Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social and behavioral impairments. Recent studies have suggested that gut microbiota play a critical role in ASD pathogenesis. Herein, we investigated the fecal microflora of Korean ASD children to determine gut microbiota profiles associated with ASD. Specifically, fecal samples were obtained from 54 children with ASD and 38 age-matched children exhibiting typical development. Systematic bioinformatic analysis revealed that the composition of gut microbiota differed between ASD and typically developing children (TDC). Moreover, the total amounts of short-chain fatty acids, metabolites produced by bacteria, were increased in ASD children. At the phylum level, we found a significant decrease in the relative Bacteroidetes abundance of the ASD group, whereas Actinobacteria abundance was significantly increased. Furthermore, we found significantly lower Bacteroides levels and higher Bifidobacterium levels in the ASD group than in the TDC group at the genus level. Functional analysis of the microbiota in ASD children predicted that several pathways, including genetic information processing and amino acid metabolism, can be associated with ASD pathogenesis. Although more research is needed to determine whether the differences between ASD and TDC are actually related to ASD pathogenesis, these results provide further evidence of altered gut microbiota in children with ASD, possibly providing new perspectives on the diagnosis and therapeutic approaches for ASD patients.
Highlights
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent social communication deficits, with restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities [1]
We found that higher microbial richness in the typically developing children (TDC)
In the alpha diversity analysis of this study, we found no significant differences between the ASD and TDC groups, which was consistent with the results of several previous studies [21,46,47,48]
Summary
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent social communication deficits, with restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities [1]. Changes in the intestinal environment caused by the gut microbiota have been found to affect the production of signaling substances, affecting mature brain functioning as well as prenatal and postnatal central nervous system (CNS) development [6]. This connection, which is called the microbiota–gut–brain axis, refers to the bidirectional communication pathway between gut bacteria and the CNS and is known to be associated with various processes, including neuroinflammation, stress axis activation, neurotransmission, bloodbrain-barrier (BBB) formation, myelination, microglia maturation, and neurotransmitter synthesis [7,8]. Sharon et al confirmed that microbiota colonization from ASD patients was sufficient to induce autistic behaviors in mice, and microbial metabolites were found to improve abnormal behaviors in an ASD mouse model [13]
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