Early and Short-Term Interventions in the Gut Microbiota Affects Lupus Severity, Progression, and Treatment in MRL/lpr Mice

Gut microbiota regulation of T lymphocyte subsets during systemic lupus erythematosus

BACKGROUND

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by disturbance of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory lymphocytes. Growing evidence shown that gut microbiota participated in the occurrence and development of SLE by affecting the differentiation and function of intestinal immune cells. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes of gut microbiota in SLE and judge its associations with peripheral T lymphocytes.

METHODS

A total of 19 SLE patients and 16 HCs were enrolled in this study. Flow cytometry was used to detect the number of peripheral T lymphocyte subsets, and 16 s rRNA was used to detect the relative abundance of gut microbiota. Analyzed the correlation between gut microbiota with SLEDAI, ESR, ds-DNA and complement. SPSS26.0 software was used to analyze the experimental data. Mann-Whitney U test was applied to compare T lymphocyte subsets. Spearman analysis was used for calculating correlation.

RESULTS

Compared with HCs, the proportions of Tregs (P = 0.001), Tfh cells (P = 0.018) and Naïve CD4 + T cells (P = 0.004) significantly decreased in SLE patients, and proportions of Th17 cells (P = 0.020) and γδT cells (P = 0.018) increased in SLE. The diversity of SLE patients were significantly decreased. Addition, there were 11 species of flora were discovered to be distinctly different in SLE group (P < 0.05). In the correlation analysis of SLE, Tregs were positively correlated with Ruminococcus2 (P = 0.042), Th17 cells were positively correlated with Megamonas (P = 0.009), γδT cells were positively correlated with Megamonas (P = 0.003) and Streptococcus (P = 0.004), Tfh cells were positively correlated with Bacteroides (P = 0.040), and Th1 cells were negatively correlated with Bifidobacterium (P = 0.005). As for clinical indicators, the level of Tregs was negatively correlated with ESR (P = 0.031), but not with C3 and C4, and the remaining cells were not significantly correlated with ESR, C3 and C4.

CONCLUSION

Gut microbiota and T lymphocyte subsets of SLE changed and related to each other, which may break the immune balance and affect the occurrence and development of SLE. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the changes of gut microbiota and provide new ideas for the treatment of SLE.

Fecal microbiota transplantation in autoimmune diseases - An extensive paper on a pathogenetic therapy

The role of infections in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases has long been recognized and reported. In addition to infectious agents, the internal composition of the "friendly" living bacteria, (microbiome) and its correlation to immune balance and dysregulation have drawn the attention of researchers for decades. Nevertheless, only recently, scientific papers regarding the potential role of transferring microbiome from healthy donor subjects to patients with autoimmune diseases has been proposed. Fecal microbiota transplantation or FMT, carries the logic of transferring microorganisms responsible for immune balance from healthy donors to individuals with immune dysregulation or more accurately for our paper, autoimmune diseases. Viewing the microbiome as a pathogenetic player allows us to consider FMT as a pathogenetic-based treatment. Promising results alongside improved outcomes have been demonstrated in patients with different autoimmune diseases following FMT. Therefore, in our current extensive review, we aimed to highlight the implication of FMT in various autoimmune diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune thyroid and liver diseases, systemic lupus erythematosus, and type 1 diabetes mellitus, among others. Presenting all the aspects of FMT in more than 12 autoimmune diseases in one paper, to the best of our knowledge, is the first time presented in medical literature. Viewing FMT as such could contribute to better understanding and newer application of the model in the therapy of autoimmune diseases, indeed.

Systemic lupus erythematosus therapeutic strategy: From immunotherapy to gut microbiota modulation

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is characterized by a systemic dysfunction of the innate and adaptive immune systems, leading to an attack on healthy tissues of the body. During the development of SLE, pathogenic features, such as the formation of autoantibodies to self-nuclear antigens, caused tissue damage including necrosis and fibrosis, with an increased expression of type Ⅰ interferon (IFN) regulated genes. Treatment of lupus with immunosuppressants and glucocorticoids, which are used as the standard therapy, is not effective enough and causes side effects. As an alternative, more effective immunotherapies have been developed, including monoclonal and bispecific antibodies that target B cells, T cells, co-stimulatory molecules, cytokines or their receptors, and signaling molecules. Encouraging results have been observed in clinical trials with some of these therapies. Furthermore, a chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) therapy has emerged as the most effective, safe, and promising treatment option for SLE, as demonstrated by successful pilot studies. Additionally, emerging evidence suggests that gut microbiota dysbiosis may play a significant role in the severity of SLE, and the use of methods to normalize the gut microbiota, particularly fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), opens up new opportunities for effective treatment of SLE.

Implications of Inflammatory Processes on a Developing Central Nervous System in Childhood-Onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease that is increasingly affecting pediatric and adult populations. Neuropsychiatric manifestations (ie, cognitive dysfunction and mood disorders) appear to occur with greater severity and poorer prognosis in childhood-onset SLE (cSLE) versus adult-onset SLE, negatively impacting school function, self-management, and psychosocial health, as well as lifelong health-related quality of life. In this review, we describe pathogenic mechanisms active in cSLE, such as maladaptive inflammatory processes and ischemia, which are hypothesized to underpin central phenotypes in patients with cSLE, and the role of alterations in protective central nervous system (CNS) barriers (ie, the blood-brain barrier) are also discussed. Recent findings derived from novel neuroimaging approaches are highlighted because the methods employed in these studies hold potential for identifying CNS abnormalities that would otherwise remain undetected with conventional multiple resonance imaging studies (eg, T2-weighted or fluid-attenuated inversion recovery sequences). Furthermore, we propose that a more robust presentation of neuropsychiatric symptoms in cSLE is in part due to the harmful impact of a chronic inflammatory insult on a developing CNS. Although the immature status of the CNS may leave patients with cSLE more vulnerable to harboring neuropsychiatric manifestations, the same property may represent a greater urgency to reverse the maladaptive effects associated with a proneuroinflammatory state, provided that effective diagnostic tools and treatment strategies are available. Finally, considering the crosstalk among the CNS and other organ systems affected in cSLE, we postulate that a finer understanding of this interconnectivity and its role in the clinical presentation in cSLE is warranted.

Fecal microbiota transplantation: Emerging applications in autoimmune diseases

Both genetic susceptibility and environmental factors are important contributors to autoimmune disease pathogenesis. As an environmental factor, the gut microbiome plays a crucial role in the development and progression of autoimmune diseases. Thus, strategies targeting gut microbiome alterations can potentially be used to treat autoimmune disease. Microbiota-based interventions, such as prebiotics, probiotics, dietary interventions, and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), have attracted growing interest as novel treatment approaches. FMT is an effective method for treating recurrent Clostridioides difficile infections; moreover, it is emerging as a promising treatment for patients with inflammatory bowel disease and other autoimmune diseases. Although the mechanisms underpinning the interaction between the gut microbiome and host are not fully understood in patients with autoimmune disease, FMT has been shown to restore altered gut microbiota composition, rebuild the intestinal microecosystem, and mediate innate and adaptive immune responses to achieve a therapeutic effect. In this review, we provide an overview of FMT and discuss how FMT can be used as a novel treatment approach for autoimmune diseases. Furthermore, we discuss recent challenges and offer future research directions.

The gut ecosystem and immune tolerance

The gastrointestinal tract is home to the largest microbial population in the human body. The gut microbiota plays significant roles in the development of the gut immune system and has a substantial impact on the maintenance of immune tolerance beginning in early life. These microbes interact with the immune system in a dynamic and interdependent manner. They generate immune signals by presenting a vast repertoire of antigenic determinants and microbial metabolites that influence the development, maturation and maintenance of immunological function and homeostasis. At the same time, both the innate and adaptive immune systems are involved in modulating a stable microbial ecosystem between the commensal and pathogenic microorganisms. Hence, the gut microbial population and the host immune system work together to maintain immune homeostasis synergistically. In susceptible hosts, disruption of such a harmonious state can greatly affect human health and lead to various auto-inflammatory and autoimmune disorders. In this review, we discuss our current understanding of the interactions between the gut microbiota and immunity with an emphasis on: a) important players of gut innate and adaptive immunity; b) the contribution of gut microbial metabolites; and c) the effect of disruption of innate and adaptive immunity as well as alteration of gut microbiome on the molecular mechanisms driving autoimmunity in various autoimmune diseases.

Fecal microbiota transplantation in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus: What we learnt from the explorative clinical trial

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with the characterized presence of autoantibodies and resulting in multiple organ damage, which is incurable and can be lethal. The current treatments are limited and less progress has been made in drug discovery for the last few decades. Researches imply that gut dysbiosis exists in both patients and murine models with SLE, taking part in the pathogenesis of SLE through multiple mechanisms such as microbiota translocation and molecular mimicry. Intestinal interventions on the gut microbiome by fecal transplantations to reconstitute the gut-immunity homeostasis serve as a novel therapeutic option for SLE patients. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), which is usually used in intestinal diseases, has been firstly demonstrated to be safe and efficient in recovering gut microbiota structure of SLE patients and reducing lupus activity in our recent clinical trial, which is the first trial testing FMT therapy in SLE treatment. In this paper, we reviewed the results of the single-arm clinical trial and made recommendations on FMT practice in SLE treatment including therapeutic indications, screening items and dosage regimen, trying to provide references for future study and clinical practice. We also came up with the unanswered questions that need to be solved by the ongoing randomized controlled trial as well as the future expectations for the intestinal intervention strategies of SLE patients.

The Evolving Landscape of Fecal Microbial Transplantation

The human gastrointestinal tract houses an enormous microbial ecosystem. Recent studies have shown that the gut microbiota plays significant physiological roles and maintains immune homeostasis in the human body. Dysbiosis, an imbalanced gut microbiome, can be associated with various disease states, as observed in infectious diseases, inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. Modulation of the gut microbiome has become a therapeutic target in treating these disorders. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from a healthy donor restores the normal gut microbiota homeostasis in the diseased host. Ample evidence has demonstrated the efficacy of FMT in recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI). The application of FMT in other human diseases is gaining attention. This review aims to increase our understanding of the mechanisms of FMT and its efficacies in human diseases. We discuss the application, route of administration, limitations, safety, efficacies, and suggested mechanisms of FMT in rCDI, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. Finally, we address the future perspectives of FMT in human medicine.

Targeting Desulfovibrio vulgaris flagellin-induced NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasome activation in macrophages attenuates ulcerative colitis

INTRODUCTION

The perturbations of gut microbiota could interact with excessively activated immune responses and play key roles in the etiopathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC). Desulfovibrio, the most predominant sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) resided in the human gut, was observed to overgrow in patients with UC. The interactions between specific gut microbiota and drugs and their impacts on UC treatment have not been demonstrated well.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to elucidate whether Desulfovibrio vulgaris (D. vulgaris, DSV) and its flagellin could activate nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptors (NLR) family of apoptosis inhibitory proteins (NAIP) / NLR family caspase activation and recruitment domain-containing protein 4 (NLRC4) inflammasome and promote colitis, and further evaluate the efficacy of eugeniin targeting the interaction interface of D. vulgaris flagellin (DVF) and NAIP to attenuate UC.

METHODS

The abundance of DSV and the occurrence of macrophage pyroptosis in human UC tissues were investigated. Colitis in mice was established by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) and gavaged with DSV or its purified flagellin. NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasome activation and macrophage pyroptosis were evaluated in vivo and in vitro. The effects of eugeniin on blocking the interaction of DVF and NAIP/NLRC4 and relieving colitis were also assessed.

RESULTS

The abundance of DSV increased in the feces of patients with UC and was found to be associated with disease activity. DSV and its flagellin facilitated DSS-induced colitis in mice. Mechanistically, RNA sequencing showed that gene expression associated with inflammasome complex and pyroptosis was upregulated after DVF treatment in macrophages. DVF was further demonstrated to induce significant macrophage pyroptosis in vitro, depending on NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasome activation. Furthermore, eugeniin was screened as an inhibitor of the interface between DVF and NAIP and successfully alleviated the proinflammatory effect of DVF in colitis.

CONCLUSION

Targeting DVF-induced NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasome activation and macrophage pyroptosis ameliorates UC. This finding is of great significance for exploring the gut microbiota-host interactions in UC development and providing new insights for precise treatment.

Gut microbiota in SLE: from animal models to clinical evidence and pharmacological perspectives

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multifactorial autoimmune disease driven by complex interactions between genetics and environmental factors. SLE is characterised by breaking self-immune tolerance and autoantibody production that triggers inflammation and damage of multiple organs. Given the highly heterogeneous nature of SLE, the treatments currently used are still not satisfactory with considerable side effects, and the development of new therapies is a major health issue for better patient management. In this context, mouse models significantly contribute to our knowledge of the pathogenesis of SLE and are an invaluable tool for testing novel therapeutic targets. Here, we discuss the role of the most used SLE mouse models and their contribution to therapeutic improvement. Considering the complexity of developing targeted therapies for SLE, adjuvant therapies are also increasingly proposed. Indeed, murine and human studies have recently revealed that gut microbiota is a potential target and holds great promises for successful new SLE therapies. However, the mechanisms of gut microbiota dysbiosis in SLE remain unclear to date. In this review, we propose an inventory of existing studies investigating the relationship between gut microbiota dysbiosis and SLE to establish microbiome signature that may serve as a potential biomarker of the disease and its severity as well as a new potential therapy target. This approach may open new possibilities for early diagnosis, prevention and therapeutic perspectives of SLE based on gut microbiome.

Gut Dysbiosis and Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Autoimmune Diseases

Gut microbiota dysbiosis has recently been reported in a number of clinical states, including neurological, psychiatric, cardiovascular, metabolic and autoimmune disorders. Yet, it is not completely understood how colonizing microorganisms are implicated in their pathophysiology and molecular pathways. There are a number of suggested mechanisms of how gut microbiota dysbiosis triggers or sustains extraintestinal diseases; however, none of these have been widely accepted as part of the disease pathogenesis. Recent studies have proposed that gut microbiota and its metabolites could play a pivotal role in the modulation of immune system responses and the development of autoimmunity in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis or type 1 diabetes. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a valuable tool for uncovering the role of gut microbiota in the pathological processes. This review aims to summarize the current knowledge about gut microbiota dysbiosis and the potential of FMT in studying the pathogeneses and therapies of autoimmune diseases. Herein, we discuss the extraintestinal autoimmune pathologies with at least one published or ongoing FMT study in human or animal models.

Gut microbiota in systemic lupus erythematosus: A fuse and a solution

Gut commensals help shape and mold host immune system and deeply influence human health. The disease spectrum of mankind that gut microbiome may associate with is ever-growing, but the mechanisms are still enigmas. Characterized by loss of self-tolerance and sustained self-attack, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is labeled with chronic inflammation, production of autoantibodies and multisystem injury, which so far are mostly incurable. Gut microbiota and their metabolites, now known as important environmental triggers of local/systemic immune responses, have been proposed to be involved in SLE development and progression probably through the following mechanisms: translocation beyond their niches; molecular mimicry to cross-activate immune response targeting self-antigens; epitope spreading to expand autoantibodies spectrum; and bystander activation to promote systemic inflammation. Gut microbiota which varies between individuals may also influence the metabolism and bio-transformation of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, thus associated with the efficacy and toxicity of these drugs, adding another explanation for heterogenic therapeutic responses. Modulation of gut microbiota via diet, probiotics/prebiotics, antibiotics/phages, fecal microbiota transplantation, or helminth to restore immune tolerance and homeostasis is expected to be a promising neoadjuvant therapy for SLE. We reviewed the advances in this territory and discussed the application prospect of modulating gut microbiota in controlling SLE.

Lactobacillus: Friend or Foe for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus?

The cause of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) remains largely unknown, despite the fact that it is well understood that a complex interaction between genes and environment is required for disease development. Microbiota serve as activators and are essential to immune homeostasis. Lactobacillus is thought to be an environmental agent affecting the development of SLE. However, beneficial therapeutic and anti-inflammatory effects of Lactobacillus on SLE were also explored. The discovery of Lactobacillus involvement in SLE will shed light on how SLE develops, as well as finding microbiota-targeted biomarkers and novel therapies. In this review, we attempt to describe the two sides of Lactobacillus in the occurrence, development, treatment and prognosis of SLE. We also discuss the effect of different strains Lactobacillus on immune cells, murine lupus, and patients. Finally, we try to illustrate the potential immunological mechanisms of Lactobacillus on SLE and provide evidence for further microbiota-targeted therapies.

Gut microbiome and autoimmune disorders

Autoimmune diseases have long been known to share a common pathogenesis involving a dysregulated immune system with failure to recognize self from non-self antigens. This immune dysregulation is now increasingly understood to be induced by environmental triggers in genetically predisposed individuals. Although several external environmental triggers have been defined in different autoimmune diseases, much attention is being paid to the role of the internal micro-environment occupied by the microbiome which was once termed "the forgotten organ". In this regard, the gut microbiome, serving as an intermediary between some of those external environmental effectors and the immune system helps programming of the immune system to be tolerant to innocent external and self antigens. However, in the presence of perturbed gut microbiota (dysbiosis), the immune system could be erroneously directed in favor of pro-inflammatory pathways to instigate different autoimmune processes. An accumulating body of evidence, including both experimental and human studies (observational and interventional) points to a role of gut microbiome in different autoimmune diseases. Such evidence could provide a rationale for gut microbiome manipulation with therapeutic and even preventative intents in patients with established or predisposed to autoimmune diseases respectively. Perturbations of the gut microbiome have been delineated in some immune mediated diseases, IBD in particular. However, such patterns of disturbance (microbiome signatures) and related pathogenetic roles of the gut microbiome are context dependent and cannot be generalized in the same exact way to other autoimmune disorders and the contribution of gut microbiome to different disease phenotypes has to be precisely defined. In this review, we revise the evidence for a role of gut microbiome in various autoimmune diseases and possible mechanisms mediating such a role.

Effects of Four Antibiotics on the Diversity of the Intestinal Microbiota

Oral antibiotics remain the therapy of choice for severe bacterial infections; however, antibiotic use disrupts the intestinal microbiota, increasing the risk of colonization by intestinal pathogens. Currently, our understanding of antibiotic-mediated disturbances of the microbiota remains at the level of bacterial families or specific species, and little is known about the effect of antibiotics on potentially beneficial and pathogenic bacteria under the conditions of gut microbiota dysbiosis. Additionally, the question of whether the effects of antibiotics on the gut microbiota are temporary or permanent is controversial. In this study, we used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to evaluate the short- and long-term effects of ampicillin, vancomycin, metronidazole, and neomycin on the murine intestinal microbiota. We found that the changes in the intestinal microbiota reflected the antibiotics' mechanisms of action and that dysbiosis of the intestinal microbiota led to competition between different bacterial communities. In particular, an increase in Enterococcus, which accompanies a decrease in probiotics-related genera such as Lactobacillus, is commonly seen across antibiotic treatments. In addition, we found that these oral antibiotics had long-term negative effects on the intestinal microbiota and promoted the development of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. These results indicate that ampicillin, vancomycin, metronidazole, and neomycin have long-term negative effects and can cause irreversible changes in the diversity of the intestinal microbiota, thereby increasing the risk of host disease. IMPORTANCE The intestinal microbiota is a dynamic community of hundreds of millions of microorganisms that play important roles in human health. However, treatment with antibiotics can disrupt the delicate balance of this community, leading to deleterious effects on the host such as inflammation and enhanced susceptibility to infection. To date, most studies of the effects of antibiotic treatment on the microbiota have focused on specific intestinal pathogens and bacterial families. However, few studies have investigated the effects of antibiotic treatment on the relative abundance of probiotic bacteria, pathogenic bacteria, and opportunistic bacterial pathogens in the gut.

Albuca Bracteata Polysaccharides Attenuate AOM/DSS Induced Colon Tumorigenesis via Regulating Oxidative Stress, Inflammation and Gut Microbiota in Mice

Inflammation is an important risk factor in the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC). Accumulating evidence indicates that some phytochemicals have anti-cancer properties. Polysaccharides extracted from Albuca bracteata (AB) have been reported to possess anti-neoplastic activities on colorectal cancer (CRC) models. However, it is still unclear whether they exert therapeutic effects on colorectal cancer. In this study, we investigate the properties of polysaccharides of A. bracteate, named ABP. The average molecular weight of ABP was 18.3 kDa and ABP consisted of glucose, mannose, galactose, xylose, galacturonic acid, glucuronic acid at a molar ratio of 37.8:8:2.5:1.7:1:1. An Azoxymethane/Dextran sodium sulfate (AOM/DSS) induced CAC mouse model was established. The CAC mice treated with ABP showed smaller tumor size and lower tumor incidence than untreated ones. ABP increased anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10, inhibited secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IFN-γ, and TNF-α), mitigated oxidative stress by increasing GSH and decreasing MDA levels, suppressed the activation of STAT3 and expressions of its related genes c-Myc and cyclin D1. Moreover, ABP treatment increased the relative abundance of beneficial bacteria (f_Ruminococcaceae, g_Roseburia, g_Odoribacter, g_Oscillospira, and g_Akkermansia) and the levels of fecal short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) in CAC model mice. In summary, our data suggest that ABP could be a potential therapeutic agent for treating CAC.

Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Novel Insights into Mechanisms and Promising Therapeutic Strategies

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease that was traditionally thought to be closely related to genetic and environmental risk factors. Although treatment options for SLE with hormones, immunosuppressants, and biologic drugs are now available, the rates of clinical response and functional remission of these drugs are still not satisfactory. Currently, emerging evidence suggests that gut microbiota dysbiosis may play crucial roles in the occurrence and development of SLE, and manipulation of targeting the gut microbiota holds great promises for the successful treatment of SLE. The possible mechanisms of gut microbiota dysbiosis in SLE have not yet been well identified to date, although they may include molecular mimicry, impaired intestinal barrier function and leaky gut, bacterial biofilms, intestinal specific pathogen infection, gender bias, intestinal epithelial cells autophagy, and extracellular vesicles and microRNAs. Potential therapies for modulating gut microbiota in SLE include oral antibiotic therapy, fecal microbiota transplantation, glucocorticoid therapy, regulation of intestinal epithelial cells autophagy, extracellular vesicle-derived miRNA therapy, mesenchymal stem cell therapy, and vaccination. This review summarizes novel insights into the mechanisms of microbiota dysbiosis in SLE and promising therapeutic strategies, which may help improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of SLE and provide novel therapies for SLE.

Gut microbiota mediated the therapeutic efficacies and the side effects of prednisone in the treatment of MRL/lpr mice

Background

Growing evidences indicate that the alterations in gut microbiota are associated with the efficacy of glucocorticoids (GCs) in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, there is no evidence to prove whether gut microbiota directly mediates the effects of GCs.

Methods

Using the MRL/lpr mice, this study firstly addressed the effects of three doses of prednisone on gut microbiota. Then, this study used fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) to transfer the gut microbiota of prednisone-treated MRL/lpr mice into the blank MRL/lpr mice to reveal whether the gut microbiota regulated by prednisone had similar therapeutic efficiency and side effects as prednisone.

Results

The effects of prednisone on gut microbiota were dose-dependent in the treatment of MRL/lpr mice. After transplantation into MRL/lpr mice, prednisone-regulated gut microbiota could alleviate lupus, which might be due to decreasing Ruminococcus and Alistipes and retaining the abundance of Lactobacillus. However, prednisone-regulated gut microbiota did not exhibit side effects as prednisone. The reason might be that the pathogens upregulated by prednisone could not survive in the MRL/lpr mice as exogenous microbiota, such as Parasutterella, Parabacteroides, and Escherichia-Shigella.

Conclusions

These data demonstrated that the transplantation of gut microbiota may be an effective method to obtain the therapeutic effects of GCs and avoid the side effects of GCs.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13075-021-02620-w.

Gut microbiota shape B cell in health and disease settings

Recent accumulating evidence supports the hypothesis that the intricate interaction between gut microbiota and the immune system profoundly affects health and disease in humans and mice. In this context, microbiota plays an important role in educating and shaping the host immune system which, in turn, regulates gut microbiota diversity and function to maintain homeostasis. Studies have demonstrated that intestinal microbiota participates in shaping B cells in health and disease settings. Herein, we review the recent progress in understanding how microbiota regulates B-cell development, focusing on early-life B-cell repertoire generation in GALT and how microbial products, including microbial antigens and metabolites, affect B-cell activation and differentiation to ultimately regulate B-cell function. We also discuss the interaction between gut microbiota and B cells under pathogenic conditions and highlight new approaches that can be applied to treat various diseases.