NMR-BASED METABOLOMICS CHALLENGES IN GUT MICROBIOTA ANALYSIS

Background: The metabolic activity of gut microbiota (GM) influences the human health. Metabolomics represents a powerful tool to evaluate the effects of lifestyle, environment, nutrition, therapies on gut microbiota, generating insights in the interactions between the gut microbiota and host metabolism. Methods and Results: NMR spectroscopy is one of the more effective omic technique, providing a comprehensive analysis of metabolite composition of biological samples. The multivariate statistical analysis applied on NMR data can detect possible sample differentiations/homologies elicited by specific metabolites, suggesting markers of diseases/treatments/status. The literature reports NMRmetabolomic studies, in vivo and/or in vitro, on gut microbiota. Human faeces were mainly analysed monitoring gastrointestinal diseases observing differentiation in the GM metabolome between healthy people and CRC or IBD or IBS patients; in other studies, the influence of drug administration, diet, and functional foods (including prebiotics and probiotics) on microbiota metabolome was investigated. Conclusions and Significance: NMR metabolomics allows the analysis of metabolic patterns of GM, and microbiota-host interactions. The integration with metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and metaproteomics, will lead to a deeper understanding of complex biosynthetic pathways of GM. The findings could help in non–invasive prevention and diagnosis, personalized medicine, and improve the efficacy of food supplements.