Associations of environmental phenols exposure with gut microbiota in a general population from Shenzhen, China

The gut microbiota is considered an important target for the toxicity of environmental phenols, yet the epidemiological evidence elucidating their associations in adults remains limited. This study investigated associations between phenol exposure and gut microbiota in 241 adults from Shenzhen, China. We quantified 38 urinary phenols via ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) and profiled the gut microbiome via shotgun metagenomics. Linear regression, permutational multivariate analysis of variance (adonis), and Multivariable Association with Linear Models 2 (MaAsLin2) were used to assess links with α-diversity, β-diversity, microbial taxa, and functional pathways. We found that exposure to environmental phenols was significantly associated with altered gut microbiota diversity, composition and function. Bisphenol C was negatively associated with α-diversity, whereas benzylparaben and ethylparaben were positively associated with it. Exposure to methylparaben, triclosan, isopropylparaben and propylparaben was significantly associated with altered gut microbial community structure. Taxa analysis showed that methylparaben was negatively associated with the relative abundance of two beneficial species, Bacteroides salyersiae and Anaerostipes caccae. Additionally, functional profiling revealed that parabens inhibited amino-acid, carbohydrate and terpenoid metabolism, whereas triclosan up-regulated pathways for aromatic compound degradation and mixed-acid fermentation. Further prospective investigations are warranted to validate our findings.