Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Intestinal Microbiome
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2024.1428476
This article is part of the Research Topic Can Chinese Medicines Affect Diarrhea via Effects of the Intestinal Microbiota on the Renal-Intestinal Axis? View all articles

Effects of Tanreqing Injection on the Gut microbiota in Healthy volunteers

Provisionally accepted
Shiyu Li Shiyu Li 1Wenxia Zhang Wenxia Zhang 2SiJie Liu SiJie Liu 1Yichen Zhou Yichen Zhou 1Wei Liu Wei Liu 1*WEIAN YUAN WEIAN YUAN 1*Min He Min He 1*
  • 1 Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
  • 2 Zhoupu Hospital, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives: Many studies have confirmed that antibacterial agents can disrupt the human gut microbiota. In China, Tanreqing injection (TRQ) is a drug with antibacterial activity that is widely used in the treatment of respiratory infections. However, its specific influence on gut microbiota remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effect of TRQ on the gut microbiota of healthy volunteers.Twelve healthy adults received 20 ml of TRQ intravenously daily for 7 consecutive days.At six timepoints (Pre, on D1, D3, D5, D7 and follow-up visit) fecal samples were collected and analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing.Results: Eleven people were included in the analysis finally. TRQ did not significantly alter gut microbiota diversity or richness (Shannon and Simpson and Chao1 index) in healthy people during the intervention. Gut microbial structure was stable (weighted and unweighted Unifrac). Using a machine learning method based on PLS-DA analysis, the separation trend on D7 at the genus level was found, returning to baseline two days after discontinuation. The abundance of major genus fluctuated on D7 compared with that prior to treatment, including an increase of unclassified_f_Enterobacteriaceae (13.0611%), a decrease of Bifidobacterium and Escherichia-Shigella (6.887%, 10.487%). Functional prediction analysis did not reveal any significant difference.Our study showed short-term use of TRQ at conventional doses may not cause perturbations to the gut microbiota in healthy adults. This finding provides some useful information for the safe use of TRQ in the treatment of respiratory infections.

    Keywords: Tanreqing Injection, Gut Microbiota, Microbial Diversity, healthy volunteers, TCM

    Received: 06 May 2024; Accepted: 13 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Zhang, Liu, Zhou, Liu, YUAN and He. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Wei Liu, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
    WEIAN YUAN, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
    Min He, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.