Interactions of Dihydromyricetin, a Flavonoid from Vine Tea (Ampelopsis grossedentata) with Gut Microbiota

Dihydromyricetin (DMY) is the main bioactive constituent in vine tea (Ampelopsis grossedentata), which was predominantly distributed in the gastrointestinal tract and showed poor oral bioavailability. Our aim was to systematically investigate the interactions of DMY with gut microbiota. Through the metabolism study of DMY by fecal microflora in vitro, it was found that DMY could be metabolized into three metabolites by fecal microflora via reduction and dehydroxylation pathways, and the dehydroxylation metabolite was the dominant one. Meanwhile, in order to consider the influence of gut microbiota metabolism on the pharmacokinetics of DMY, the pharmacokinetics of DMY in control and pseudo-germ-free rats were compared. It was shown that area under the curve (AUC) could only slightly increase, however, peak concentration (C_max ) could significantly increase in the pseudo-germ-free rats compared with the control rats, which indicated the gut microbiota metabolism played an important role in the pharmacokinetics of DMY. In addition, the long-term influence of DMY on gut microbiota composition by using 16S rRNA pyrosequencing was further investigated. And it was found that DMY could markedly alter the richness and diversity of the gut microbiota and modulate the gut microbiota composition. The present findings will be helpful for the future development and clinical application of DMY.

The gut microbiota plays an important role in the pharmacokinetics of flavonoids. As well, the long-term supplements of flavonoids could alter the gut microbiota composition in turn. The study aims to clarify the mutual interaction of DMY with gut microbiota, which may lead to new information with respect to the mechanism study and clinical application of DMY.