The gut microbiota inhabits the animal intestinal tract, and dysbiosis of the gut microbiota may result in disease. Senecio scandens has pharmaceutical antibacterial activities and is regarded as a broad-spectrum antibiotic in traditional Chinese medicine. Extracts of S. scandens are reported to show strong antimicrobial activity, and quercetin significantly decreases some species in the caecal microflora. However, the bactericidal effects of the extracts on the gut microbiota remain obscure. Here, we supplied ethanol extract of S. scandens, which might possibly be used as an alternative for chemical antibiotics, to mice to investigate the state of the intestinal microbiota. Our studies included a control group, low-, moderate-, and high-dose ethanol extract groups, and cefixime capsule group. The ethanol extract groups did not present reduced diversity or differences in the gut microbiota balance. There were significant differences between the ethanol extract and cefixime capsule groups in terms of the gut microbiota. The control and ethanol extract groups contained similar bacteria, which suggested that the ethanol extract has no inhibitory effect on the gut microbiota in vivo. Bifidobacteriales and Lactobacillus acidophilus were significantly increased in the high-dose group. Both secretory immunoglobulin A and mucin 2 concentrations increased as the dose of ethanol extract increased. The functional prediction differences between the control and ethanol extract groups decreased with increasing extract doses, which indicated that the low-dose and high-dose extract treatments might regulate different pathways and functions of the gut microbiota. The results also highlighted the prevention of bacterial drug resistance in the ethanol extract groups.

中文翻译：

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千里光乙醇提取物对小鼠肠道菌群组成的影响

肠道菌群栖息在动物肠道内，肠道菌群失调可能导致疾病。千里光具有药用抗菌活性，被视为中药中的广谱抗生素。据报道，S. scandens 的提取物显示出很强的抗菌活性，而槲皮素可显着减少盲肠菌群中的某些物种。然而，提取物对肠道微生物群的杀菌作用仍然不清楚。在这里，我们向小鼠提供了 S. scandens 的乙醇提取物，它可能用作化学抗生素的替代品，以研究肠道微生物群的状态。我们的研究包括对照组、低、中、高剂量乙醇提取物组和头孢克肟胶囊组。乙醇提取物组未表现出肠道微生物群平衡的多样性或差异性降低。在肠道微生物群方面，乙醇提取物和头孢克肟胶囊组之间存在显着差异。对照组和乙醇提取物组含有相似的细菌，这表明乙醇提取物对体内肠道微生物群没有抑制作用。双歧杆菌和嗜酸乳杆菌在高剂量组显着增加。随着乙醇提取物剂量的增加，分泌性免疫球蛋白 A 和粘蛋白 2 的浓度都增加。对照组和乙醇提取物组之间的功能预测差异随着提取物剂量的增加而减小，这表明低剂量和高剂量提取物处理可能调节肠道微生物群的不同途径和功能。结果还强调了乙醇提取物组中细菌耐药性的预防。