1 r e s o u r c eChanges in the composition of the human gut microbiota have been associated with the development of chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and colorectal cancer 1 . Gut bacterial functions, such as synthesis of amino acids and vitamins 2 , breakdown of indigestible plant polysaccharides 3 , and production of metabolites involved in energy metabolism 4 , have been linked to human health. The use of 'omics approaches to study human microbiome communities has led to the generation of enormous data sets whose interpretations require systems biology tools to shed light on the functional capacity of gut microbiomes and their interactions with the human host 5 .In order to infer the metabolic repertoire of a gut metagenome data set, researchers usually map sequenced genes or organisms onto metabolic networks derived from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) 6 , and functional annotations from KEGG ontologies 7 . However, this approach cannot identify the contribution of each bacterial species to the metabolic repertoire of the whole gut microbiome, nor can it infer the effects of different gut microbial communities on host metabolism.A technique that can bridge this gap is constraint-based reconstruction and analysis (COBRA) 8 using genome-scale metabolic reconstructions (GENREs) of individual human gut microbes. GENREs are assembled using the genome sequence and experimental information 9 . These reconstructions form the basis for the development of condition-specific metabolic models whose functions are simulated and validated by comparison with experimental results. The models can be used to investigate genotype-phenotype relationships 10 , microbe-microbe interactions 11 , and host-microbe interactions 11 . Numerous tools can be used to automatically generate draft GENREs but such models contain errors 12 and are incomplete.Manual curation of draft reconstructions is time consuming because it involves an extensive literature review and experimental validation of metabolic functions 9 .To provide an extensive resource of GENREs for human gut microbes, we developed a comparative metabolic reconstruction method that enables any refinement to one metabolic reconstruction to be propagated to others. This accelerates reconstruction and improves model quality. We generated AGORA, which includes 773 gut microbes, comprising 205 genera and 605 species. All reconstructions were based on literature-derived experimental data and comparative genomics. The metabolic predictions of two AGORA reconstructions and their derived metabolic models were validated against experimental data. RESULTS Metabolic reconstruction pipelineWe devised a comparative metabolic reconstruction method (Fig. 1a,c), which is analogous to the comparative microbial genome annotation approach 13 that has enabled accelerated annotation by propagation of refinements to one genome to others. First, we downloaded draft GENREs using Model SEED 14 and KBase (US Department of Energy Systems Biology Knowledgebase, http:/...

Recent studies demonstrated that autophagy is an important regulator of innate immune response. However, the mechanism by which autophagy regulates natural killer (NK) cell-mediated antitumor immune responses remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate that hypoxia impairs breast cancer cell susceptibility to NK-mediated lysis in vitro via the activation of autophagy. This impairment was not related to a defect in target cell recognition by NK cells but to the degradation of NK-derived granzyme B in autophagosomes of hypoxic cells. Inhibition of autophagy by targeting beclin1 (BECN1) restored granzyme B levels in hypoxic cells in vitro and induced tumor regression in vivo by facilitating NK-mediated tumor cell killing. Together, our data highlight autophagy as a mechanism underlying the resistance of hypoxic tumor cells to NK-mediated lysis. The work presented here provides a cutting-edge advance in our understanding of the mechanism by which hypoxia-induced autophagy impairs NK-mediated lysis in vitro and paves the way for the formulation of more effective NK cell-based antitumor therapies.hypoxic tumor microenvironment | innate immunity | breast adenocarcinoma | immunotherapy

Considerable evidence has been gathered over the last 10 years showing that the tumor microenvironment (TME) is not simply a passive recipient of immune cells, but an active participant in the establishment of immunosuppressive conditions. It is now well documented that hypoxia, within the TME, affects the functions of immune effectors including natural killer (NK) cells by multiple overlapping mechanisms. Indeed, each cell in the TME, irrespective of its transformation status, has the capacity to adapt to the hostile TME and produce immune modulatory signals or mediators affecting the function of immune cells either directly or through the stimulation of other cells present in the tumor site. This observation has led to intense research efforts focused mainly on tumor-derived factors. Notably, it has become increasingly clear that tumor cells secrete a number of environmental factors such as cytokines, growth factors, exosomes, and microRNAs impacting the immune cell response. Moreover, tumor cells in hostile microenvironments may activate their own intrinsic resistance mechanisms, such as autophagy, to escape the effective immune response. Such adaptive mechanisms may also include the ability of tumor cells to modify their metabolism and release several metabolites to impair the function of immune cells. In this review, we summarize the different mechanisms involved in the TME that affect the anti-tumor immune function of NK cells.

While the autophagic process is mainly regulated at the post-translational level, a growing body of evidence suggests that autophagy might also be regulated at the transcriptional level. The identification of transcription factors involved in the regulation of autophagy genes has provided compelling evidence for such regulation. In this context, a powerful high throughput analysis tool to simultaneously monitor the expression level of autophagy genes is urgently needed. Here we describe setting up the first comprehensive human autophagy database (HADb, available at www.autophagy.lu) and the development of a companion Human Autophagy-dedicated cDNA Microarray which comprises 234 genes involved in or related to autophagy. The autophagy microarray tool used on breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 cell line allowed the identification of 47 differentially expressed autophagy genes associated with the acquisition of resistance to the cytotoxic effect of TNFα. The autophagy-core machinery genes DRAM (Damage-Regulated Autophagy Modulator), BNIP3L (BCL2/adenovirus E1B 19 kDa interacting protein 3-like), BECN1 (Beclin 1), GABARAP (Gamma-AminoButyric Acid Receptor-Associated Protein) and UVRAG (UV radiation resistance associated gene) were found upregulated in TNF-resistant cells, suggesting a constitutive activation of the autophagy machinery in these cells. More interestingly, we identified NPC1 as the most upregulated genes in TNF-resistant compared to TNF-sensitive MCF-7 cells, suggesting a relation between the intracellular transport of cholesterol, the regulation of autophagy and NPC1 expression in TNF-resistant tumor cells. In conclusion, we describe here new tools that may help investigating autophagy gene regulation in various cellular models and diseases.

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The crucial issue for defining successful natural killer (NK)-based anticancer therapy is the ability of tumor cells to activate resistance mechanisms leading to escape from NK-mediated killing. It is now well established that such mechanisms are likely evolved under hypoxia in the tumor microenvironment. Here, we show that hypoxia-induced autophagy impairs breast cancer cell susceptibility to NK-mediated lysis and that this impairment is reverted by targeting autophagy. We provide evidence that activation of autophagy in hypoxic cells is involved in selective degradation of the pro-apoptotic NK-derived serine protease GZMB/granzyme B, thereby blocking NK-mediated target cell apoptosis. Our in vivo data validate the concept that targeting autophagy in cancer cells promotes tumor regression by facilitating their elimination by NK cells. This study provides a cutting-edge advance in our understanding of how hypoxia-induced autophagy impairs NK-mediated lysis and might pave the way for formulating more effective NK-based antitumor therapy by combining autophagy inhibitors.

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Highlights d Modeling of combinatorial effects of pre-and probiotic (synbiotic) regimens on cancer d HuMiX represents diet-microbiome-human interactions d The synbiotic regimen reduces molecular hallmarks of cancer d Cocktail of synbiotic-derived small molecules limits cancer self-renewal capacity