Nat Metabol: The gut microbiome plays a special role in shaping the body's blood metabolome

Changes in the blood metabolome are closely related to human health, however, researchers know very
little about the details of the interactions between genetics and the microbiome that explain this change at the metabolite-by-metabolite level 。 Recently, in a study report entitled "Genome–microbiome interplay provides insight into the determinants of the human blood metabolome" published in the international journal Nature Metabolism, scientists from the American Institute of Systems Biology and other institutions revealed through research that is related to the body's gut microbiome.
The results of genetics, or specific blood metabolites that interact between the two, may help guide scientists to develop targeted therapies to alter the composition of the body's blood metabolome to improve human health
.

With renewed evidence of the nearly two-hundred-year-old adage "you are what you eat," researchers have found that the gut microbiome (including what we feed them) is largely responsible for changes in blood metabolites circulating in different populations, which may help us design targeted interventions to alter the composition
of the human blood metabolome 。 Researcher Dr.
Sean Gibbons said that we know that the blood metabolome is a small group of molecules in the body's blood that can interact with all systems, and its differences between individuals may tell us relevant information about the health and disease status of the body, and that elucidating the mechanisms behind this change may help researchers develop precise strategies
to improve human health.

Image source: https://pubmed.
ncbi.
nlm.
nih.
gov/36357685/

In the article, the researchers analyzed 930 blood metabolites from more than 1,500 individual organisms and found that more than 60% of the detected metabolites were clearly associated with host body genetic traits or gut microbiome; Notably, 69% of the associations were driven entirely by the microbiome, while 15% were driven by genetic traits and 16% were controlled
by the genetic-microbiome mix 。 The researchers found that changes in blood metabolites interpreted by the microbiome are largely independent of changes explained by the genome, even with mixed metabolites that are significantly associated with both genetics and microbes, and that some metabolite-microbe associations are only pronounced in individuals with specific genetic backgrounds, suggesting that microbiome and host genetic traits interact very subtly in shaping the
body's blood metabolome.

These findings are very promising, firstly, a large number of microbiome-specific metabolites suggest that most of the blood metabolites in the body can be modified through diet, probiotics, and other lifestyle interventions, and second, metabolites under strict genetic control may not respond to lifestyle modifications, which may make them targets for drug interventions that directly target host body pathways
.

Researcher Andrew Magis said that a deeper understanding of the determinants of blood metabolites in the body may provide researchers with clues to understand how levels of these circulating metabolites can be engineered and optimized to improve body health; Understanding which small circulating molecules are primarily controlled by the host and microbiome may also help develop novel interventions to prevent or treat a range of human diseases
.
In summary, the results of this study may help guide scientists to develop targeted interventions to change the composition
of the human blood metabolome.
(Biovalley Bioon.
com)

Original source:

Christian Diener, Chengzhen L Dai, Tomasz Wilmanski, et al.
 Genome–microbiome interplay provides insight into the determinants of the human blood metabolome, Nature Metabolism (2022).
DOI: 10.
1038/s42255-022-00670-1