Zhang Yuanyuan, Wang Tianyu, Wan Zhongqi, Bai Jianhao, Xue Yawen, Dai Rushun, Wang Minli, Peng Qing
Department of Ophthalmology, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Front Microbiol. 2023 Apr 5;14:1069325. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1069325. eCollection 2023.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of vision loss in those over the age of 50. Recently, intestinal microbiota has been reported to be involved in the pathogenesis of ocular diseases. The purpose of this study was to discover more about the involvement of the intestinal microbiota in AMD patients.
Fecal samples from 30 patients with AMD (AMD group) and 17 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (control group) without any fundus disease were collected. DNA extraction, PCR amplification, and 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the samples were performed to identify intestinal microbial alterations. Further, we used BugBase for phenotypic prediction and PICRUSt2 for KEGG Orthology (KO) as well as metabolic feature prediction.
The intestinal microbiota was found to be significantly altered in the AMD group. The AMD group had a significantly lower level of and relatively higher levels of and compared to those in the control group. At the genus level, the AMD patient group showed a considerably higher proportion of and lower proportions of and compared with those in the control group. Phenotypic prediction revealed obvious differences in the four phenotypes between the two groups. PICRUSt2 analysis revealed KOs and pathways associated with altered intestinal microbiota. The abundance of the top eight KOs in the AMD group was higher than that in the control group. These KOs were mainly involved in lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis.
The findings of this study indicated that AMD patients had different gut microbiota compared with healthy controls, and that AMD pathophysiology might be linked to changes in gut-related metabolic pathways. Therefore, intestinal microbiota might serve as non-invasive indicators for AMD clinical diagnosis and possibly also as AMD treatment targets.
年龄相关性黄斑变性（AMD）是50岁以上人群视力丧失的主要原因。最近，有报道称肠道微生物群参与眼部疾病的发病机制。本研究的目的是进一步了解肠道微生物群在AMD患者中的作用。
收集30例AMD患者（AMD组）和17例年龄及性别匹配、无任何眼底疾病的健康对照者（对照组）的粪便样本。对样本进行DNA提取、PCR扩增和16S rRNA基因测序，以鉴定肠道微生物的变化。此外，我们使用BugBase进行表型预测，使用PICRUSt2进行KEGG直系同源基因（KO）以及代谢特征预测。
发现AMD组的肠道微生物群有显著改变。与对照组相比，AMD组的[具体物质1]水平显著降低，[具体物质2]和[具体物质3]水平相对较高。在属水平上，与对照组相比，AMD患者组的[具体属1]比例显著更高，[具体属2]和[具体属3]比例更低。表型预测显示两组在四种表型上存在明显差异。PICRUSt2分析揭示了与肠道微生物群改变相关的KO和途径。AMD组中前八个KO的丰度高于对照组。这些KO主要参与脂多糖的生物合成。
本研究结果表明，与健康对照者相比，AMD患者的肠道微生物群不同，并且AMD的病理生理学可能与肠道相关代谢途径的变化有关。因此，肠道微生物群可能作为AMD临床诊断的非侵入性指标，也可能作为AMD的治疗靶点。
