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  • J. Sebastian Garcia-Medina, Karolina Sienkiewicz, S. Anand Narayanan, Eliah G. Overbey, Kirill Grigorev, Krista A. Ryon, Marissa Burke, Jacqueline Proszynski, Braden Tierney, Caleb M. Schmidt, Nuria Mencia-Trinchant, Remi Klotz, Veronica Ortiz, Jonathan Foox, Christopher Chin, Deena Najjar, Irina Matei, Irenaeus Chan, Carlos Cruchaga, Ashley Kleinman, JangKeun Kim, Alexander Lucaci, Conor Loy, Omary Mzava, Iwijn De Vlaminck, Anvita Singaraju, Lynn E. Taylor, Julian C. Schmidt, Michael A. Schmidt, Kelly Blease, Juan Moreno, Andrew Boddicker, Junhua Zhao, Bryan Lajoie, Andrew Altomare, Semyon Kruglyak, Shawn Levy, Min Yu, Duane C. Hassane, Susan M. Bailey, Kelly Bolton, Jaime Mateus, Christopher E. Mason
    Precision Clinical Medicine, 2024, 7(1): pbad007. https://doi.org/10.1093/pcmedi/pbae007
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    Background: The Inspiration4 (I4) mission, the first all-civilian orbital flight mission, investigated the physiological effects of short-duration spaceflight through a multi-omic approach. Despite advances, there remains much to learn about human adaptation to spaceflight's unique challenges, including microgravity, immune system perturbations, and radiation exposure.

    Methods: To provide a detailed genetics analysis of the mission, we collected dried blood spots pre-, during, and post-flight for DNA extraction. Telomere length was measured by quantitative PCR, while whole genome and cfDNA sequencing provided insight into genomic stability and immune adaptations. A robust bioinformatic pipeline was used for data analysis, including variant calling to assess mutational burden.

    Result: Telomere elongation occurred during spaceflight and shortened after return to Earth. Cell-free DNA analysis revealed increased immune cell signatures post-flight. No significant clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) or whole-genome instability was observed. The long-term gene expression changes across immune cells suggested cellular adaptations to the space environment persisting months post-flight.

    Conclusion: Our findings provide valuable insights into the physiological consequences of short-duration spaceflight, with telomere dynamics and immune cell gene expression adapting to spaceflight and persisting after return to Earth. CHIP sequencing data will serve as a reference point for studying the early development of CHIP in astronauts, an understudied phenomenon as previous studies have focused on career astronauts. This study will serve as a reference point for future commercial and non-commercial spaceflight, low Earth orbit (LEO) missions, and deep-space exploration.

  • Zezheng Gao, Wenhui Zhang, Lisha He, Han Wang, Yufei Li, Xiaotian Jiang, Sha DI, Xinmiao Wang, Xuan Zhang, Lin Han, Yanwen Liu, Chengjuan Gu, Mengyi Wu, Xinhui He, Lei Cheng, Jun Wang, Xiaolin Tong, Linhua Zhao
    Precision Clinical Medicine, 2024, 7(1): pbad003. https://doi.org/10.1093/pcmedi/pbae003
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    Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that metabolic disorders, including type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), can be treated with traditional Chinese medicine formulas, such as the Gegen Qinlian decoction (GQD). This study elucidates the mechanisms by which gut microbes mediate the anti-diabetic effects of GQD.

    Methods: We conducted a double-blind randomized clinical trial involving 120 untreated participants with T2DM. During the 12-week intervention, anthropometric measurements and diabetic traits were recorded every 4 weeks. Fecal microbiota and serum metabolites were measured before and after the intervention using 16S rDNA sequencing, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and Bio-Plex panels.

    Results: Anti-diabetic effects were observed in the GQD group in the human trial. Specifically, glycated hemoglobin, fasting plasma glucose, and two-hour postprandial blood glucose levels were significantly lower in the GQD group than in the placebo group. Additionally, Faecalibacterium was significantly enriched in the GQD group, and the short-chain fatty acid levels were higher and the serum inflammation-associated marker levels were lower in the GQD group compared to the placebo group. Moreover, Faecalibacterium abundance negatively correlated with the levels of serum hemoglobin, fasting plasma glucose, and pro-inflammatory cytokines. Finally, the diabetes-alleviating effect of Faecalibacterium was confirmed by oral administration of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (DSMZ 17677) in T2DM mouse model.

    Conclusions: GQD improved type 2 diabetes primarily by modulating the abundance of Faecalibacterium in the gut microbiota, alleviating metabolic disorders and the inflammatory state.