Arsenic contamination in drinking water has been a worldwide health concern for decades. In addition to being a well-recognized carcinogen, arsenic exposure has also been linked to diabetes, neurological effects, and cardiovascular diseases. Recently, increasing evidence has indicated that gut microbiome is an important risk factor in modulating the development of diseases. We aim to investigate the role of gut microbiome perturbation in arsenic-induced diseases by coupling a mass-spectrometry-based metabolomics approach and an animal model with altered gut microbiome induced by bacterial infection. Serum metabolic profiling has revealed that gut microbiome perturbation and arsenic exposure induced the dramatic changes of numerous metabolite pathways, including fatty acid metabolism, phospholipids, sphingolipids, cholesterols, and tryptophan metabolism, which were not or were less disrupted when the gut microbiome stayed normal. In summary, this study suggests that gut microbiome perturbation can exacerbate or cause metabolic disorders induced by arsenic exposure.

中文翻译：

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血清代谢组学揭示肠道微生物组扰动介导小鼠砷暴露引起的代谢破坏。

几十年来，饮用水中的砷污染一直是世界范围内对健康的关注。除了是公认的致癌物外，砷暴露还与糖尿病，神经系统疾病和心血管疾病有关。最近，越来越多的证据表明肠道微生物组是调节疾病发展的重要危险因素。我们的目标是通过结合基于质谱的代谢组学方法和动物模型与细菌感染诱导的肠道微生物组改变相结合，来研究肠道微生物组扰动在砷诱发的疾病中的作用。血清代谢分析表明，肠道微生物组扰动和砷暴露引起许多代谢途径的急剧变化，包括脂肪酸代谢，磷脂，鞘脂，胆固醇，和色氨酸的代谢，当肠道微生物组保持正常时，它们没有或受到较少的破坏。总而言之，这项研究表明肠道微生物组扰动会加剧或引起砷暴露引起的代谢紊乱。