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Altered Gut Microbiota in Patients With Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome
48 Pages Posted: 31 Jan 2022
More...Abstract
Background: Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) is a rare disease with clinical manifestations of pigmented spots, gastrointestinal polyps, and susceptibility to tumors. It is still unknown whether PJS is associated with gut microbiota dysbiosis.
Aim: We aimed to analyze the structure and composition of the gut microbiota in PJS, including both bacteria and fungi, and to investigate the relationship between gut microbiota dysbiosis and the pathogenesis of PJS.
Methods: Here, we analyzed the bacterial and fungal composition of the fecal microbiota by sequence analysis in the following cohorts: 23 patients suffering from PJS, 17 first-degree asymptomatic relatives (ARs) and 24 healthy controls (HCs) using 16S (MiSeq) and ITS2 (pyrosequencing) sequencing for bacteria and fungi, respectively. Differential analyses of their intestinal flora at different levels were performed in this study.
Results: We identified α-diversity distributions for both bacteria and fungi and differentially abundant bacterial and fungal taxa between cases and controls. Fecal bacterial diversity and composition in PJS were significantly different from those in ARs and HCs, while the fungal flora was more stable. High-throughput sequencing confirmed the special characteristics and biodiversity of the fecal bacterial and fungal microflora in patients with PJS. Compared to the controls, PJS was characterized by the lowest bacterial biodiversity, with an increase in the Proteobacteria phylum, Enterobacteriaceae family and Escherichia-Shigella genus and a decrease in the Firmicutes phylum and the Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae families. For fungi, Candida increased significantly in PJS.
Conclusion: Our data confirmed that patients with PJS have gut microbiota dysbiosis, and this dysbiosis might be responsible for the pathogenesis and development of PJS.
Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 81670486, 82070540); the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0110003); and the Fundamental Research Funds of Shandong University (2017JC036).
Declaration of Interests: The authors report no conflict of interest.
Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the medical ethics committee of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University. Prior to their participation, all volunteers provided informed written consent.
Keywords: Peutz-Jeghers syndrome; Intestinal microflora; bacteria; fungal microbiota; dysbiosis
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