Alterations of the Gut Microbiota Associated With Promoting Efficacy of Prednisone by Bromofuranone in MRL/lpr Mice

This study addressed the effect of bromofuranone on the treatment of SLE with prednisone, since bromofuranone could regulate gut microbiota by inhibiting the AI-2/LuxS quorum-sensing. Remarkably, bromofuranone did not alleviate lupus but promoted the efficacy of prednisone in the treatment of lupus. The alterations in the gut microbiota, including decreased Mucispirillum, Oscillospira, Bilophila and Rikenella, and increased Anaerostipes, were associated with prednisone treatment for SLE. In addition, the increase of Lactobacillus, Allobaculum, Sutterella, and Adlercreutzia was positively associated with the bromofuranone-mediated promotion for the treatment of lupus. This was the first study demonstrating that the efficacy of glucocorticoids could be affected by the interventions in gut microbiota. Introduction Systemic lupus erythematosus was a severe multisystemic autoimmune disease characterized by the loss of tolerance to autoantigens along with the production of antinuclear antibodies. Autoantibodies produced by autoreactive B cells leaded to the formation and deposition of immune complexes in most tissues of the body (Sanz and Lee, 2010). The etiology of SLE had been related to genetic, environmental, hormonal, and immunological factors (Tsokos, 2011). Recently, a strong relationship between the gut microbiota and SLE had been demonstrated in SLE patients (Hevia et al., 2014; He et al., 2016) and lupus mice (Zhang et al., 2014; Luo X.M. et al., 2018). Furthermor...
Source: Frontiers in Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Source Type: research