Bruijstens AL, Molenaar S, Wong YYM, Kraaij R, Neuteboom RF. Gut microbiota analysis in pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis compared to pediatric monophasic demyelinating syndromes and pediatric controls.
Eur J Neurol 2023;
30:3507-3515. [PMID:
36209482 DOI:
10.1111/ene.15594]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2022] [Revised: 08/23/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 10/15/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Gut microbiota dysbiosis may lead to proinflammatory conditions contributing to multiple sclerosis (MS) etiology. Pediatric-onset MS patients are close to biological disease onset and less exposed to confounders. Therefore, this study investigated gut microbiota composition and functional pathways in pediatric-onset MS, compared to monophasic acquired demyelinating syndromes (mADS) and healthy controls (HCs).
METHODS
Pediatric participants were selected from the Dutch national prospective cohort study including ADS patients and HCs <18 years old. Amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were generated from sequencing the V3/4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene. Functional MetaCyc microbial pathways were predicted based on Enzyme Commission numbers. Gut microbiota composition (alpha/beta diversity and individual microbe abundance at ASV to phylum level) and predicted functional pathways were tested using nonparametric tests, permutational multivariate analysis of variance, and linear regression.
RESULTS
Twenty-six pediatric-onset MS (24 with disease-modifying therapy [DMT]), 25 mADS, and 24 HC subjects were included. Alpha/beta diversity, abundance of individual resident microbes, and microbial functional features were not different between these participant groups. Body mass index (BMI) showed significant differences, with obese children having a lower alpha diversity (Chao1 Index p = 0.015, Shannon/Simpson Diversity Index p = 0.014/p = 0.023), divergent beta diversity (R2 = 3.7%, p = 0.013), and higher abundance of numerous individual resident microbes and functional microbial pathways.
CONCLUSIONS
Previous results of gut microbiota composition and predicted functional features could not be validated in this Dutch pediatric-onset MS cohort using a more sensitive 16S pipeline, although it was limited by sample size and DMT use. Notably, several other host-related factors were found to associate with gut microbiota variation, especially BMI.
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