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. 2022 Mar 28:10:862598.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.862598. eCollection 2022.

Gut Bacteria Erysipelatoclostridium and Its Related Metabolite Ptilosteroid A Could Predict Radiation-Induced Intestinal Injury

Shang Cai  1   2   3 , Yongqiang Yang  1   2   3 , Yuehong Kong  1   2   3 , Qi Guo  1   2   3 , Yingying Xu  1   2   3 , Pengfei Xing  1   2   3 , Yanze Sun  1   2   3 , Jianjun Qian  1   2   3 , Ruizhe Xu  1   2   3 , Liwei Xie  1   2   3 , Yijia Hu  1   2   3 , Min Wang  4 , Ming Li  5 , Ye Tian  1   2   3 , Weidong Mao  1   2   3
Affiliations

Gut Bacteria Erysipelatoclostridium and Its Related Metabolite Ptilosteroid A Could Predict Radiation-Induced Intestinal Injury

Shang Cai et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

It is difficult to study the intestinal damage induced by space radiation to astronauts directly, and few prediction models exist. However, we can simulate it in patients with pelvic tumor radiotherapy (RT). Radiation-induced intestinal injury (RIII) is common in cancer patients who receieved pelvic and abdominal RT. We dynamically analyzed gut microbiota and metabolites alterations in 17 cervical and endometrial cancer patients after pelvic RT. In patients who later developed grade 2 RIII, dysbiosis of gut microbiota and metabolites were observed. Univariate analysis showed that Erysipelatoclostridium and ptilosteroid A were related to the occurrence of grade 2 RIII. Notably, a strong positive correlation between gut bacteria Erysipelatoclostridium relative abundance and gut metabolite ptilosteroid A expression was found. Furthermore, combinations of Erysipelatoclostridium and ptilosteroid A could provide good diagnostic markers for grade 2 RIII. In conclusion, gut bacteria Erysipelatoclostridium and its related metabolite ptilosteroid A may collaboratively predict RIII, and could be diagnostic biomarkers for RIII and space radiation injury.

Keywords: biomarker; gut bacteria; gut bacteria related metabolite; radiation-induced intestinal injury; radiotherapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflictof interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Alterations of gut microbiome between grade 2 and grade 0 or 1 RIII patients at all the three timepoints. (A) Box plot of the Chao1 index and Shannon index. (B) PCoA and NMDS analysis. (C–E) LEfSe analysis based on OTU abundance. (F–H) Taxonomic cladograms with LDA score ≥2.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Alterations of gut metabolites between grade 2 and grade 0 or 1 RIII patients at all the three timepoints. (A–F) PLS-DA and OPLS-DA score plots. (G–I) OPLS-DA score plots.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Gut metabonomics in grade 2 RIII patients significantly differed from that in grade 0 or 1 RIII patients at all the three timepoints. (A–C) Volcano plot of the significantly differential metabolites. (D–F) Heat maps of the significantly differential metabolites. (G–J) Expression level of ptilosteroid A of the two groups. (K–M) correlations of the differentially expressed metabolites. The symbol * means the P value was smaller than 0.05.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Identification of significantly different pathways associated with RIII. (A–C) The top 20 enriched pathways. (D–F) Heatmap of enriched metabolic pathway. (G–I) bubble plots of enriched metabolic pathway.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Predictive value of gut microbiome and metabolites for predicting RIII. (A) ROC plot for Erysipelatoclostridium after 45–50 Gy. (B–D) ROC plot for ptilosteroid A at 0 Gy, after 20–30 and 45–50 Gy. (E) The ROC analysis of the combination of ptilosteroid A at all the three timepoints. (F) The ROC analysis of the combination of Erysipelatoclostridium and ptilosteroid A.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Associations between Erysipelatoclostridium and ptilosteroid A. (A–C) The correlation between gut Erysipelatoclostridium relative abundance and ptilosteroid A expression at all the three timepoints by Spearman's correlation analysis.
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