FaecMet · Broadening the coverage of metabolites in faeces through advanced analytical strategies

Broadening the coverage of metabolites in faeces through advanced analytical strategies

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder that presents a high mortality rate. The vast majority of individuals affected by this disorder are women. AN etiopathogenesis, though not fully understood, involves genetics and environmental factors. Despite the active research on AN, its syndrome and evolution/prognosis are not well-defined, varying greatly between individuals. Neurological implications associated with mental health in AN have been linked to an altered gut in these individuals. Indeed, the gut microbiota produces a variety of active biomolecules capable of causing neurological effects, and thus, the emerging idea that the intestinal microbiota could contribute to the development of AN. The understanding of the influence of gut-brain axis, i.e., gut health state on these individuals might shed light on individualized treatments and supplementation to be added to the multidisciplinary treatment strategies currently being employed for AN. In this context, this present MSCA-PF titled “Broadening the coverage of metabolites in faeces through advanced analytical strategies” aimed to develop new analytical strategies to add to the toolbox of strategies employed towards assessing gut-related metabolites to assess in understanding the gut health of individuals suffering from AN. To this end, within FaecMet a facile, green (no solvent employed in the sample preparation) protocol was developed for profiling a broad range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in faeces, including determination of SCFAs. Through multivariate design of experiments the HS-SPME method was carefully optimized with the aim to detected a broad range of VOCs, including highly volatile compounds associated with gut-bacteria metabolism, often not detected by other sample preparation methods, while successfully being able to simultaneously determine short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in the same method. The optimized and validated protocol was applied to faecal samples from AN patients and controls, and at least 209 VOCs comprising various chemical functionalities could be annotated in faecal samples. To broaden the scope of gut-related metabolites investigated on AN patients, we also employed a method for the determination of 25 bile acids (BAs) in faeces. Moreover, it is noteworthy the importance of the gut-liver on SCFAs metabolism axis, since the liver serves as a major site for the metabolic processing of gut-derived SCFAs. Despite that, the number of studies conducted on this matrix is limited. Therefore, an ultrasensitive method for quantitation of trace-levels of SCFAs in liver tissue (mice) was developed and validated. Information gathered by these tools developed within this MSCA can help to get an overview of gut-related metabolites in AN individuals which could lead to a deeper understanding on the role of gut-related metabolites and dysbiosis on AN patients, prompting studies towards individualized interventions and treatments aiming to investigate whether correction of gut dysbiosis may have therapeutic effects in AN.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз