Atorvastatin Treatment Modulates the Gut Microbiota of the Hypercholesterolemic Patients

Abstract

Hypercholesterolemia is one of the most important risk factors for development of cardiovascular diseases. The composition of gut microbiota (total microbes residing in the gut) impacts on cholesterol and lipid metabolism. On the contrary, alterations in gut microbiota in response to hypercholesterolemia or drug treatment with atorvastatin (a cholesterol-lowering agent) are rarely investigated. We performed 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing to evaluate the gut bacterial community of 15 untreated hypercholesterolemic patients (HP) and 27 atorvastatin-treated hypercholesterolemic patients (At-HP) and compared with 19 healthy subjects (HS). In total, 18 different phyla were identified in the study groups. An increase in relative abundance of Proteobacteria was observed in the HP group compared with At-HP and HS groups. The atherosclerosis-associated genus Collinsella was found at relatively higher abundance in the HP group. The anti-inflammation-associated bacteria (Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Akkermansia muciniphila, and genus Oscillospira) were found in greater abundance, and proinflammatory species Desulfovibrio sp. was observed at decreased abundance in the drug-treated HP group compared with the untreated HP group. Relative abundances of the Bilophila wadsworthia and Bifidobacterium bifidum (bile acid-associated species) were decreased in the At-HP group. The At-HP and HS clustered separately from HP in the principal coordinate analysis. Decreased bacterial diversity was observed in the atorvastatin-treated group. In conclusion, these data suggest that atorvastatin treatment of patients with hypercholesterolemia may selectively restore the relative abundance of several dominant and functionally important taxa that were disrupted in the HP. Further studies are required to investigate the putative modifying effects of hypocholesterolemic drugs on functionality of gut microbiota, and the potential downstream effects on human health.

Changes of intestinal bacterial microbiota in coronary heart disease complicated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

“…It was reported that the abundance of Collinsella was enriched in people with metabolic diseases [26] and negatively correlated with dietary fiber intake in diet [27]. In addition, Collinsella was positively associated with hyperlipidemia in human, while the abundance of Collinsella was decreased significantly after atorvastatin treatment [28]. In this study, the all overall CHD patients was taking statin lipid-lowering therapy, while only 1/2 HCs took statin as lipid-lowering therapy.…”

Gut microbiota and inflammation in chronic kidney disease and their roles in the development of cardiovascular disease

“…The relative abundances of Bilophila wadsworthia and Bifidobacterium bifidum (bile acid-associated species) were decreased in the At-HP group. These data suggest that atorvastatin treatment of patients with hypercholesterolemia may selectively restore the relative abundance of several dominant and functionally important taxa that are disrupted in HPs [240]. Simvastatin was also shown to affect the gut microbial composition and boost Lactobacillus populations [241].…”

Innovating Governance for Planetary Health with Three Critically Informed Frames

“…Microorganisms in our gut aid digestion, while others compose part of our skin'' (Alberro, 2019). Indeed, microbiome and its critical importance in health, disease, drug discovery, and manufacturing and various other contexts previously featured in OMICS (Hamdy et al, 2018;Kambouris et al, 2018;Khan et al, 2018) attest to the significance of ecological determinants of health, mutual interdependence across ecosystems (Haines, 2016;Huang and Spiers, 2006;Misra and Panda, 2013), and the need to respect the intrinsic value of the web of life and its constituents on planet Earth (Backes et al, 2011; Hoole, 2017; Springer, 2021).…”