The human gut is inhabited by several hundred different bacterial species. These bacteria are closely associated with our health and well-being. The composition of these diverse commensals is influenced by our dietary intakes. Non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NAS) have gained global popularity, particularly among diabetic patients, due to their perceived health benefits, such as reduction of body weight and maintenance of blood glucose level compared to caloric sugars. Recent studies have reported that these artificial sweeteners can alter the composition of gut microbiota and, thus, affect our normal physiological state. Here, we investigated the effect of aspartame and acesulfame potassium (ace-K), two popular NAS, in a commercial formulation on the growth and metabolic pathways of omnipresent gut commensal Escherichia coliby analyzing the relative expression levels of the key genes, which control over twenty important metabolic pathways. Treatment with NAS preparation (aspartame and ace-K) modulates the growth of E. colias well as inducing the expression of important metabolic genes associated with glucose (pfkA, sucA, aceE, pfkB, lpdA), nucleotide (tmk, adk, tdk, thyA), and fatty acid (fabI) metabolisms, among others. Several of the affected geneswere previously reported to be important for the colonization of the microbes in the gut. These findings may shed light on the mechanism of alteration of gut microbes and their metabolism by NAS.
J Mol Microbiol Biotechnol

中文翻译：

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非热量人工甜味剂调节无所不在的肠道微生物大肠杆菌中关键代谢基因的表达。

人的肠道内有数百种细菌。这些细菌与我们的健康息息相关。这些不同食物的成分受我们饮食摄入的影响。非热量人造甜味剂（NAS）已获得全球普及，尤其是在糖尿病患者中，这是因为它们具有健康益处，例如与热量糖相比，可以减轻体重和维持血糖水平。最近的研究报道，这些人造甜味剂可以改变肠道菌群的组成，从而影响我们的正常生理状态。在这里，我们研究了商业化配方中两种流行的NAS阿斯巴甜和乙酰磺胺酸钾（ace-K）对无处不在的肠道生长和代谢途径的影响。通过分析关键基因的相对表达水平来控制大肠杆菌，这些关键基因控制着20条重要的代谢途径。NAS制剂（阿斯巴甜和ace-K）的处理可调节大肠杆菌的生长，并诱导与葡萄糖（pfkA，sucA，aceE，pfkB，lpdA），核苷酸（tmk，adk，tdk）相关的重要代谢基因的表达，thyA）和脂肪酸（fabI）的新陈代谢。几个受影响的基因以前据报道对肠道微生物的定殖很重要。这些发现可能揭示了NAS改变肠道微生物及其代谢的机制。
微生物微生物学杂志