Comparison of gut microbiota between adults with autism spectrum disorder and obese adults.

BACKGROUND

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and obesity are serious global public health problems. Studies have shown that ASD children are at a higher risk of obesity than the general population. To investigate the gut microbe characteristics of adults ASD and obese adults, we compared the gut microbiota of adults with ASD to obese adults.

METHODS

The fecal samples were collected from 21 adult patients with ASD and 21 obese adults, and V3-V4 regions of 16S rRNA genes were sequenced by high-throughput DNA sequencing. The gut microbiota of adults with ASD and obese adults was compared.

RESULTS

We observed the proportion of in ASD was significantly increased, with families and significantly enriched in adult ASD. Eighteen genera, including , , , and were significantly increased in adult ASD, whereas and were significantly increased in obesity. At the species level, we found six species enriched in ASD and three species enriched in obesity, including producing propionate. may be as a biomarker for predicting obesity, as well as may be a common-owned pathogens of ASD and obesity.

CONCLUSIONS

Some conflicting results have been reported in microbiota studies of ASD, which may be related to age and obesity. Thus, the body mass index should be evaluated before analyzing the gut microbiota of patients with ASD, as obesity is prevalent in these individuals and gut microbiota is severally affected by obesity.