Systematic Survey of the Alteration of the Faecal Microbiota in Rats With Gastrointestinal Disorder and Modulation by Multicomponent Drugs

Yue Wu; Yang Wu; Hongwei Wu; Changxun Wu; Enhui Ji; Jing Xu; Yi Zhang; Junying Wei; Yi Zhao; Hongjun Yang

doi:10.3389/fphar.2021.670335

Systematic Survey of the Alteration of the Faecal Microbiota in Rats With Gastrointestinal Disorder and Modulation by Multicomponent Drugs

Front Pharmacol. 2021 Nov 2:12:670335. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.670335. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yue Wu^{1

2}, Yang Wu^{2

3}, Hongwei Wu¹, Changxun Wu¹, Enhui Ji¹, Jing Xu¹, Yi Zhang¹, Junying Wei¹, Yi Zhao³, Hongjun Yang²

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
² Medical Experimental Center of Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Intelligent Information Processing, Advanced Computer Research Center, Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Gastrointestinal disorder (GID) is a global health disease which leads to heavy public medical burden. Disorders in the intestinal flora have been found in gastrointestinal disorder patients. However, the interaction between GID and the intestinal flora in faecal has not been studied comprehensively. In addition, multicomponent drugs represented by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are widely used for treating GID, but their modulation of the intestinal flora has not been investigated. Therefore, in this study, a high-throughput sequencing strategy was used to investigate alterations in the intestinal flora in a rat GID model, followed by an investigation of the modulation by a representative TCM, Xiaoerfupi (XEFP) granule. The results showed that in rats with GID, the relative abundances of Erysipelotrichaceae, Lachnospiraceae, Streptococcaceae increased and that of Ruminococcaceae decreased. At the macro level, the levels of LysoPC(16:0), LysoPC(20:2), LysoPC(15:0), LysoPC(20:2 (11Z, 14Z)), LysoPC(20:1), LysoPC(15:0), LysoPC(20:0) and LysoPE (0:0/20:0) in serum increased and levels of PC(36:4), PC(38:4), PC(o-36;4), PE (MonoMe(13,5)/MonoMe(11,5)) decreased. The imbalance of metabolites was restored by XEFP through ether lipid metabolism pathway. Increase in the phyla Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio of the GID rats was restored by XEFP as well. Moreover, XEFP can relief the symptoms of GID rats by increasing bacteria Ruminococcaceae and decreasing Streptococcaceae, Erysipelotrichaceae and Lachnospiraceae in faecal microbiota level. This study represents a comprehensive survey of the interaction between GID and the intestinal flora and a systematic evaluation of modulation by a multicomponent drug.

Keywords: XEFP; functional dyspepsia; intestinal flora; metabonomics; network pharmacology.

Publication types

Review