赵立平,张晨虹.建议启动“国际华族健康微生物组研究计划”[J].中国科学院院刊,2017,32(3):251-259.

建议启动“国际华族健康微生物组研究计划”

Proposal on International Healthy Chinese Microbiome Project

赵立平
上海交通大学 上海 200030
Zhao Liping
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
张晨虹
上海交通大学 上海 200030
Zhang Chenhong
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China

         华族;微生物组;国际合作;健康

        Chinese populations;microbiome;international cooperation;health

        人体是一个非常复杂的生态系统。在人的身体内外生活的微生物的细胞数量有百万亿之多，编码的基因数量可达人的基因数目100倍，统称为人体微生物组（HumanMicrobiome）。特别是超过90%的共生微生物生活在人的消化道里，称为“肠道菌群”，对人体健康起着不可或缺的作用，其结构的失调与多种慢性疾病的发生发展关系密切。因此，对肠道菌群为代表的人体微生物组与健康和疾病关系的研究已经成为国际学术前沿的重大科学问题。中华民族是有文字记载的历史最悠久的民族之一，更是地球上人口最为众多、分布也最为广泛的民族，随着经济发展和社会变化，海内外华族的疾病谱也在发生着急剧的变化，糖尿病、癌症等慢性病成为民众健康的最大威胁。“国际华族微生物组研究计划”希望通过对海内外华人的肠道微生物组结构变化与健康关系的系统研究，深入理解在遗传背景相对稳定、而饮食结构和生活方式发生快速变化时，菌群结构的改变在疾病谱的变化中的地位和作用，从而有助于深入揭示慢性病的发病新机制；同时，借助中医药和中国传统养生经验，开发以肠道菌群为靶点的新的医药、食品和保健品，并通过海外华人群体的使用，逐步在各国推广，有可能是中国传统医药产业走向现代化、走向世界的难得机会，更可能成为中华民族为世界人类健康作出重大贡献的难得机遇。

        Humans are superorganisms with two genomes that dictate phenotype, the genetically inherited human genome (25 000 genes) and the environmentally acquired human microbiome (over 1 million genes). The two genomes must work in harmonious integration as a hologenome to maintain health. Poorly balanced diets can turn the gut microbiome from a partner for health to a "pathogen" in chronic diseases, for example, Type 2 diabetes and cancers. Due to the tight integration of gut microbiota into human global metabolism, molecular profiling of urine metabolites can provide a new window for reflecting physiological functions of gut microbiomes. Changes of gut microbiota and urine metabolites can thus be employed as new systematic approaches for quantitative assessment and monitoring of health at the wholebody level with the advantage of measuring human health based on the results of interactions between the two genomes and the environment rather than just host genomic information. Large-scale population-based studies in conjunction with these whole-body level systematic methods will generate pre-disease biomarkers with predictive power, thus making preventive health management of populations with rapidly changing disease spectrums possible through re-engineering of the imbalanced gut microbiomes with specially designed foods/diets. Chinese peoples are among the most widely distributed in the world. We hereby suggest the initiation of the International Healthy Chinese Microbiome Project (IHCMP), in which a multi-center cross-sectional epidemiological study throughout China as well as overseas will be conducted to characterize gut microbiome and metabolic phenotypes in healthy Chinese young adults who permanently reside in China or overseas. IHCMP will characterize gut microbiome and metabolic phenotypes in healthy Chinese young adults with vastly different environmental influences and define a healthy gut microbiome using an integrated metagenomics-metabolomics approach, and to elucidate what constitutes a gut ecological structure that is optimal for human health. This Project will also aid the modernization and internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine and medicinal foods which have been shown with gut microbiota as a primary target.