecalibacterium prausnitzii was associated with the modulation of eight urinary metabolites. It was found to be highly active and has an influence on numerous pathways.

The approach can be used to examine systemic effects of different drugs and diets.

通过鉴定肠道菌群中影响宿主代谢的重要功能成员的“功能元基因组学”方法，研究者们发现了一些重要的微生物以及与它们相关的代谢途径。例如，Faecalibacterium prausnitzii与8种尿液中的代谢物有统计相关性，提示它的高度活力以及对多种代谢途径的影响。

这个方法可以用于系统地检测不同药物和饮食的作用。

该论文的作者分别来自The authors of this work are from:
Key Laboratory of Systems Biomedicine, Ministry of Education, Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China; State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China; Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Shanghai-MOST Key Laboratory for Disease and Health Genomics, Chinese National Human Genome Center, Shanghai, China; Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, South Kensington, UK.

 

点评者：Wei Zeng

被点评的论文是Li, M. et al. Symbiotic gut microbes modulate human metabolic phenotypes. PNAS 105, 2117–2122 (2008).

这是该网站第二次点评赵立平实验室的研究工作。上一次是点评该实验室建立人源菌群仔猪模型的工作，题目是“肠道菌群：拷贝肚子” http://www.naturechina.com.cn/nchina/2007/070606/full/nchina.2007.100.html，点评者Wei Zeng。

被点评的论文是 Pang, X. Y. et al. Inter-species transplantation of gut microbiota from human to pigs. ISME J. doi: 10.1038/ismej.2007.23 (2007).