Software-aided quality control of parallel reaction monitoring based quantitation of lipid mediators

Longitudinal gut microbiome analyses and blooms of pathogenic strains during lupus disease flares

OBJECTIVE

Whereas genetic susceptibility for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has been well explored, the triggers for clinical disease flares remain elusive. To investigate relationships between microbiota community resilience and disease activity, we performed the first longitudinal analyses of lupus gut-microbiota communities.

METHODS

In an observational study, taxononomic analyses, including multivariate analysis of ß-diversity, assessed time-dependent alterations in faecal communities from patients and healthy controls. From gut blooms, strains were isolated, with genomes and associated glycans analysed.

RESULTS

Multivariate analyses documented that, unlike healthy controls, significant temporal community-wide ecological microbiota instability was common in SLE patients, and transient intestinal growth spikes of several pathogenic species were documented. Expansions of only the anaerobic commensal, Ruminococcus (blautia) gnavus (RG) occurred at times of high-disease activity, and were detected in almost half of patients during lupus nephritis (LN) disease flares. Whole genome sequence analysis of RG strains isolated during these flares documented 34 genes postulated to aid adaptation and expansion within a host with an inflammatory condition. Yet, the most specific feature of strains found during lupus flares was the common expression of a novel type of cell membrane-associated lipoglycan. These lipoglycans share conserved structural features documented by mass spectroscopy, and highly immunogenic repetitive antigenic-determinants, recognised by high-level serum IgG2 antibodies, that spontaneously arose, concurrent with RG blooms and lupus flares.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings rationalise how blooms of the RG pathobiont may be common drivers of clinical flares of often remitting-relapsing lupus disease, and highlight the potential pathogenic properties of specific strains isolated from active LN patients.

Lipidomic methodologies for biomarkers of chronic inflammation in nutritional research: ω-3 and ω-6 lipid mediators

The evolutionary history of hominins has been characterized by significant dietary changes, which include the introduction of meat eating, cooking, and the changes associated with plant and animal domestication. The Western pattern diet has been linked with the onset of chronic inflammation, and serious health problems including obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular diseases. Diets enriched with ω-3 marine PUFAs have revealed additional improvements in health status associated to a reduction of proinflammatory ω-3 and ω-6 lipid mediators. Lipid mediators are produced from enzymatic and non-enzymatic oxidation of PUFAs. Interest in better understanding the occurrence of these metabolites has increased exponentially as a result of the growing evidence of their role on inflammatory processes, control of the immune system, cell signaling, onset of metabolic diseases, or even cancer. The scope of this review has been to highlight the recent findings on: a) the formation of lipid mediators and their role in different inflammatory and metabolic conditions, b) the direct use of lipid mediators as antiinflammatory drugs or the potential of new drugs as a new therapeutic option for the synthesis of antiinflammatory or resolving lipid mediators and c) the impact of nutritional interventions to modulate lipid mediators synthesis towards antiinflammatory conditions. In a second part, we have summarized methodological approaches (Lipidomics) for the accurate analysis of lipid mediators. Although several techniques have been used, most authors preferred the combination of SPE with LC-MS. Advantages and disadvantages of each method are herein addressed, as well as the main LC-MS difficulties and challenges for the establishment of new biomarkers and standardization of experimental designs, and finally to deepen the study of mechanisms involved on the inflammatory response.

Blocking IL-10 receptor signaling ameliorates Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection during influenza-induced exacerbation

Epidemiological findings indicate that coinfection with influenza viruses is associated with an increased risk of death in patients suffering from tuberculosis, but the underlying pathomechanisms are not well understood. In this study, we demonstrate that influenza A virus (IAV) coinfection rapidly impairs control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in C57BL/6 mice. IAV coinfection was associated with significantly increased bacterial loads, reduced survival, and a substantial modulation of innate and adaptive immune defenses including an impaired onset and development of Mtb-specific CD4⁺ T cell responses and the accumulation of macrophages with increased arginase-1 production in the lungs. Our findings strongly indicate that IAV coinfection compromises the host’s ability to control Mtb infection via the production of IL-10, which was rapidly induced upon viral infection. The blockade of IL-10 receptor signaling reduced the bacterial load in coinfected mice to a level comparable to that in Mtb-only-infected animals. Taken together, our data suggest that IL-10 signaling constitutes a major pathway that enhances susceptibility to Mtb during concurrent IAV infection.

IL-10R signaling constitutes a major pathway that impairs control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis during influenza co-infection.