Barb Jennifer J, Lee Lena J, Ahmed Ayaan, Son Elisa H, Nanda Shubhi, Yang Li, Ban Yuguang, Ting Amanda, Tsai Thomas C, Kim Youngmee
Translational Biobehavioral and Health Promotion Branch, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 Sep 22;15(1):32624. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-18402-2.
Adults with cancer and their caregivers have elevated levels of sleep disturbances. In this cross-sectional exploratory study, we examined associations between subjective sleep indices and gut microbiome features among patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and their sleep-partner caregivers. Forty participants (20 patient-caregiver dyads) completed sleep diaries, stool sampling, and dietary intake questionnaires individually. Patients and caregivers had comparable demographics, dietary and sleep indices. However, patients had significantly different beta diversity (p = .005) and alpha diversity (Inverse Simpson: p = .029) as well as 7 more and 6 less differentially abundant taxa compared with their caregivers. Furthermore, only patients categorized with high sleep efficiency (SE) (≥ 85%) also had higher gut microbial diversity (Inv Simpson: p = .019 and Shannon Index: p = .035). Additionally, some oral and gut microbes were differentially abundant in patients between patients with high or low SE scores. Overall, this study highlights a link between sleep health and gut microbiome characteristics in patients with CRC. Further research is warranted to replicate the current findings with a larger sample, which will allow for the identification of pathways linking sleep to gut microbiome and the development of proper psychobehavioral sleep interventions for adults with cancer and their caregivers to ultimately improve their overall well-being.
患有癌症的成年人及其护理人员的睡眠障碍水平较高。在这项横断面探索性研究中，我们调查了结直肠癌（CRC）患者及其睡眠伴侣护理人员的主观睡眠指标与肠道微生物群特征之间的关联。40名参与者（20对患者-护理人员）分别完成了睡眠日记、粪便采样和饮食摄入问卷。患者和护理人员在人口统计学、饮食和睡眠指标方面具有可比性。然而，与护理人员相比，患者的β多样性（p = 0.005）和α多样性（反向辛普森指数：p = 0.029）显著不同，差异丰富的分类群也多7个和少6个。此外，只有睡眠效率（SE）高（≥85%）的患者肠道微生物多样性也更高（反向辛普森指数：p = 0.019，香农指数：p = 0.035）。此外，SE得分高或低的患者之间，一些口腔和肠道微生物的丰度存在差异。总体而言，本研究突出了CRC患者睡眠健康与肠道微生物群特征之间的联系。有必要进行进一步研究，以更大的样本复制当前的研究结果，这将有助于确定睡眠与肠道微生物群之间的联系途径，并为患有癌症的成年人及其护理人员开发适当的心理行为睡眠干预措施，最终改善他们的整体幸福感。
