Studying Changes of the Human Gut Microbiome In Response to Sweeteners Using RapidAIM

Abstract

The human gut microbiome is composed of millions of microbial genes, performing a variety of functions contributing to the host’s homeostasis. The disturbance of normal gut microbiome composition and function is associated with diseases. Dietary components including food additives, i.e., sweeteners, play a pivotal role in shaping the human gut microbiome. Despite many studies pointing out the association between sweeteners consumption and health issues, the mechanisms are still unclear and whether sweeteners can directly change the gut microbiome remains largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the responses of the human gut microbiome to 20 common sweeteners, using an approach combining high-throughput in-vitro microbiome culturing and metaproteomics, which provided both taxonomic and functional profile. Sweeteners that belonged to sugar alcohols and glycosides were revealed to induce larger changes in the microbiome metaproteome, as compared with other non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NAS). Changes in taxa abundance were found to be associated with all tested sweeteners at genus level. Clustering analysis based on functional profiling categorized sweeteners into two major clusters, including one cluster comprising 6 sugar alcohols which induced greater functional responses including reduced transport and metabolism of lipid and amino acids, and promoted translation, ribosomal structure and biogenesis, as compared with the other cluster comprising NAS. Taxon-specific functional analyses showed that microbial enzymes from Lachonospiraceae, Faecalibacterium, Eubacterium, Coprococcus and Roseburia hominis were the major contributors to altered butyrate-producing pathways by sweeteners. This study provides a comprehensive profiling of sweeteners-induced gut microbiome changes, and may serve as a basis to understand sweeteners-relevant health issues from a microbiome point of view.