Gut Microbial Profile Is Associated With the Severity of Social Impairment and IQ Performance in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.789864
• Publication Date: 2021-12-17T08:59:27Z
• Authors: Zilin Chen; Kai Shi; Xin Liu; Yuan Dai; Yuqi Liu; Lingli Zhang; Xiujuan Du; Tailin Zhu; Juehua Yu; Shuanfeng Fang; Fei Li
• Keywords: Neurodevelopmental disorder; Pervasive developmental disorder

Background and Objective: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to a heterogeneous set of neurodevelopmental disorders with diverse symptom severity comorbidities. Although alterations in gut microbiota have been reported individuals ASD, it remains unclear whether certain microbial pattern is linked specific or comorbidity ASD. We aimed investigate the associations between social impairment cognitive functioning children Methods: A total 261 age-matched children, including 138 diagnosed 63 developmental delay intellectual disability (DD/ID), 60 typically developing (TD) were enrolled from Shanghai Xinhua Registry. The ASD further classified into two subgroups: 76 (ASD+DD) 62 only (ASD-only). microbiome all was profiled evaluated by 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing. Results: analyses demonstrated an altered community structure alpha diversity indices ASD+DD ASD-only subgroups significantly lower than DD/ID TD groups. At genus level, we observed decrease relative abundance Prevotella. Simultaneously, Bacteroides Faecalibacterium increased compared participants. There clear correlation Childhood Rating Scale (CARS) score for participants, this independent IQ performance. Similar correlations CARS genera Bacteroides, Faecalibacterium, Oscillospira. However, there no single associated Conclusions: Specific bacterial taxonomic composition performance subgroups, when These results illustrate that may serve as promising biomarker symptoms. Nevertheless, investigations are warranted.