Deciphering female’s SEx hormones - MIcrobiota interactions during a menstrual CYCLE for an efficient personalized medicine in cardiometabolic disorders

Introduction

Cardiometabolic disorders (CMD), a group of conditions that include cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, are characterised by dysfunction of glycaemic and/or lipid metabolism. Clinical manifestations, severity, and progression are different between sexes, the underlying mechanisms of which are largely unknown.

Need for Tailored Strategies

The poorer prognosis in women globally calls for an urgent need for better women's tailored prevention and treatment strategies. Still, for an efficient personalised strategy, female-specific mechanisms have to be identified.

SEMICYCLE Project Overview

The SEMICYCLE project will systematically investigate female sex hormones-microbiota interactions to unravel female-specific microbiota features regulating glycaemic and lipid metabolism in women during homeostasis and diseases. Findings of this research project will pinpoint key mechanisms useful to improve current prevention and diagnostic tools as well as therapeutic options for CMD.

Methodology

SEMICYCLE will follow up 300 healthy women during one menstrual cycle. Longitudinal cross-omics data will be generated, analysed, and integrated with:

1. Host genome
2. Gut microbiome
3. Gut metabolome
4. Vaginal microbiome
5. Plasma proteome

This will be done using state-of-the-art methodologies and computational approaches, alongside variations in female sex hormones, lifestyle, diet, and glycaemic and lipid phenotypes.

Investigating Mechanisms

Subsequently, mechanisms identified during homeostasis will be investigated for association with CMD onset and progression, using already existing cohorts totalling more than 10,000 samples.

Expertise and Impact

This research is based on my expertise and that of my research group in generating and analysing omics data in large data sets. Findings will reveal previously unknown microbiota regulators of CMD in women, thus offering alternative routes for prevention, diagnosis, and treatments in women, a necessary step for efficient personalised medicine.