Ranking the impact of human health disorders on gut metabolism: Systemic lupus erythematosus and obesity as study cases

Abstract

Multiple factors have been shown to alter intestinal microbial diversity. It remains to be seen, however, how multiple collective pressures impact the activity in the gut environment and which, if any, is positioned as a dominant driving factor determining the final metabolic outcomes. Here, we describe the results of a metabolome-wide scan of gut microbiota in 18 subjects with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 17 healthy control subjects and demonstrate a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) between the two groups. Healthy controls could be categorized (p < 0.05) based on their body mass index (BMI), whereas individuals with SLE could not. We discuss the prevalence of SLE compared with BMI as the dominant factor that regulates gastrointestinal microbial metabolism and provide plausible explanatory causes. Our results uncover novel perspectives with clinical relevance for human biology. In particular, we rank the importance of various pathophysiologies for gut homeostasis.