Quantitative analysis of disease-related metabolic dysregulation of human microbiota

The metabolic activity of all the micro-organism composing the human micro -biome interacts with the host metabolism contributing to human health and disease in a way that is not fully understood. Here, we introduce STELLA, a computational method to derive the spectrum of metabolites associated with the microbiome of an individual. STELLA integrates known information on meta-bolic pathways associated with each bacterial species and extracts from these the list of metabolic products of each singular reaction by means of automatic text analysis. By comparing the result obtained on a single subject with the metabolic profile data of a control set of healthy subjects, we are able to identify individual metabolic alterations. To illustrate the method, we present applications to autism spectrum disorder and multiple sclerosis.

Automated summary

STELLA is a computational method used to derive the spectrum of metabolites associated with an individual's microbiome. By comparing the results with healthy individuals, individual metabolic alterations can be identified.