Association of suboptimal health status with intestinal microbiota in Chinese youths.

Qi Sun,Qihuan Li,Xiaoyu Zhang,Jie Zhang,Xiaoni Meng,Youxin Wang,Weijie Cao,Xizhu Xu,Hongqi Liu,Qiuyue Tian,Hao Wang,Jiaonan Liu,Manshu Song,Jinxia Zhang,Lijuan Wu,Ming Sun,Wei Wang

doi:10.1111/jcmm.14880

Abstract

Suboptimal health status (SHS), a physical state between health and disease, is a subclinical and reversible stage of chronic disease. Previous studies have shown alterations in the intestinal microbiota in patients with some chronic diseases. This study aimed to investigate the association between SHS and intestinal microbiota in a case‐control study with 50 SHS individuals and 50 matched healthy controls. Intestinal microbiota was analysed by MiSeq 250PE. Alpha diversity of intestinal microbiota in SHS individuals was higher compared with that of healthy controls (Simpson index, W = 2238, P = .048). Beta diversity was different between SHS and healthy controls (P = .018). At the phylum level, the relative abundance of Verrucomicrobia was higher in the SHS group than that in the controls (W = 2201, P = .049). Compared with that of the control group, nine genera were significantly higher and five genera were lower in abundance in the SHS group (all P < .05). The intestinal microbiota, analysed by a random forest model, was able to distinguish individuals with SHS from the controls, with an area under the curve of 0.79 (95% confidence interval: 0.77‐0.81). We demonstrated that the alteration of intestinal microbiota occurs with SHS, an early stage of disease, which might shed light on the importance of intestinal microbiota in the primary prevention of noncommunicable chronic diseases.

Highlights

Suboptimal health status (SHS) is a physical state between health and disease and is characterized by the symptoms of health complaints, general weakness and low energy within a period of 3 months.[1]A comprehensive Suboptimal Health Status Questionnaire-25 (SHSQ-25) was used to assess SHS, with the SHSQ-25 accounting for the multidimensionality of SHS by assessing the following: (a) fatigue, (b) the cardiovascular system, (c) the digestive tract, (d) the immune system and (e) mental status.[2]
This study aimed to investigate the association between SHS and intestinal microbiota in a casecontrol study with 50 SHS individuals and 50 matched healthy controls
We demonstrated that the alteration of intestinal microbiota occurs with SHS, an early stage of disease, which might shed light on the importance of intestinal microbiota in the primary prevention of noncommunicable chronic diseases

Summary

| INTRODUCTION

Suboptimal health status (SHS) is a physical state between health and disease and is characterized by the symptoms of health complaints, general weakness and low energy within a period of 3 months.[1]. Many studies have shown that intestinal microbiota play important roles in host health,[13] as well as the immune system,[14,15] nervous system,[16] digestive system[17] and cardiovascular system,[18] all of which are components of SHS.[2] Emerging evidence suggests a link between the intestinal microbiota and various diseases, such as atherosclerosis,[19,20] hypertension,[21] T2DM22 and acquired immune deficiency syndrome.[23] This association between microbiota and diseases was validated through faecal transfer experiments.[24,25,26] altered gut microbiota was observed in patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a disease resembling SHS.[27,28] Fremont et al[27] reported that intestinal microbiota is altered in myalgic encephalomyelitis/CFS patients from Belgium and Norway. We attempted to profile microbiota composition to identify novel bacteria associated with SHS

| MATERIALS AND METHODS

| Ethics statement

| DISCUSSION

Findings

| CONCLUSION