Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, University of Padova, via Marzolo 5, 35131 Padova, Italy
Federica Valeriani
Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biotechnologies, Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome “Foro Italico”, Piazza Lauro De Bosis, 6, 00135 Rome, Italy
Department of Surgery, Oncology and Gastroenterology, Gastroenterology Unit, University Hospital of Padua, 35121 Padua, Italy
Andrea Castagnetti
Wellmicro s.r.l, Via Piero Gobetti, 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
Antonio Aceti
Clinical Infectious Diseases, Sant’Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, 00189 Rome, Italy
Pier Paolo Parnigotto
Foundation for Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Tissue Engineering and Signaling T.E.S. onlus Padua, Via De Sanctis 10, Caselle di Selvazzano Dentro, 35030 Padua, Italy
Vincenzo Romano Spica
Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biotechnologies, Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome “Foro Italico”, Piazza Lauro De Bosis, 6, 00135 Rome, Italy
Fabrizio Michetti
Department of Neuroscience, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Francesco Vito 1, 00168 Rome, Italy
The crosstalk between human gut microbiota and intestinal wall is essential for the organ’s homeostasis and immune tolerance. The gut microbiota plays a role in healthy and pathological conditions mediated by inflammatory processes or by the gut-brain axes, both involving a possible role for S100B protein as a diffusible cytokine present not only in intestinal mucosa but also in faeces. In order to identify target proteins for a putative interaction between S100B and the microbiota proteome, we developed a bioinformatics workflow by integrating the interaction features of known domains with the proteomics data derived from metataxonomic studies of the gut microbiota from healthy and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) subjects. On the basis of the microbiota composition, proteins putatively interacting with S100B domains were in fact found, both in healthy subjects and IBD patients, in a reduced number in the latter samples, also exhibiting differences in interacting domains occurrence between the two groups. In addition, differences between ulcerative colitis and Crohn disease samples were observed. These results offer the conceptual framework for where to investigate the role of S100B as a candidate signalling molecule in the microbiota/gut communication machinery, on the basis of interactions differently conditioned by healthy or pathological microbiota.
