Department of Pathogen Biology-Microbiology Division, State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Key Laboratory of Pathogen Biology of Jiangsu Province, Center for Global Health, Nanjing Medical University , Nanjing, China.
Key Laboratory of Human Functional Genomics of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing Medical University , Nanjing, China.
Gut Microbes. 2020 Nov 1;11(6):1758-1773. doi: 10.1080/19490976.2020.1768644. Epub 2020 Jun 7.
A growing corpus of evidence implicates the involvement of the commensal microbiota and immune cytokines in the initiation and progression of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Glucocorticoids have been widely used in the treatment of SLE patients, however, glucocorticoid treatment carries a higher risk of other diseases. Using the 16S rRNA technique, we investigated the differences between the gut microbiota associated with the immune cytokines of SLE and relevant glucocorticoid treatment in a female cohort of 20 healthy control subjects (HC), 17 subjects with SLE (SLE-G), and 20 SLE patients having undergone glucocorticoid treatment (SLE+G). We observed that the diversity and structure of the microbial community in SLE+G patients were significantly changed compared to that of SLE-G patients, whereas the gut microbial community of the SLE+G group showed a similarity with the HC group, which implicate that the shift in the gut microbiome could represent a return to homeostasis. Furthermore, the up-regulations of immune cytokines in SLE-G were identified as closely related to gut dysbiosis, which indicates that the overrepresented genera in SLE patients may play roles in regulating expression level of these immune cytokines. This associated analysis of gut microbiota, glucocorticoid therapy, and immune factors might provide novel and insightful clues revealing the pathogenesis of SLE patients.
越来越多的证据表明，共生微生物群和免疫细胞因子参与了系统性红斑狼疮（SLE）的发生和发展。糖皮质激素已被广泛用于治疗 SLE 患者，但糖皮质激素治疗存在更高的其他疾病风险。我们使用 16S rRNA 技术，在一个由 20 名健康对照受试者（HC）、17 名 SLE 患者（SLE-G）和 20 名接受糖皮质激素治疗的 SLE 患者（SLE+G）组成的女性队列中，研究了与 SLE 相关的免疫细胞因子和相关糖皮质激素治疗相关的肠道微生物群之间的差异。我们观察到，与 SLE-G 患者相比，SLE+G 患者的微生物群落多样性和结构发生了显著变化，而 SLE+G 组的肠道微生物群落与 HC 组相似，这表明肠道微生物群的转移可能代表着恢复到平衡状态。此外，SLE-G 中免疫细胞因子的上调被确定与肠道菌群失调密切相关，这表明 SLE 患者中过度表达的属可能在调节这些免疫细胞因子的表达水平方面发挥作用。这项关于肠道微生物群、糖皮质激素治疗和免疫因素的关联分析，可能为揭示 SLE 患者的发病机制提供新的、有见地的线索。
