Novel Metabolomics and Techniques for Metabolic Disorders in Intestinal Microbiota

Dear Colleagues,

As the largest microecosystem in human body, intestinal microbiota co-evolved with the host for a long time, and has vita physiological and pathological roles, such as mediating metabolism, intestinal barrier function, immune balance, biological rhythm, and neurobehavior. As host signaling molecules and/or biocatalytic substrates, intestinal flora metabolites can be absorbed through the intestine or directly act on the intestine to affect physiological and/or pathological processes in vivo. Studies have shown that intestinal flora metabolites are closely related to a variety of diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc., which has attracted increasing attention and formed academic hot spots.

Metabolites are end products of physiological activities, and their contents are final responses of biological system to gene and/or environmental alterations. Therefore, changes in metabolites are closest to the phenotype compared to those in genes/proteins. However, due to diverse structures, heterogenous physicochemical property, and wide concentration range of metabolome, profiling intestinal flora metabolites with a wide and/or deep coverage is still a great challenge. Moreover, due to the gap between different disciplines, integrating metabolomics data on intestinal microbiota with those from other omics and disciplines is still not effective. Therefore, we hope that this Special Issue can promote the development and application of metabolomic methods for studies on metabolic disorders in intestinal microbiota.

Contributions on following subject areas are welcome, but not limited to:

1. Wider and/or deeper metabolome coverage of intrinsic metabolites in intestinal microbiota. The metabolites include virulence factors (such as products of lipopolysaccharide and peptidoglycan), and quorum sensing molecules (e.g., acylated homoserine lactone). Special attention is paid to highly bioactive metabolites derived from intrinsic metabolism of intestinal microbiota, including Lipid X, Lipid IVA, lipoteichoic acid, oligopeptides and derivatives (such as muramyl dipeptides, γ-D-glutamyl-meso-diaminopimelic acid), and acylated homoserine lactone.
2. Wider and/or deeper metabolome coverage of microbial and host co-metabolites. Special attention is paid to highly bioactive metabolites, such as short-chain organic acids, bile acids, products of tryptophan, and metabolites involved in trimethylamine metabolism.
3. Pathological/toxicological effect-oriented discovery of metabolic reprogramming, bioactive metabolites and relevant regulatory targets in intestinal microbiota. For example, the discovery of quorum sensing molecules and their metabolic pathways under specific stress conditions or pathological conditions.

Dr. Guozhu Ye
Dr. Zeming Wu
Guest Editors

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