經過近3年的努力，研究團隊近日在國際著名期刊《自然—微生物學》發表了一項重大研究成果。研究團隊開發出一種31種跨界別及功能性標誌物的檢測工具。該組合對自閉症譜系障礙 (ASD) 的診斷效果良好，有望在臨床診斷中使用。
HATCH的臨床研究團隊主任黃永昊醫生及中大醫學院內科及藥物治療學系研究助理教授蘇奇博士是此篇論文的共同作者。他們開展了這項研究，進行了分析並發表了論文。HATCH的研究學者萬亞婷博士也參與了部分宏基因組測序工作。
Multikingdom and functional gut microbiota markers for autism spectrum disorder
Qi Su, Oscar W. H. Wong, Wenqi Lu, Yating Wan, Lin Zhang, Wenye Xu, Moses K. T. Li, Chengyu Liu, Chun Pan Cheung, Jessica Y. L. Ching, Pui Kuan Cheong, Ting Fan Leung, Sandra Chan, Patrick Leung, Francis K. L. Chan & Siew C. Ng
Nature Microbiology (2024)
Abstract
Associations between the gut microbiome and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been investigated although most studies have focused on the bacterial component of the microbiome. Whether gut archaea, fungi and viruses, or function of the gut microbiome, is altered in ASD is unclear. Here we performed metagenomic sequencing on faecal samples from 1,627 children (aged 1–13 years, 24.4% female) with or without ASD, with extensive phenotype data. Integrated analyses revealed that 14 archaea, 51 bacteria, 7 fungi, 18 viruses, 27 microbial genes and 12 metabolic pathways were altered in children with ASD. Machine learning using single-kingdom panels showed area under the curve (AUC) of 0.68 to 0.87 in differentiating children with ASD from those that are neurotypical. A panel of 31 multikingdom and functional markers showed a superior diagnostic accuracy with an AUC of 0.91, with comparable performance for males and females. Accuracy of the model was predominantly driven by the biosynthesis pathways of ubiquinol-7 or thiamine diphosphate, which were less abundant in children with ASD. Collectively, our findings highlight the potential application of multikingdom and functional gut microbiota markers as non-invasive diagnostic tools in ASD.
Reference
Su, Q., Wong, O. W., Lu, W., Wan, Y., Zhang, L., Xu, W., ... & Ng, S. C. (2024). Multikingdom and functional gut microbiota markers for autism spectrum disorder. Nature Microbiology, 1-12.
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