Association Between Human Gut Microbiome and N-Glycan Composition of Total Plasma Proteome

Vyacheslav A Petrov; Sodbo Zh Sharapov; Lev Shagam; Arina V Nostaeva; Marija Pezer; Dalin Li; Maja Hanić; Dermot McGovern; Edouard Louis; Souad Rahmouni; Gordan Lauc; Michel Georges; Yurii S Aulchenko

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.811922

Association Between Human Gut Microbiome and N-Glycan Composition of Total Plasma Proteome

Front Microbiol. 2022 Apr 29:13:811922. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.811922. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Vyacheslav A Petrov^{1

2}, Sodbo Zh Sharapov³, Lev Shagam², Arina V Nostaeva⁴, Marija Pezer⁵, Dalin Li⁶, Maja Hanić⁷, Dermot McGovern⁶, Edouard Louis⁸, Souad Rahmouni², Gordan Lauc^{7

9}, Michel Georges², Yurii S Aulchenko³

Affiliations

¹ Unit of Animal Genomics, Grappe Interdisciplinaire de Génoprotéomique Appliquée-Institute, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
² Central Research Laboratory, Ministry of Healthcare of Russian Federation, Federal State Budget Educational Institution of Higher Education, Siberian State Medical University, Tomsk, Russia.
³ Laboratory of Glycogenomics, Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Novosibirsk, Russia.
⁴ Laboratory of Theoretical and Applied Functional Genomics, Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia.
⁵ Genos Ltd., Zagreb, Croatia.
⁶ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, The F. Widjaja Foundation Inflammatory Bowel and Immunobiology Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
⁷ Glycoscience Research Laboratory, Genos Ltd., Zagreb, Croatia.
⁸ Laboratory of Translational Gastroenterology, Grappe Interdisciplinaire de Génoprotéomique Appliquée-Institute, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
⁹ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.

Abstract

Being one of the most dynamic entities in the human body, glycosylation of proteins fine-tunes the activity of the organismal machinery, including the immune system, and mediates the interaction with the human microbial consortium, typically represented by the gut microbiome. Using data from 194 healthy individuals, we conducted an associational study to uncover potential relations between the gut microbiome and the blood plasma N-glycome, including N-glycome of immunoglobulin G. While lacking strong linkages on the multivariate level, we were able to identify associations between alpha and beta microbiome diversity and the blood plasma N-glycome profile. Moreover, for two bacterial genera, namely, Bilophila and Clostridium innocuum, significant associations with specific glycans were also shown. The study's results suggest a non-trivial, possibly weak link between the total plasma N-glycome and the gut microbiome, predominantly involving glycans related to the immune system proteins, including immunoglobulin G. Further studies of glycans linked to microbiome-related proteins in well-selected patient groups are required to conclusively establish specific associations.

Keywords: 16S sequencing; Bilophila; IgG N-glycome; mucosal microbiome; plasma N-glycome.