Anaerobic degradation of dietary advanced glycation end-products by human intestinal bacteria

Diet-driven host-microbiota interactions depend on the ingested foods, the kind of chemical reactions that modify the structure of nutrients and how the supramolecular arrangement of digesta impacts the microbial opulations.1 The understanding of the relationship between the compounds formed during food processing and the interaction of the unabsorbed material with the microbiota is one of the key challenges to investigate physiological consequences of a processed diet. Focusing on food protein modifications, the stream of modified amino acids affects the human gut microbiota at molecular level in the short and long term.2 Oxidation, cross-linking and condensation reactions typical of food processing profoundly change the structure of food proteins, thus promoting the accumulation and metabolization of a high variety of neo-formed molecules.3 Among foods chemical transformation, the Maillard reaction plays a pivotal role. Indeed, the term Maillard dichotomy describes the simultaneous formation through similar chemical routes of compounds which may impact in a desired and undesired manner sensory attributes, food safety and physiological mechanisms linked to human health, such as glucose levels in blood, metabolite homeostasis, cell ageing, intestinal microbiome dynamics and kidney function.