Gut Metagenome as a Potential Diagnostic and Predictive Biomarker in Slow Transit Constipation

Hongliang Tian; Chen Ye; Bo Yang; Jiaqu Cui; Zhijun Zheng; Chunyan Wu; Shailan Zhou; Xiaoqiong Lv; Nan Qin; Huanlong Qin; Ning Li; Qiyi Chen

doi:10.3389/fmed.2021.777961

Gut Metagenome as a Potential Diagnostic and Predictive Biomarker in Slow Transit Constipation

Front Med (Lausanne). 2022 Feb 8:8:777961. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.777961. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Hongliang Tian^{1

2}, Chen Ye^{1

2}, Bo Yang^{1

2}, Jiaqu Cui^{1

2}, Zhijun Zheng^{1

3}, Chunyan Wu^{1

3}, Shailan Zhou^{1

2}, Xiaoqiong Lv^{1

2}, Nan Qin^{1

3}, Huanlong Qin^{1

2}, Ning Li^{1

2}, Qiyi Chen^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Intestinal Microenvironment Treatment Center of General Surgery, Tenth People's Hospital of Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
² Clinical Research Center for Digestive Diseases of Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
³ Realbio Genomics Institute, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Slow transit constipation (STC) is one of the most frequent gastrointestinal diagnoses. In this study, we conducted a quantitative metagenomics study in 118 Chinese individuals. These participants were divided into the discovery cohort of 50 patients with STC and 40 healthy controls as well as a validation cohort of 16 patients and 12 healthy controls. We found that the intestinal microbiome of patients with STC was significantly different from that of healthy individuals at the phylum, genus, and species level. Patients with STC had markedly higher levels of Alistipes and Eubacterium and lower abundance of multiple species belonging to the Roseburia genus. Patients with STC gene expression levels and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) orthology pathway (such as fatty acid biosynthesis, butanoate metabolism, and methane metabolism pathways) enrichment were also substantially different from those of healthy controls. These microbiome and metabolite differences may be valuable biomarkers for STC. Our findings suggest that alteration of the microbiome may lead to constipation by changing the levels of microbial-derived metabolites in the gut. Above findings may help us in the development of microbial drugs.

Keywords: biomarker; diagnostic; gut microbiome; metagenomic analysis; pathogenesis; slow transit constipation.