Food nutrients play a key role in human metabolism and health via the modulation of multiple mechanisms, including energy metabolism, intestinal homeostasis, antioxidant homeostasis, and immune responses. The intestine is an essential organ involved in human nutrition, the metabolic activity of gut microbes is essential for maintaining host health, and alterations in its composition induce metabolic shifts that may have adverse effects. The consensus on microbiota-mediated healthy effects on the host is based on the microbe-induced biotransformation of food components into bioactive metabolites. Bioactive molecules exhibit, in combination with food components, the ability to modulate the metabolic pathways of the host or to modify the composition and metabolism of the microbiota. Studies indicated the efficacy of the carbohydrates accessible to the microbiota (MACs), polyphenols, and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in increasing the microbial population with the ability to yield biologically active metabolites (e.g., polyphenol metabolites, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)) capable of modulating redox homeostasis of the host.
Disease | Model | Microbiota Alteration Production of SCFAs |
Ref. | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Diabetes | Randomized clinical trial High-fiber diet |
Type 2 diabetes ↓ SCFAs High fiber intake ↑ SCFAs ↑ SCFA-producing bacteria |
[5] | |
Meta analysis Dietary fiber |
↑ Butyrate, propionate ↑ Bifidobacterium |
[6] | ||
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) | 313 patients | ↓ Acetate-to-butyrate converter Firmicutes (Roseburia) ↓ Propionate ↑ Pathogens (Enterobacteriaceae, Proteobacteria) |
[7] | |
127 patients 87 healthy controls |
↓ Butyrate-producing bacteria (Firmicutes) ↓ SCFAs (acetate, propionate, butyrate) |
[8] | ||
10 inactive Crohn patients 10 healthy controls |
↓ SCFA-producing bacteria ↓ Roseburia inulinivorans, ↓ Ruminococcus torques, ↓ Clostridium lavalense, ↓ Bacteroides uniformis ↓ Faecalibacterium prausnitzii |
[9] | ||
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease |
14 nonalcoholic fatty liver, 18 nonalcoholic steatohepatitis 27 healthy controls |
↑ SCFA levels ↑ SCFA-producing bacteria (Fusobacteriaceae, Prevotellaceae) |
[10] | |
25 nonalcoholic fatty liver 25 nonalcoholic steatohepatitis 25 healthy donors |
↓ Ruminococcaceae ↓ Clostridiales ↑ Bacteroidetes ↓ Firmicutes |
[11] | ||
30 patients F0/1 fibrosis stage 27 patients F ≥ 2 fibrosis |
↑ Bacteroidetes (F ≥ 2) ↑ Ruminococcus (F ≥ 2) ↓ Prevotella |
[12] | ||
Neurodegeneration | Parkinson’s Disease | Nonparametric meta-analysis | ↑ Akkermansia ↓ Fecal SCFAs (acetate, propionate, butyrate) |
[13] |
96 patients 85 controls |
↓ Fecal SCFAs ↑ Plasma SCFAs ↑ Pro-inflammatory bacteria |
[14] | ||
95 patients 33 controls |
↓ Fecal SCFAs (propionic acetic, butyric) ↑ Plasma SCFA (propionic acetic) |
[15] | ||
Alzheimer’s Disease | 25 patients | ↓ Firmicutes, Bifidobacterium ↑ Bacteroidetes |
[16] | |
33 dementia 22 mild cognitive impairment 120 subjective cognitive decline |
↓ SCFA-producing bacteria (Ruminococcus, Eubacterium) ↑ AD biomarkers (Amyloid-β1-42 and p-tau concentrations) |
[17] | ||
Mouse model Sodium butyrate supplementation |
↓ Amyloid-β1-42 protein (40%) | [18] |
It can be assumed that butyrate, being a fundamental nutrient for colonocytes, satisfies the metabolic demands of the colon epithelium [19], and it also modulates the expression of tight junction proteins, thus preserving the intestinal barrier whose integrity is a crucial part of the overall immune response [20]. In addition, local O2 consumption during butyrate uptake and its metabolism by the intestinal epithelium stabilizes the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)—a transcription factor that coordinates barrier protection—which promotes the creation of an anaerobic environment. This “physiological hypoxia” stimulates the growth of SCFA-producers (anaerobic bacteria) [21], indirectly regulating the functionality of the intestinal barrier [22]. In addition, SCFAs have been shown to display an inhibitory effect on the growth of potentially pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella typhimurium [23] or Clostridium difficile [24].
The detailed description of the mechanisms involved in the signalling activity of SCFAs does not fall within the scope of this work and, due to its complexity, only a synthetic presentation is reported herein. Besides the relevant role in intestinal health, SCFAs may play their signalling role via the activation of several biochemical pathways: G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), histone deacetylases (HDACs), and Nrf2 [48][49][50] (Figure 1).
The shared molecular pathways activated by polyphenols, PUFAs, and SCFAs support the role of Nrf2, HDACs, and GPRs in the beneficial effects elicited by dietary MACs, polyphenols, and PUFAs. Since the activation of these pathways triggers a downstream signaling cascade, this can explain why dietary bioactive molecules can exert antioxidant/beneficial effects even when present in a low plasma concentration.
Interestingly, the functional link existing between antioxidant activity and gut microbiota homeostasis has been indicated by (a) the modulatory ability of SCFAs in the Nrf2 pathway [49], (b) the age-dependent decline in the concentration of SCFAs in the gut [59], and (c) the positive association between microbiota diversity and Nrf2 efficacy [60]. In addition, the link between the production of SCFAs and the Nrf2 pathway was indicated in a recent study showing the ability of Clostridium butyricum pretreatment to increase the SCFA contents in the cecum of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli K88 (ETEC K88)-infected mice. In particular, the data indicated that such improvement was associated with the amelioration of the oxidative damage induced by ETEC K88 infection through the activation of the Nrf2 pathway [61]. A summary of the differential ability of microbial SCFAs in activating different receptors involved in the Nrf2 pathway is shown in Table 2.
Table 2. A brief summary of SCFAs produced by the gut microbial population and of their response to different receptors; adapted from [3,49]. Low or high affinity is denoted by + or ++, respectively.Phylum | Family | Genus | FFAR3 (GPR41) |
FFAR2 (GPR43) |
GPR109A | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Firmicutes | Lachnospiraceae | Coprococcus | ACETATE | + + | + + | + + |
Barnesiella | ||||||
Ruminococcaceae | ||||||
Akkermansia | ||||||
Prevotella | ||||||
Bifidobacterium | ||||||
Bacteroidetes | Bacteroidaceae | Bacteroides | PROPIONATE | + | + + | + |
Prevotellaceae | Prevotella | |||||
Rikenellaceae | Alistipes | |||||
Firmicutes | Eubacterium | |||||
Blautia | ||||||
Coprococcus | ||||||
Veillonellaceae | Dialister | |||||
Acidaminococcaceae | Phascolarctobacterium | |||||
Verrucomicrobia | Verrucomicrobiaceae | Akkermansia | ||||
Firmicutes | Lachnospiraceae | Eubacterium | BUTYRATE | + + | + + | + + |
Roseburia | ||||||
Clostridium | ||||||
Eubacterium | ||||||
Anaerostipes | ||||||
Coprococcus | ||||||
Ruminococcaceae | Faecalibacterium | |||||
Subdoligranulum | ||||||
Erysipelotrichaceae | Holdemanella |
Finally, the interplay existing between different SCFAs further strengthens the complexity of their mechanism of action [62,63] (Figure 1).
This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/antiox12051073