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Microplastic (MP) and nanoplastic (NP) could cause gut microbiota alterations. Although micro/nanoplastic (MNP) degradation is attracting increasing scientific interest, the evaluation of MNP reduction in gut needs to be further investigated. This study aimed to determine whether partial reduction of polystyrene MNP in gut could affect the immunity, gut microbiota and metabolome of mice. Serum eotaxin/CCL11 was at a lower level in the mice exposed to 200 μg and 500 μg NP (i.e., 2NP and 5NP groups, respectively) compared to those exposed to 500 μg MP (i.e., 5 MP group), while serum IL-2 and IL-4 were both greater in the 5NP group compared to the 5 MP group. The gut bacterial alpha diversity, fungal diversity and evenness were all similar among the MNP and control groups. However, the gut fungal richness was greater in both the 5NP and 5 MP groups compared to the control group. The gut bacterial and fungal compositions were both different between the MNP and control groups. Multiple gut bacteria and fungi showed different levels between the 2NP and 5NP groups, as well as between the 2NP and 5 MP groups. Increased Staphylococcus and decreased Glomus were determined in the 2NP group compared to both the 5NP and 5 MP groups. A Lactobacillus phylotype was found as the sole gatekeeper in the bacterial network of the 2NP group, while a Bifidobacterium phylotype contributed most to the stability of the bacterial networks of both the 5NP and 5 MP groups. Multiple differential gut metabolic pathways were found between the 2NP and 5NP/5 MP groups, and mTOR signaling pathway was largely upregulated in the 2NP group compared to both the 5NP and 5 MP groups. The relevant results could help with the evaluation of partial reduction of MNP in gut., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper, (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Gut microbiota are closely related to lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute lung injury (ALI). Akkermansia muciniphila ( A. muciniphila ) maintains the intestinal barrier function and regulates the balance of reduced glutathione/oxidized glutathione. However, it may be useful as a treatment strategy for LPS-induced lung injury. Our study aimed to explore whether A. muciniphila could improve lung injury by affecting the gut microbiota. The administration of A. muciniphila effectively attenuated lung injury tissue damage and significantly decreased the oxidative stress and inflammatory reaction induced by LPS, with lower levels of myeloperoxidase (MDA), enhanced superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, decreased pro-inflammatory cytokine levels, and reduced macrophage and neutrophil infiltration. Moreover, A. muciniphila maintained the intestinal barrier function, reshaped the disordered microbial community, and promoted the secretion of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). A. muciniphila significantly downregulated the expression of TLR2, MyD88 and NF-kappa B ( P < 0.05). Butyrate supplementation demonstrated a significant improvement in the inflammatory response ( P < 0.05) and mitigation of histopathological damage in mice with ALI, thereby restoring the intestinal butyric acid concentration. In conclusion, our findings indicate that A. muciniphila inhibits the accumulation of inflammatory cytokines and attenuates the activation of the TLR2/Myd88/NF-κB pathway due to exerting anti-inflammatory effects through butyrate. This study provides an experimental foundation for the potential application of A. muciniphila and butyrate in the prevention and treatment of ALI.

It has been reported that Akkermansia muciniphila improves host metabolism and reduces inflammation; however, its potential effects on bile acid metabolism and metabolic patterns in metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) are unknown. In this study, we have analysed C57BL/6 mice under three feeding conditions: (i) a low-fat diet group (LP), (ii) a high-fat diet group (HP) and (iii) a high-fat diet group supplemented with A. muciniphila (HA). The results found that A. muciniphila administration relieved weight gain, hepatic steatosis and liver injury induced by the high-fat diet. A. muciniphila altered the gut microbiota with a decrease in Alistipes, Lactobacilli, Tyzzerella, Butyricimonas and Blautia, and an enrichment of Ruminiclostridium, Osclibacter, Allobaculum, Anaeroplasma and Rikenella. The gut microbiota changes correlated significantly with bile acids. Meanwhile, A. muciniphila also improved glucose tolerance, gut barriers and adipokines dysbiosis. Akkermansia muciniphila regulated the intestinal FXR-FGF15 axis and reshaped the construction of bile acids, with reduced secondary bile acids in the caecum and liver, including DCA and LCA. These findings provide new insights into the relationships between probiotics, microflora and metabolic disorders, highlighting the potential role of A. muciniphila in the management of MAFLD., (© 2023 The Authors. Microbial Biotechnology published by Applied Microbiology International and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Introduction: Test anxiety is a common issue among college students, which can affect their physical and psychological health. However, effective interventions or therapeutic strategies are still lacking. This study aims to evaluate the potential effects of Lactobacillus plantarum JYLP-326 on test anxious college students., Methods: Sixty anxious students were enrolled and randomly allocated to the placebo group and the probiotic group. Both groups were instructed to take placebo and JYLP-326 products twice per day for three weeks, respectively. Thirty unanxious students with no treatments were assigned to a regular control group. The anxiety, depression, and insomnia questionnaires were used to measure students' mental states at the baseline and the end of this study. 16S rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomics were performed to analyze the changes in the gut microbiota and fecal metabolism., Results: The questionnaire results suggested that JYLP-326 administration could relieve the symptoms of anxiety, depression, and insomnia in test anxious students. The gut microbiomes of the placebo group showed a significantly greater diversity index than the control group (p < 0.05). An increased abundance of Bacteroides and Roseburia at the genus level was observed in the placebo group, and the relative abundance of Prevotella and Bifidobacterium decreased. Whereas, JYLP-326 administration could partly restore the disturbed gut microbiota. Additionally, test anxiety was correlated with disordered fecal metabolomics such as a higher Ethyl sulfate and a lower Cyclohexylamine, which could be reversed after taking JYLP-326. Furthermore, the changed microbiota and fecal metabolites were significantly associated with anxiety-related symptoms., Conclusion: The results indicate that the intervention of L. plantarum JYLP-326 could be an effective strategy to alleviate anxiety, depression, and insomnia in test anxious college students. The potential mechanism underlying this effect could be related to the regulation of gut microbiota and fecal metabolites., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Zhu, Fang, Li, Liu, Wei, Zhang, Wang, Fan, Wang, Li and Chen.)

The current study aims to evaluate the potential roles of taking probiotics postoperatively in attenuating the gastrointestinal complications and disturbed gut microbiota in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients undergoing chemotherapy. One hundred eligible CRC patients who were treated with radical surgery and needed to receive chemotherapy were recruited. Half of them were randomly assigned to the Probio group to take a probiotic combination from post-operation to the end of the first chemotherapeutic course. The other half of patients taking placebo instead were classified as the Placebo group. Gastrointestinal complications such as nausea, acid reflux, abdominal pain, abdominal distention, constipation, and diarrhea were recorded during chemotherapy. Fecal samples were collected preoperatively and after the first cycle of postoperative chemotherapy for 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) analysis. Results showed that probiotics administration could effectively reduce chemotherapy-induced gastrointestinal complications, particularly in diarrhea (p < 0.01). Additionally, chemotherapy also reduced the bacterial diversity indexes of the gut microbiota in CRC patients, which could be significantly increased by taking probiotics. Moreover, this chemotherapy caused significant changes in the composition of the gut microbiota, as indicated by decreased phylum levels of Firmicutes and increased Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Verrucomicrobia. In particular, several bacterial genera such as Akkermansia and Clostridium were significantly increased, while Prevotella, Lactobacillus, and Roseburia were decreased (p < 0.05). However, probiotic administration could effectively restore these taxa changes both at the phylum and genus levels, and mildly increase the genus levels of Bifidobacterium, Streptococcus, and Blautia. Furthermore, probiotics could also promote the production of SCFAs, particularly increasing acetate, butyrate, and propionate (p < 0.0001). These results support the beneficial effects of the probiotic interventions as novel alternative or complementary strategies in chemoprevention.

Microplastics (MP) and nanoplastics (NP) exist in the disposable plastic take-away containers. This study aims to determine the gut and oral microbiota alterations in the individuals frequently and occasionally consuming take-away food in disposable plastic containers (TFDPC), and explore the effect of micro/nanoplastics (MNP) reduction on gut microbiota in mice. TFDPC consumption are associated with greater presences of gastrointestinal dysfunction and cough. Both occasional and frequent consumers have altered gut and oral microbiota, and their gut diversity and evenness are greater than those of non-TFDPC consuming cohort. Multiple gut and oral bacteria are associated with TFDPC consumers, among which intestinal Collinsella and oral Thiobacillus are most associated with the frequent consumers, while intestinal Faecalibacterium is most associated with the occasional consumers. Although some gut bacteria associated with the mice treated with 500 µg NP and 500 µg MP are decreased in the mice treated with 200 µg NP, the gut microbiota of the three MNP groups are all different from the control group. This study demonstrates that TFDPC induces gut and oral microbiota alterations in the consumers, and partial reduction of the size and amount of MNP cannot rectify the MNP-induced gut microbial dysbiosis., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest We declare that we have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

With the drive of the endogenous circadian clock and external cues such as feeding behavior, the microbial community generates rhythmic oscillations in composition and function. Microbial oscillations are crucial in orchestrating host metabolic homeostasis during the predictable 24-hour diurnal cycle. A time-restricted feeding (TRF) regimen is a promising dietary strategy to optimize energy utilization, alleviate metabolic syndrome and reinforce microbial cyclical fluctuations. However, the causative relationship between reinforced microbial rhythmicity and TRF-induced metabolic improvement remains elusive. In this study, we corroborated that the TRF regimen notably alleviated obesity and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with reinstated rhythmicity of genera such as Lactobacillus , Mucispirillum , Acetatifactor , and Lachnoclostridium . The reshaped microbial oscillations correlate with cyclical fluctuations in intestinal amino acids. Furthermore, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) indicated that only the TRF feeding phase-derived microbiota, but not the TRF fasting phase-derived microbiota, could protect mice from NASH and reinstate microbial rhythmicity, confirming that the microbiota improved NASH in a time-of-day-specific manner. The unique role of the TRF-feeding phase-derived microbiota was accompanied by regulation of the serotonergic synapse pathway and rejuvenation of the microbial production of indole derivatives. Our results revealed the discrepant characteristics between the feeding and fasting phases and the time-of-day-specific configuration of microbiota functionality in the TRF regimen.

Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum LI09 could prevent D-galactosamine-induced liver injury. Our previous study has preliminarily determined that different intestinal microbiota profiles existed in the LI09-treated rats. Due to the sample size limitation, some subsequent analyses could not be achieved. In the current study, we conducted different experiments and bioinformatic analyses to characterise the distinct intestinal bacterial microbiota profiles in the LI09-treated rats with liver injury (i.e., LI09 group). Partition around medoids clustering analysis determined two intestinal microbiota profiles (i.e., Cluster&#95;1&#95;LI09 and Cluster&#95;2&#95;LI09) in LI09 group. Compared with Cluster&#95;2&#95;LI09, Cluster&#95;1&#95;LI09 group was determined at less dysbiotic microbial status and with lower level of liver injury. The two microbiota profiles were determined with distinct representative amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), among which, ASV1&#95;Akkermansia and ASV3&#95;Bacteroides were most associated with Cluster&#95;1&#95;LI09 and Cluster&#95;2&#95;LI09, respectively. Multiple representative phylotypes in Cluster&#95;1&#95;LI09 negatively correlating with liver function variables were assigned to Parabacteroides, suggesting Parabacteroides could benefit LI09 on modulating the liver function. In addition, ASV310&#95;Lachnospiraceae, ASV501&#95;Muribaculaceae and ASV484&#95;Lachnospiraceae were determined as network gatekeepers in Cluster&#95;1&#95;LI09 network. The relevant results suggest that some intestinal bacteria could assist LI09 in lowering the intestinal microbial dysbiosis in the rats with liver injury, and their clinical application deserves further investigation., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a prevalent and progressive disease spectrum ranging from nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), yet there is no effective treatment and efficient noninvasive diagnostic method for NASH. The present study investigated the longitudinal alternations of gut microbiota in the Western diet (WD) induced murine NAFLD model using 16S rRNA sequencing. Evident steatosis and inflammation were detected in the liver at the 8th and 12th week, while prompted hepatic oxidative injury and fibrosis were found at the 16th week. In this progressive process, impaired bile acid (BA) metabolism plays a vital part. Long-term WD intervention alters microbial richness and composition in the intestine, shaping characteristic microbial feature correspondence to each NAFLD stage. Descending abundances of Clostridia and Ruminococcaceae were found in NAFLD progression, while inflammation-related microbes [Eubacterium]&#95;fissicatena&#95;group , Romboutsia , and Erysipelatoclostridium were verified to identify borderline NASH at 8th and 12th week, and BA-associated taxa Dubosiella , Bosea , Helicobacter , and Alistipes were recognized as special symbols reflecting the state of oxidative damage and fibrosis in NASH at 16th week. Further, feces and colon abundances of Akkermansia were verified to be depleted in the process of borderline NASH progressed to NASH, and exhibited substantial correlations with NAFLD indexes ALT, AST, TC, and TBA. These characteristic taxa were effective to identify NAFLD and NASH, and microbiota-derived predictive models for NAFLD and NASH exhibited great potential (AUC 0.983 and 0.784). These findings demonstrate that a core set of gut microbiome especially BA-related taxa may be adopted as a noninvasive diagnostic tool for NAFLD and NASH. IMPORTANCE This study concentrates on longitudinal alternations of gut microbiota in NAFLD progression and discovers the interrelationships between them. These findings may uncover the role of gut microbiota in NAFLD progression and identify novel noninvasive diagnostic tools for NAFLD based on microbial biomarkers.

Multiple probiotics have protective effects against different types of liver injury. Different intestinal microbes could be beneficial to the protective effects of the probiotics on the treated cohorts in different aspects. The current study was designed to determine the intestinal bacterial and fungal microbiome associated with different cytokine profiles in the Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum LI09 and Bifidobacterium catenulatum LI10 pretreated rats with D-galactosamine-induced liver injury. In this study, partition around medoids clustering analysis determined two distinct cytokine profiles (i.e., CP1 and CP2) comprising the same 11 cytokines but with different levels among the LI09, LI10, positive control (PC), and negative control (NC) cohorts. All rats in PC and NC cohorts were determined with CP1 and CP2, respectively, while the rats with CP1 in LI09 and LI10 cohorts had more severe liver injury than those with CP2, suggesting that CP2 represented better immune status and was the "better cytokine profile" in this study. PERMANOVA analyses showed that the compositions of both bacterial and fungal microbiome were different in the LI10 cohorts with different cytokine profiles, while the same compositions were similar between LI09 cohorts with different cytokine profiles. The phylotype abundances of both bacteria and fungi were different in the rats with different cytokine profiles in LI09 or LI10 cohorts according to similarity percentage (SIMPER) analyses results. At the composition level, multiple microbes were associated with different cytokine profiles in LI09 or LI10 cohorts, among which Flavonifractor and Penicillium were the bacterium and fungus most associated with LI09 cohort with CP2, while Parabacteroides and Aspergillus were the bacterium and fungus most associated with LI10 cohort with CP2. These microbes were determined to influence the cytokine profiles of the corresponding cohorts. At the structure level, Corynebacterium and Cephalotrichiella were determined as the two most powerful gatekeepers in the microbiome networks of LI09 cohort CP2, while Pseudoflavonifractor was the most powerful gatekeeper in LI10 cohort with CP2. These identified intestinal microbes were likely to be beneficial to the effect of probiotic Bifidobacterium on the immunity improvement of the treated cohorts, and they could be potential microbial biomarkers assisting with the evaluation of immune status of probiotics-treated cohorts., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zha, Li, Chang, Xia, Li, Tang and Li.)

The gut microbiota drives individual sensitivity to excess acetaminophen (APAP)-mediated hepatotoxicity. It has been reported that the bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila protects hosts against liver disease via the liver-gut axis, but its therapeutic potential for drug-induced liver injury remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of A. muciniphila on APAP-induced liver injury and the underlying mechanism. Administration of A. muciniphila efficiently alleviated APAP-induced hepatotoxicity and reduced the levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST). A. muciniphila significantly attenuated APAP-induced oxidative stress and the inflammatory response, as evidenced by restoration of the reduced glutathione/oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG) balance, enhanced superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, reduced proinflammatory cytokine production, and alleviation of macrophage and neutrophil infiltration. Moreover, A. muciniphila maintained gut barrier function, reshaped the perturbed microbial community and promoted short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) secretion. The beneficial effects of A. muciniphila were accompanied by alterations in hepatic gene expression at the transcriptional level and activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathway. Our results suggested that A. muciniphila could be a potential pretreatment for APAP-induced liver injury. IMPORTANCE Our work revealed that A. muciniphila attenuated APAP-induced liver injury by alleviating oxidative stress and inflammation in the liver, and its hepatoprotective effect was accompanied by activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway and mediated by regulation of the composition and metabolic function of the intestinal microbiota. This finding suggested that the microbial community is a non-negligible impact on drug metabolism and probiotic administration could be a potential therapy for drug-induced liver injury.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an idiopathic inflammatory disease with a high incidence. Multiple factors including dietary composition contribute to its occurrence. Recently, ketogenic diet which consists of a high proportion of fat and low carbohydrates has gained great popularity. Our study is aimed to explore the effect of ketogenic diet on IBD and its potential mechanisms. C57BL/6 mice were given a ketogenic diet or a control diet for a month and IBD was induced by 2% DSS in drinking water in the last week. Gut histology, inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, gut microbiota and metabolism were assessed. Ketogenic diet substantially worsened colitis, in terms of higher body weight loss, DAI scores and histological scores as well as colon length shortening. Levels of serum and colon inflammatory cytokines and chemokines (IL-1α, IL-6, TNF-α, IL-17, GM-CSF and IL-10) were significantly up-regulated in mice treated with ketogenic diet and DSS. Increased intestinal permeability and decreased expressions of intestinal epithelial barrier associated genes were observed due to ketogenic diet administration. Pretreatment with ketogenic diet alters the bacterial abundance, increasing pathogenic taxa such as Proteobacteria , Enterobacteriaceae , Helicobacter and Escherichia-Shigella and decreasing potential beneficial taxa such as Erysipelotrichaceae . Ketogenic diet also modified gut metabolism, increasing metabolites in the bile secretion such as ouabain, taurochenodeoxycholic acid, quinine, cholic acid and glycocholic acid, and decreasing metabolites associated with the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids including stearic acid, arachidic acid, erucic acid, and docosanoic acid. These results suggest that ketogenic diet aggravates DSS-induced colitis in mice by increasing intestinal and systemic inflammation, and disrupting the intestinal barrier, which results from modulated gut microbiota and metabolism.

Test anxiety creates barriers to learning and performance, which further affects students' social, behavioural, and emotional development. Currently, the medication to treat test anxiety has not been reported yet. Here, we enrolled 120 students to evaluate the effect of probiotic supplement preparation (PSP) on test anxiety from the aspect of the intestinal microbiota. We found that the intake of PSP alleviated the symptoms of depression and anxiety in students with test anxiety by evaluating their mental state using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Hamilton Anxiety Scale. High-throughput sequencing results indicated that the consumption of PSP increased the abundance of Streptococcus and Akkermansia that was lowered by the anxiety state in the intestinal microbiota of students. Meanwhile, taking PSP reduced the level of intestinal pathogens of Fusobacterium and Clostridium as well. In conclusion, our work shows that PSP can reduce test anxiety and restore the disturbed microbiota to the standard level in Chinese college students, rendering the use of PSP a promising strategy for test anxiety., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article., (Copyright © 2021 Qi Qin et al.)

Lactobacillus plantarum ZDY 2013, a novel strain isolated from Chinese traditional fermented acid beans, was systematically evaluated for its survival capacity under stress conditions (pH, bile salt, simulated gastrointestinal tract, and antibiotics), production of exopolysaccharide and antagonism against 8 pathogens. Its effect on mice gut microbiota was also investigated by quantitative PCR and PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. The results showed that ZDY 2013 can grow at pH 3.5 and survive at pH 2.0 for 6 h and at 0.45% bile salt for 3 h. The exopolysaccharide yield was up to 204±7.68 mg/L. The survival rate of ZDY 2013 in a simulated gastrointestinal tract was as high as 65.84%. Antagonism test with a supernatant of ZDY 2013 showed maximum halo of 28 mm against Listeria monocytogenes. The inhibition order was as follows: Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Shigella sonnei, Enterobacter sakazakii, and Staphylococcus aureus. Lactobacillus plantarum ZDY 2013 was sensitive to some antibiotics (e.g., macrolide, sulfonamides, aminoglycoside, tetracyclines and β-lactams), whereas it was resistant to glycopeptides, quinolones, and cephalosporins antibiotics. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis profile demonstrated that ZDY 2013 administration altered the composition of the microbiota at various intestinal loci of the mice. Moreover, the quantitative PCR test showed that the administration of ZDY 2013 enhanced the populations of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus in either the colon or cecum, and reduced the potential enteropathogenic bacteria (e.g., Enterococcus, Enterobacterium, and Clostridium perfringens). Lactobacillus plantarum ZDY 2013 exhibited high resistance against low pH, bile salt, and gastrointestinal fluid, and possessed antibacterial and gut microbiota modulation properties with a potential application in the development of dairy food and nutraceuticals., (Copyright © 2015 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)