Selection of a novel strain of Christensenella minuta as a future biotherapy for Crohn’s disease

Overview on biotics development

Although probiotics have been used in food products and supplements for decades, there has been a considerable increase in their use more recently. Recent technological advances have thus led to major advances in knowledge of the gut microbiota, enabling a significant development of biotics. In this review, we discuss the uses of traditional probiotics but also the discovery of next-generation probiotics that could be used as live biotherapeutics. These novel preventive and therapeutic strategies hold promise for the treatment of numerous diseases such as inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Probiotic bacteria can be consumed alone, or in combination with prebiotics as synbiotics, or mixed with other probiotic strains to form a consortium for enhanced effects. We also discuss the benefits of using postbiotics.

Achieving healthy aging through gut microbiota-directed dietary intervention: Focusing on microbial biomarkers and host mechanisms

BACKGROUND

Population aging has become a primary global public health issue, and the prevention of age-associated diseases and prolonging healthy life expectancies are of particular importance. Gut microbiota has emerged as a novel target in various host physiological disorders including aging. Comprehensive understanding on changes of gut microbiota during aging, in particular gut microbiota characteristics of centenarians, can provide us possibility to achieving healthy aging or intervene pathological aging through gut microbiota-directed strategies.

AIM OF REVIEW

This review aims to summarize the characteristics of the gut microbiota associated with aging, explore potential biomarkers of aging and address microbiota-associated mechanisms of host aging focusing on intestinal barrier and immune status. By summarizing the existing effective dietary strategies in aging interventions, the probability of developing a diet targeting the gut microbiota in future is provided.

KEY SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS OF REVIEW

This review is focused on three key notions: Firstly, gut microbiota has become a new target for regulating health status and lifespan, and its changes are closely related to age. Thus, we summarized aging-associated gut microbiota features at the levels of key genus/species and important metabolites through comparing the microbiota differences among centenarians, elderly people and younger people. Secondly, exploring microbiota biomarkers related to aging and discussing future possibility using dietary regime/components targeted to aging-related microbiota biomarkers promote human healthy lifespan. Thirdly, dietary intervention can effectively improve the imbalance of gut microbiota related to aging, such as probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics, but their effects vary among.

The Plethora of Microbes with Anti-Inflammatory Activities

Inflammation, which has important functions in human defense systems and in maintaining the dynamic homeostasis of the body, has become a major risk factor for the progression of many chronic diseases. Although the applied medical products alleviate the general status, they still exert adverse effects in the long term. For this reason, the solution should be sought in more harmless and affordable agents. Microorganisms offer a wide range of active substances with anti-inflammatory properties. They confer important advantages such as their renewable and inexhaustible nature. This review aims to provide the most recent updates on microorganisms of different types and genera, being carriers of anti-inflammatory activity.

Christensenella minuta interacts with multiple gut bacteria

Introduction

Gut microbes form complex networks that significantly influence host health and disease treatment. Interventions with the probiotic bacteria on the gut microbiota have been demonstrated to improve host well-being. As a representative of next-generation probiotics, Christensenella minuta (C. minuta) plays a critical role in regulating energy balance and metabolic homeostasis in human bodies, showing potential in treating metabolic disorders and reducing inflammation. However, interactions of C. minuta with the members of the networked gut microbiota have rarely been explored.

Methods

In this study, we investigated the impact of C. minuta on fecal microbiota via metagenomic sequencing, focusing on retrieving bacterial strains and coculture assays of C. minuta with associated microbial partners.

Results

Our results showed that C. minuta intervention significantly reduced the diversity of fecal microorganisms, but specifically enhanced some groups of bacteria, such as Lactobacillaceae. C. minuta selectively enriched bacterial pathways that compensated for its metabolic defects on vitamin B1, B12, serine, and glutamate synthesis. Meanwhile, C. minuta cross-feeds Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and other bacteria via the production of arginine, branched-chain amino acids, fumaric acids and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), such as acetic. Both metagenomic data analysis and culture experiments revealed that C. minuta negatively correlated with Klebsiella pneumoniae and 14 other bacterial taxa, while positively correlated with F. prausnitzii. Our results advance our comprehension of C. minuta's in modulating the gut microbial network.

Conclusions

C. minuta disrupts the composition of the fecal microbiota. This disturbance is manifested through cross-feeding, nutritional competition, and supplementation of its own metabolic deficiencies, resulting in the specific enrichment or inhibition of the growth of certain bacteria. This study will shed light on the application of C. minuta as a probiotic for effective interventions on gut microbiomes and improvement of host health.

Probiotic-Induced Modulation of Microbiota Composition and Antibiotic Resistance Genes Load, an In Vitro Assessment

The imbalance of the gut microbiota (GM) is known as dysbiosis and is associated with disorders such as obesity. The increasing prevalence of microorganisms harboring antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) in the GM has been reported as a potential risk for spreading multi-drug-resistant pathogens. The objective of this work was the evaluation, in a fecal culture model, of different probiotics for their ability to modulate GM composition and ARG levels on two population groups, extremely obese (OB) and normal-weight (NW) subjects. Clear differences in the basal microbiota composition were observed between NW and OB donors. The microbial profile assessed by metataxonomics revealed the broader impact of probiotics on the OB microbiota composition. Also, supplementation with probiotics promoted significant reductions in the absolute levels of tetM and tetO genes. Regarding the blaTEM gene, a minor but significant decrease in both donor groups was detected after probiotic addition. A negative association between the abundance of Bifidobacteriaceae and the tetM gene was observed. Our results show the ability of some of the tested strains to modulate GM. Moreover, the results suggest the potential application of probiotics for reducing the levels of ARG, which constitutes an interesting target for the future development of probiotics.

Christensenella minuta, a new candidate next-generation probiotic: current evidence and future trajectories

Background

As the field of probiotic research continues to expand, new beneficial strains are being discovered. The Christensenellaceae family and its newly described member, Christensenella minuta, have been shown to offer great health benefits. We aimed to extensively review the existing literature on these microorganisms to highlight the advantages of their use as probiotics and address some of the most challenging aspects of their commercial production and potential solutions.

Methods

We applied a simple search algorithm using the key words "Christensenellaceae" and "Christensenella minuta" to find all articles reporting the biotherapeutic effects of these microorganisms. Only articles reporting evidence-based results were reviewed.

Results

The review showed that Christensenella minuta has demonstrated numerous beneficial properties and a wider range of uses than previously thought. Moreover, it has been shown to be oxygen-tolerant, which is an immense advantage in the manufacturing and production of Christensenella minuta-based biotherapeutics. The results suggest that Christensenellaceae and Christensenella munita specifically can play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy gut microbiome. Furthermore, Christensenellaceae have been associated with weight management. Preliminary studies suggest that this probiotic strain could have a positive impact on metabolic disorders like diabetes and obesity, as well as inflammatory bowel disease.

Conclusion

Christensenellaceae and Christensenella munita specifically offer immense health benefits and could be used in the management and therapy of a wide range of health conditions. In addition to the impressive biotherapeutic effect, Christensenella munita is oxygen-tolerant, which facilitates commercial production and storage.

ADS024, a single-strain live biotherapeutic product of Bacillus velezensis alleviates dextran sulfate-mediated colitis in mice, protects human colonic epithelial cells against apoptosis, and maintains epithelial barrier function

Epithelial cell apoptosis and compromised gut barrier function are features of inflammatory bowel disease. ADS024 is a single-strain live biotherapeutic product (LBP) of Bacillus velezensis under development for treating ulcerative colitis (UC). The cytoprotective effects of the sterile filtrate of ADS024's secreted products on UC patient-derived colonic tissues, human primary colonic epithelial cells (HPEC), and human colonic epithelial T84 cells were evaluated. ADS024 filtrate significantly inhibited apoptosis and inflammation with reduced Bcl-2 Associated X-protein (BAX) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) mRNA expression in fresh colonic explants from UC patients. Exposure to UC patient-derived serum exosomes (UCSE) induced apoptosis with increased cleaved caspase 3 protein expression in HPECs. ADS024 filtrate diminished the UCSE-mediated apoptosis by inhibiting cleaved caspase 3. TNFα and interferon-gamma (IFNγ) damaged epithelial barrier integrity with reduced transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER). ADS024 filtrate partially attenuated the TEER reduction and restored tight junction protein 1 (TJP1) expression. Oral live ADS024 treatment reduced weight loss, disease activity, colonic mucosal injury, and colonic expression of interleukin 6 (IL-6) and TNFα in dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-treated mice with colitis. Thus, ADS024 may protect the colonic epithelial barrier in UC via anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, and tight-junction protection mechanisms.

A flexible high-throughput cultivation protocol to assess the response of individuals' gut microbiota to diet-, drug-, and host-related factors

The anaerobic cultivation of fecal microbiota is a promising approach to investigating how gut microbial communities respond to specific intestinal conditions and perturbations. Here, we describe a flexible protocol using 96-deepwell plates to cultivate stool-derived gut microbiota. Our protocol aims to address gaps in high-throughput culturing in an anaerobic chamber. We characterized the influence of the gas phase on the medium chemistry and microbial physiology and introduced a modular medium preparation process to enable the testing of several conditions simultaneously. Furthermore, we identified a medium formulation that maximized the compositional similarity of ex vivo cultures and donor microbiota while limiting the bloom of Enterobacteriaceae. Lastly, we validated the protocol by demonstrating that cultivated fecal microbiota responded similarly to dietary fibers (resistant dextrin, soluble starch) and drugs (ciprofloxacin, 5-fluorouracil) as reported in vivo. This high-throughput cultivation protocol has the potential to facilitate culture-dependent studies, accelerate the discovery of gut microbiota-diet-drug-host interactions, and pave the way to personalized microbiota-centered interventions.

A Keystone Gut Bacterium Christensenella minuta-A Potential Biotherapeutic Agent for Obesity and Associated Metabolic Diseases

A new next-generation probiotic, Christensenella minuta was first discovered in 2012 from healthy human stool and described under the phylum Firmicutes. C. minuta is a subdominant commensal bacterium with highly heritable properties that exhibits mutual interactions with other heritable microbiomes, and its relative abundance is positively correlated with the lean host phenotype associated with a low BMI index. It has been the subject of numerous studies, owing to its potential health benefits. This article reviews the evidence from various studies of C. minuta interventions using animal models for managing metabolic diseases, such as obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and type 2 diabetes, characterized by gut microbiota dysbiosis and disruption of host metabolism. Notably, more studies have presented the complex interaction between C. minuta and host metabolism when it comes to metabolic health. Therefore, C. minuta could be a potential candidate for innovative microbiome-based biotherapy via fecal microbiota transplantation or oral administration. However, the detailed underlying mechanism of action requires further investigation.

Alteration of gut microbiota in wild-borne long-tailed macaques after 1-year being housed in hygienic captivity

The wild-born long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) were recently recruited and used as breeders for the National Primate Research Center of Thailand, Chulalongkorn University (NPRCT-CU), and changes in their in-depth gut microbiota profiles were investigated. The Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT) was used to explore full-length 16S rDNA sequences of gut microbiota in animals once captured in their natural habitat and 1-year following translocation and housing in a hygienic environment at NPRCT-CU. Our findings show that the gut microbiota of macaques after 1 year of hygienic housing and programmed diets feeding was altered and reshaped. The prevalent gut bacteria such as Prevotella copri and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii were enriched after translocation, causing the lower alpha diversity. The correlation analysis revealed that Prevotella copri, Phascolarctobacterium succinatutens, and Prevotella stercorea, showed a positive correlation with each other. Significantly enriched pathways in the macaques after translocation included biosynthesis of essential amino acids, fatty acids, polyamine and butanoate. The effects of microbiota change could help macaques to harvest the energy from programmed diets and adapt their gut metabolism. The novel probiotics and microbiota engineering approach could be further developed based on the current findings and should be helpful for captive animal health care management.

Polysaccharides from the seeds of Gleditsia sinensis Lam. attenuate DSS-induced colitis in mice via improving gut barrier homeostasis and alleviating gut microbiota dybiosis

The seeds from Gleditsia sinensis Lam., a common ecologically and economically useful tree, have high economic and nutritional value. The protective effect of polysaccharides from Gleditsia sinensis Lam. seeds (ZJMP) against dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis in mice was investigated in this study. ZJMP alleviated weight loss, reduced the disease activity index, prevented colon shortening, alleviated colonic tissue damage, and restored goblet cell secretion in colitic mice. Dietary ZJMP reduced proinflammatory cytokine overproduction in the colonic mucosa and serum, which was accompanied by suppression of NO levels and MPO and SOD activities. The addition of ZJMP increased the expression of Muc2 and tight junction proteins. Furthermore, dietary ZJMP partially reversed the alteration of gut microbiota in colitic mice by boosting the abundance of beneficial bacteria like Akkermansia, Lactobacillus, and Christensenella while lowering the abundance of harmful bacteria like Bacteroides, Prevotella, and Mucispirillum. Additionally, the decreased production of short-chain fatty acids in the colitic mice was recovered by ZJMP administration. The findings demonstrated the anti-inflammatory properties and mechanism of dietary ZJMP in the colon, which is essential for the sensible application of ZJMP in the prevention and amelioration of inflammation-related diseases as a nutritional supplement.