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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by cognitive inflexibility and social deficits. Probiotics have been demonstrated to play a promising role in managing the severity of ASD. However, there are no effective probiotics for clinical use. Identifying new probiotic strains for ameliorating ASD is therefore essential. Using the maternal immune activation (MIA)-based offspring ASD-like mouse model, a probiotic-based intervention strategy was examined in female mice. The gut commensal microbe Parabacteroides goldsteinii MTS01, which was previously demonstrated to exert multiple beneficial effects on chronic inflammation-related-diseases, was evaluated. Prenatal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure induced leaky gut-related inflammatory phenotypes in the colon, increased LPS activity in sera, and induced autistic-like behaviors in offspring mice. By contrast, P. goldsteinii MTS01 treatment significantly reduced intestinal and systemic inflammation and ameliorated disease development. Transcriptomic analyses of MIA offspring indicated that in the intestine, P. goldsteinii MTS01 enhanced neuropeptide-related signaling and suppressed aberrant cell proliferation and inflammatory responses. In the hippocampus, P. goldsteinii MTS01 increased ribosomal/mitochondrial and antioxidant activities and decreased glutamate receptor signaling. Together, significant ameliorative effects of P. goldsteinii MTS01 on ASD relevant behaviors in MIA offspring were identified. Therefore, P. goldsteinii MTS01 could be developed as a next-generation probiotic for ameliorating ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metabolic surgery is a promising treatment for obese individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but the mechanism is not completely understood. Current understanding of the underlying ameliorative mechanisms relies on alterations in parameters related to the gastrointestinal hormones, biochemistry, energy absorption, the relative composition of the gut microbiota, and sera metabolites. A total of 13 patients with obesity and T2DM undergoing metabolic surgery treatments were recruited. Systematic changes of critical parameters and the effects and markers after metabolic surgery, in a longitudinal manner (before surgery and three, twelve, and twenty-four months after surgery) were measured. The metabolomics pattern, gut microbiota composition, together with the hormonal and biochemical characterizations, were analyzed. Body weight, body mass index, total cholesterol, triglyceride, fasting glucose level, C-peptide, HbA1c, HOMA-IR, gamma-glutamyltransferase, and des-acyl ghrelin were significantly reduced two years after metabolic surgery. These were closely associated with the changes of sera metabolomics and gut microbiota. Significant negative associations were found between the Eubacterium eligens group and lacosamide glucuronide, UDP-L-arabinose, lanceotoxin A, pipercyclobutanamide B, and hordatine B. Negative associations were identified between Ruminococcaceae UCG-003 and orotidine, and glucose. A positive correlation was found between Enterococcus and glutamic acid, and vindoline. Metabolic surgery showed positive effects on the amelioration of diabetes and metabolic syndromes, which were closely associated with the change of sera metabolomics, the gut microbiota, and other disease-related parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been extensively used to ameliorate diseases in Asia for over thousands of years. However, owing to a lack of formal scientific validation, the absence of information regarding the mechanisms underlying TCMs restricts their application. After oral administration, TCM herbal ingredients frequently are not directly absorbed by the host, but rather enter the intestine to be transformed by gut microbiota. The gut microbiota is a microbial community living in animal intestines, and functions to maintain host homeostasis and health. Increasing evidences indicate that TCM herbs closely affect gut microbiota composition, which is associated with the conversion of herbal components into active metabolites. These may significantly affect the therapeutic activity of TCMs. Microbiota analyses, in conjunction with modern multiomics platforms, can together identify novel functional metabolites and form the basis of future TCM research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gut microbiome maintains local gut integrity and systemic host homeostasis, where optimal control of intestinal lipopolysaccharides (LPS) activity may play an important role. LPS mainly produced from gut microbiota are a group of lipid-polysaccharide chemical complexes existing in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. Traditionally, LPS mostly produced from Proteobacteria are well known for their ability in inducing strong inflammatory responses (proinflammatory LPS, abbreviated as P-LPS), leading to septic shock or even death in animals and humans. Although the basic structures and chemical properties of P-LPS derived from different bacterial species generally show similarity, subtle and differential immune activation activities are observed. On the other hand, frequently ignored, a group of LPS molecules mainly produced by certain microbiota bacteria such as Bacteroidetes show blunt or even antagonistic activity in initiating pro-inflammatory responses (anti-inflammatory LPS, abbreviated as A-LPS). In this review, besides the immune activation properties of P-LPS, we also focus on the description of anti-inflammatory effects of A-LPS, and their potential antagonistic mechanism. We address the possibility of using native or engineered A-LPS for immune modulation in prevention or even treatment of P-LPS induced chronic inflammation related diseases. Understanding the exquisite interactive relationship between structure-activity correlation of P- and A-LPS not only contributes to molecular understanding of immunomodulation and homeostasis, but also re-animates the development of novel LPS-based pharmacological strategy for prevention and therapy of chronic inflammation related diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Size-segregated distribution of ambient particulate matter (PM) was determined using a micro-orifice uniform deposition impactor (MOUDI) and a nano-MOUDI in southern Taiwan. Eleven water-soluble ionic species including six anions (NO3−, SO42−, Cl−, F−, NO2−, Br−) and five cations (NH4+, Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+) for particulate inorganic ions and five gaseous pollutants (i.e., HNO2, HNO3, HCl, SO2, NH3) were analyzed during episode and non-episode periods. The particulate mass concentration was about 30 μg/m3higher at night than during the day, and it reached 162 μg/m3during the episode periods. The difference was mainly attributable to the particle size of 0.1–2.5 μm. Nitrate, sulfate, ammonium, and chloride ions were the dominant inorganic ions in PM. HONO and NH3concentrations were high at night; in contrast, HNO3, HCl, and SO2were high during the day. The equivalent ratio of ([NO3−] + 2[SO42−])/[NH4+] was about 0.98 and revealed a high correlation between ([NO3−] + 2[SO42−]) and [NH4+] that clearly pointed to ammonium neutralization or condensation of ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate in PM0.32. The precursor gases and ionic species in different particle sizes did not reveal a strong correlation, which could be attributed to the complex of source emissions, atmospheric reactions and meteorological parameters in the area.Implications: Size-segregated distribution and chemical compositions of atmospheric aerosols play important roles in their visibility reduction, health effects, and toxicity in urban areas. Inorganic ionic species are major constituents in particulate matter, except carbonaceous chemicals. In this work, the compositions of water-soluble ions in particulate matter and acid/base gaseous pollutants (such as HNO2, HNO3, HCl, SO2, NH3) were determined during the day and at night during episode and non-episode periods from 2006 to 2007 in southern Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dysbiosis of gut microbiota is closely related to occurrence of many important chronic inflammations-related diseases. So far the traditionally prescribed prebiotics and probiotics do not show significant impact on amelioration of these diseases in general. Thus the development of next generation prebiotics and probiotics designed to target specific diseases is urgently needed. In this review, we first make a brief introduction on current understandings of normal gut microbiota, microbiome, and their roles in homeostasis of mucosal immunity and gut integrity. Then, under the situation of microbiota dysbiosis, development of chronic inflammations in the intestine occurs, leading to leaky gut situation and systematic chronic inflammation in the host. These subsequently resulted in development of many important diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, liver inflammations, and other diseases such as colorectal cancer (CRC), obesity-induced chronic kidney disease (CKD), the compromised lung immunity, and some on brain/neuro disorders. The strategy used to optimally implant the effective prebiotics, probiotics and the derived postbiotics for amelioration of the diseases is presented. While the effectiveness of these agents seems promising, additional studies are needed to establish recommendations for most clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]