Biomedical subjects

Jiong Chen

Publications and source records attributed to Jiong Chen.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2026

Precisely designed keystone metabolites boost shrimp disease resistance by recruiting symbionts via the lipoxin A4-AP-1 pathway.

BACKGROUND: Gut metabolites and symbionts are indispensable for host health, yet the precise identification of keystone metabolites and construction of synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) to enhance disease resistance remains limited. RESULTS: Using Litopenaeus vannamei as a model, we identified pyruvic acid and DL-glutamine (1:2) as keystone metabolites by borrowing the microbial ecology principles of bio-indicators and driver taxa. Dietary supplementation with these metabolites sufficiently protected shrimp from white feces syndrome (WFS). Multi-omics analyses demonstrated that keystone metabolites exerted positive effects by enriching beneficial Ruegeria lacuscaerulensis, Bacillus subtilis and Nioella nitratireducens, strengthening the gut network stability, and enhancing shrimp immunity, which collectively potentiated WFS resistance. The recruited three strains were consumers and producers of the two keystone metabolites, and discriminative strains between healthy and diseased shrimp across global datasets. A SynCom constructed from the three strains (4:3:2) replicated the efficacy of keystone metabolites. Both keystone metabolites and SynCom elevated shrimp gut and hepatopancreas lipoxin A4 (LXA4) levels, which suppressed the pro-inflammatory transcription factor AP-1, as validated by in vivo inhibition assay. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate that precisely designed keystone metabolites enhance shrimp disease resistance through the recruitment of key symbionts-LXA4-AP-1 axis. The rationally designed keystone metabolites and SynCom are compelling biocontrol solutions in improving host disease resistance. Video Abstract.

Animals↗

PubMed2025

Causal relationship between albumin, total protein, and colorectal cancer risk: A 2-sample Mendelian randomization study.

Albumin (ALB) and total protein (TP) are vital constituents of the blood, and their levels and roles in the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) are of significance. Previous observational studies have reported correlations among ALB, TP, and CRC. However, the existence of a causal relationship between ALB and CRC in European populations has not been adequately investigated and the causal link between TP and CRC remains unexplored. To address these gaps, we applied Mendelian randomization (MR) to investigate the potential causal relationship between ALB, TP, and CRC. Two-sample MR analysis was used to investigate whether there was a causal relationship between ALB, TP, and CRC. Our exposure data were extracted from genome-wide association study (GWAS) databases sourced from the UK Biobank, containing 315,268 and 314,921 Europeans participants for ALB and TP analyses, respectively. Single nucleotide polymorphisms that were significantly associated with ALB and TP were assessed using GWAS datasets. Our data were derived from the FinnGen Consortium CRC GWAS, which contained 6509 CRC cases and 28,7137 controls. Causal inference between ALB, TP, and CRC was performed using 3 MR methods: inverse variance weighting (IVW), MR-Egger, and weighted median. The IVW analysis showed no significant causal association between ALB and CRC (OR = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.89-1.21, P = .65). In contrast, the IVW analysis for TP and CRC showed a significant causal association (OR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.66-0.92, P = .003), suggesting a reduced risk of CRC. Through a 2-sample MR study investigating the causal relationship between ALB, TP, and CRC in a European population, our findings revealed a significant causal relationship between TP and a reduced risk of CRC.

Humans↗