Exposome-Explorer database 3.0 includes newly curated gut microbial metabolites

New data on the microbial exposome have been incorporated into the Exposome-Explorer database 3.0, which has just been released.

Exposome-Explorer is the first database dedicated to biomarkers of exposure to environmental risk factors for diseases. Exposome-Explorer was developed by scientists at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) with the goal of providing comprehensive data on all known biomarkers of exposure to dietary factors, pollutants, and contaminants measured in population studies.

For this update, data on 462 gut microbial metabolites were manually collected from 160 peer-reviewed primary publications. First, these data include experimental evidence on their microbial origin. Three criteria were retained for defining the gut microbial origin of a metabolite and inclusion in the database: (1) metabolites produced by in vitro culture with human faecal samples or bacterial strains isolated from human faecal samples; (2) metabolites showing reduced concentrations upon treatment with antibiotics; and (3) metabolites not produced in axenic animals. Second, data have been collected on their known precursors as well as on their concentrations in human blood, urine, and faeces.

These new data will help in the selection of metabolites to be measured in studies on the role of the microbiota in human health, and will facilitate the interpretation of findings on their associations with disease outcomes.

Visit the Exposome-Explorer website