Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Medical Science Research Center, Research Center for Translational Medicine, Department of Scientific Research, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2022 Jun 21;12:886196. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.886196. eCollection 2022.
Autism is a kind of biologically based neurodevelopmental condition, and the coexistence of atopic dermatitis (AD) is not uncommon. Given that the gut microbiota plays an important role in the development of both diseases, we aimed to explore the differences of gut microbiota and their correlations with urinary organic acids between autistic children with and without AD. We enrolled 61 autistic children including 36 with AD and 25 without AD. The gut microbiota was sequenced by metagenomic shotgun sequencing, and the diversity, compositions, and functional pathways were analyzed further. Urinary organic acids were assayed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and univariate/multivariate analyses were applied. Spearman correlation analysis was conducted to explore their relationships. In our study, AD individuals had more prominent gastrointestinal disorders. The alpha diversity of the gut microbiota was lower in the AD group. LEfSe analysis showed a higher abundance of , , and in AD individuals, with , , , and in controls. Meanwhile, functional profiles showed that the pathway of lipid metabolism had a higher proportion in the AD group, and the pathway of xenobiotics biodegradation was abundant in controls. Among urinary organic acids, adipic acid, 3-hydroxyglutaric acid, tartaric acid, homovanillic acid, 2-hydroxyphenylacetic acid, aconitic acid, and 2-hydroxyhippuric acid were richer in the AD group. However, only adipic acid remained significant in the multivariate analysis (OR = 1.513, 95% CI [1.042, 2.198], P = 0.030). In the correlation analysis, had a negative correlation with aconitic acid (r = -0.14, P = 0.02), and the latter was positively correlated with adipic acid (r = 0.41, P = 0.006). Besides, the pathway of xenobiotics biodegradation seems to inversely correlate with adipic acid (r = -0.42, P = 0.18). The gut microbiota plays an important role in the development of AD in autistic children, and more well-designed studies are warranted to explore the underlying mechanism.
自闭症是一种基于生物学的神经发育障碍，特应性皮炎（AD）的共存并不罕见。鉴于肠道微生物群在这两种疾病的发展中都起着重要作用，我们旨在探索自闭症儿童中伴有和不伴有 AD 的肠道微生物群的差异及其与尿液有机酸的相关性。我们招募了 61 名自闭症儿童，其中 36 名患有 AD，25 名没有 AD。通过宏基因组鸟枪法测序对肠道微生物群进行测序，并进一步分析其多样性、组成和功能途径。通过气相色谱-质谱法测定尿液有机酸，并应用单变量/多变量分析。采用 Spearman 相关分析探讨它们之间的关系。在我们的研究中，AD 个体有更明显的胃肠道紊乱。AD 组的肠道微生物群 α多样性较低。LEfSe 分析显示 AD 个体中 、 、 的丰度较高，而对照中 、 、 、 的丰度较高。同时，功能谱显示 AD 组中脂质代谢途径的比例较高，对照组中异生物降解途径丰富。在尿液有机酸中，己二酸、3-羟基戊二酸、酒石酸、高香草酸、2-羟基苯乙酸、顺乌头酸和 2-羟基马尿酸在 AD 组中更为丰富。然而，只有己二酸在多变量分析中仍然显著（OR = 1.513，95%CI [1.042, 2.198]，P = 0.030）。在相关分析中，与顺乌头酸呈负相关（r = -0.14，P = 0.02），而后者与己二酸呈正相关（r = 0.41，P = 0.006）。此外，异生物降解途径似乎与己二酸呈负相关（r = -0.42，P = 0.18）。肠道微生物群在自闭症儿童中 AD 的发展中起着重要作用，需要更多精心设计的研究来探索其潜在机制。
