Extensive impact of non-antibiotic drugs on human gut bacteria (2018) Maier et al

alicec · Mar 23, 2018

This extensive study from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), examines the effects of more than 1000 human targeted drugs on 40 strains of the most dominant gut microbial species. It is published in the prestigious journal Nature, a reflection of the high quality of the research.

Here is the abstract

A few commonly used non-antibiotic drugs have recently been associated with changes in gut microbiome composition, but the extent of this phenomenon is unknown. Here, we screened more than 1,000 marketed drugs against 40 representative gut bacterial strains, and found that 24% of the drugs with human targets, including members of all therapeutic classes, inhibited the growth of at least one strain in vitro. Particular classes, such as the chemically diverse antipsychotics, were overrepresented in this group. The effects of human-targeted drugs on gut bacteria are reflected on their antibiotic-like side effects in humans and are concordant with existing human cohort studies. Susceptibility to antibiotics and human-targeted drugs correlates across bacterial species, suggesting common resistance mechanisms, which we verified for some drugs. The potential risk of non-antibiotics promoting antibiotic resistance warrants further exploration. Our results provide a resource for future research on drug–microbiome interactions, opening new paths for side effect control and drug repurposing, and broadening our view of antibiotic resistance.
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Here is the full article and here is the press release from EMBL.

Other notably comments from the paper include:-

Notably, 27% of the non-antibiotic drugs were also active in our screen.
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More than half of the anti-infectives against viruses or eukaryotes exhibited anticommensal activity (47 drugs; Fig. 1a, b)
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Overall, species with higher relative abundance across healthy individuals were significantly more susceptible to human-targeted drugs (P=0.0012 based on Spearman correlation; Fig. 1c). This suggests that human-targeted drugs have an even larger impact on the gut microbiome, with key species related to healthy status15, such as major butyrate producers (E. rectale, R. intestinalis, Coprococcus comes) and propionate producers (B. vulgatus, Prevotella copri, Blautia obeum) 16, and enterotype drivers (P. copri) 17, being relatively more affected.
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Thus, our results underscore the necessity of accounting for potential medication-related confounding effects in future microbiome disease association studies. Moreover, one could speculate that pharmaceuticals, used regularly in our times, may be contributing to a decrease in microbiome diversity in modern Western societies
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Finally the high throughput screening technique which the study rests on was developed in a parallel study from EMBL, published at the same time in Nature Microbiology. Here is the abstract and here is the press release from EMBL.

This is a very technical paper which most would probably not want to delve into, but its importance lies in the development of culture techniques in defined media which facilitate the detailed study of the major gut bacteria.

Awol · Mar 23, 2018

Interesting, thanks for posting it @alicec.

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Extensive impact of non-antibiotic drugs on human gut bacteria (2018) Maier et al

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