The Fermented Soy Beverage Q-CAN® Plus Induces Changes in the Oral and Intestinal Microbiome (P20-018-19)

Abstract

ObjectivesTo better understand the mechanisms for the beneficial effects of Q-CAN we identified changes in the fecal and oral microbiome in healthy subjects. Due to the high prevalence of obesity, and the known differences in the microbiome in obesity we want to test the effects on Q-CAN on lean and obese subjects. MethodsProspective study of lean (10) and obese (10) subjects. 11 clinic visits over 14 weeks. 237 ml of soy was dispensed at visit 3 and was consumed twice daily for 4 weeks until visit 7. Visits 8–11 were post treatment. Microbial DNA was extracted from saliva and stool samples, amplified against the V4 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Raw DNA sequencing data analyzed with the QIIME 1.9.1 bioinformatics pipeline. samples producing > 5000 reads were considered for analysis, and the cutoff abundance was 0.01%. Statistical validation was performed using the SAS software package to calculate Least Squares Means (LSM) and group difference of LSM. 440 samples were collected in total, 424 of which were productive and yielded good quality data. ResultsSTOOL. Obese had higher firmicute/bacteroidetes ratio compared to the lean group. At phylum level the gut microbiome of the obese group shows a trend for decreased firmicute/bacteroidetes ratio while taking Q-CAN. In the lean population actinobacteria show a statistically significant increase (0.0095 ± 0.0039, P = 0.02) during soy consumption compared to baseline. Several genera show a significant decrease in abundance in the obese group upon soy withdrawal including Faecalibacterium, Bifidobacterium and Sutterella. Dorea is increasing in obese group and Lachnospiraceae genus is decreasing in the lean group when comparing samples during consumption to baseline. ORAL. Veillonella and Oribacterium increased during soy consumption vs baseline, while Neisseria is decreasing. ConclusionsFermented soy consumption introduced changes in the abundance of the oral and gut microbiome. The decreasing firmicute to Bacteroidetes ratio is particularly promising as a low ratio is associated with lean body type, while a high ratio is associated with obese body type. The shift in the microbiome in obese individuals may be associated with health benefits such as reduced inflammation, or improvement in the metabolic phenotype. Funding SourcesBeso Biological Research, Inc.